Does anybody make sushi ?

Happyflowerlady

Happyflowerlady

Vagabond Flowerchild
Location
Northern Alabama
As part of my quest to include more foods that provide natural iodine into my diet, I have started using sea kelp and then bought some prepared sushi and tried that. I LOVE that stuff ! ! I especially like the ones made with surimi and avocado, but I am open to trying other varieties as well.
Not sure if I am ready for the raw fish ones yet; but interested.
I watched a how-to lesson and it looks like it might be tricky to learn how to prepare it and roll it properly. Does anyone else like sushi, and if so, do you make your own or buy it, and what fillings do you enjoy ?
 

I lack the courage to assemble my own sushi. I suppose practice makes perfect but I'm far too lazy and the rice has to be sticky enough. I love sushi too and will treat myself at quality restaurants and sushi bars. I like the raw fish and eel, the avocado and cucumber fillings as well as shrimp; actually anything goes! The pickled ginger between bites is so delicious but I have deep respect for the wasabi. Wow. I enjoy the toasted sesame seeds, too. Good luck rolling your own!
 
Where would you get the fish? You have to be very,very careful-as are all good sushi restaurants- that the fish you purchase it just for that purpose. Even then,a friend of ours (he`s a restaurant owner) became extremely ill eating sushi in a restaurant in San Francisco. There is a parasite that can be in raw fish-well,I won`t get into it but let`s just say he spent a week in the hospital and several more weeks at home very,very ill.
 

We buy ours ready made at a large grocery chain store called Wegman's. They have the best and it has always been fresh, which to me is really important. I DO NOT buy it in restaurants. I got sick as a dog about 8 years ago when I bought some at a restaurant in San Francisco. Oh, man! I couldn't fly for two days.

Oh, sorry Mrs. R, I did not see your post. Now, I wonder if we ate at the same restaurant in SF. I ate at an upstairs restaurant in Fisherman's Wharf. All that I remember was that the building had a black painted front and was situated right on the Bay. I can't remember the name, but I was seated right next to the window and we over-looked the Bay, which was across the street. My First Officer was lucky. He ordered Black-tipped Shark and I had the Sushi. By the time I got back to the hotel, I was vomiting profusely. I was actually to sick to travel to a hospital, so I had a doctor come to my hotel room early the next morning. I don't know how expensive that was. My airline paid the bill. He gave me some stuff to stop the vomiting and diarrhea, but I still couldn't move out of bed for two days. He wanted me to go to the hospital, but I thought I would be OK with the medicine. That was a mistake. I got worse before I got better. I learned a valuable lesson that day. "Sometimes being stubborn can be the same as being stupid."
 
http://www.thekitchn.com/what-is-sushi-grade-fish-ingredient-intelligence-204696

the fish has to be "sushi grade". In part:
[h=3]What is sushi grade fish?[/h]Although stores use the label "sushi grade fish," there are no official standards for using this label. The only regulation is that parasitic fish, such as salmon, should be frozen to kill any parasites before being consumed raw. The best practice for this is flash freezing on the boat immediately after the fish is caught, which preserves freshness and texture.
The label sushi grade means that it is the highest quality fish the store is offering, and the one they feel confident can be eaten raw. Tuna, for example, is inspected and then graded by the wholesalers. The best ones are assigned Grade 1, which is usually what will be sold as sushi grade.
 
oldman said:
We buy ours ready made at a large grocery chain store called Wegman's. They have the best and it has always been fresh, which to me is really important. I DO NOT buy it in restaurants. I got sick as a dog about 8 years ago when I bought some at a restaurant in San Francisco. Oh, man! I couldn't fly for two days.

Oh, sorry Mrs. R, I did not see your post. Now, I wonder if we ate at the same restaurant in SF. I ate at an upstairs restaurant in Fisherman's Wharf. All that I remember was that the building had a black painted front and was situated right on the Bay. I can't remember the name, but I was seated right next to the window and we over-looked the Bay, which was across the street. My First Officer was lucky. He ordered Black-tipped Shark and I had the Sushi. By the time I got back to the hotel, I was vomiting profusely. I was actually to sick to travel to a hospital, so I had a doctor come to my hotel room early the next morning. I don't know how expensive that was. My airline paid the bill. He gave me some stuff to stop the vomiting and diarrhea, but I still couldn't move out of bed for two days. He wanted me to go to the hospital, but I thought I would be OK with the medicine. That was a mistake. I got worse before I got better. I learned a valuable lesson that day. "Sometimes being stubborn can be the same as being stupid."
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Wow OM-that was just about how long ago it was that our friend got sick! He never said where he ate it-he lives in the Mission district but I have no idea where he ate the sushi. I will ask him next time I see him. Could have been the same place or at least the same batch of fish!
 
The little Korean store where I have been buying my fresh sushi has stopped selling it, so this time I ended up just getting some from the grocery store.
It was good, but not like the fresh made sushi from the Korean market.
So, I decided that I need to learn how to make sushi, but it looked like it might be tricky to learn how to roll it properly. When I looked for a sushi maker on Amazon, I discovered that they have a great assortment of them; so I bought one that was both cheap and easy to use.

The one I got has different shapes that you can use (although just round is fine with me), and you just put everything into the sushi maker press it down, and then slice it into pieces. You add the nori sheet, then rice first, then then the fillings (I will be making vegetarian sushi), and then more rice, and then press it all down. It even has a place for you to make the slices while it is still in the sushi maker.

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Sushi is just pressed rice. Sometimes seasoned - after cooking - with rice vinegar and sugar (50:50 ratio; 1/3 to 1/2 cup is enough for 3 cups cooked rice) or salt (lightly) to help preserve it in hot weather, since rice hardens in the fridge. But you can use the rice without any seasonings at all, if you'd like. "Fresh" sushi is common for home meals.

Use short or medium grain, good quality rice. STEAM it, don't boil it. Sushi rice is cooked a little firmer than dinner rice. I often make the rice ahead of time, season it, press it into 1/2" high rectangles with my kit, then wrap it up for the freezer. Makes it easy to defrost and MW to soften, let cool a bit and make nigirizushi.

A plastic kit for pressing rice, as Happyflowerlady shows above, is standard. Try to get toasted nori (seaweed sheets), they taste better IMHO. Toasted sesame seeds and "wakame gomae" (seaweed salad), along with pink pickled ginger slices, are nice additions to the plate if you don't care for wasabi, which is mostly just horseradish powder dyed a virulent green. True wasabi isn't as pungent - spicy-hot rather than bitingly hot - is creamy-white, and has a lovely floral scent, but it's expensive and hard to find.

ANY raw fish used for sashimi should be frozen first. You cannot import any raw fish into the USA without it first been frozen. All fish, salt or freshwater, have parasites. NEVER EVER EVER eat any raw fish that a friend has helpfully caught, no matter how fresh it is, as sashimi. "Sushi grade" fish means more than just a good cut - it means it has been properly flash-frozen for at least 48 hrs to kill any parasites.

You can use anything you'd like for fillings/toppings. Spam! Cooked shrimp! Lox! (my spouse's personal favorite, btw) BBQ/teriyaki chicken breast!

My personal favorite is sushi rice mixed with chopped shiitake mushrooms, finely diced carrots, and petit pois (baby peas), stuffed into tofu skins called inari. I like the unseasoned skins but they are harder to find than the seasoned ones, which are soaked in sweet soya. They comes in plastic packages and also cans - in fact, Walmart sells them!
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They can be a little tricky to separate into "pouches" - fingernails help, LOL. Just work apart gently - a small tear here and there isn't a big deal.

One can be very elaborate about inarizushi but I don't bother when it's just for the two of us ;)

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So be brave, everyone, and have some fun with it!
 
Radishrose, you're welcome. Hope the info was of use to some folks here.

Well, another trouble with sushi is that it's awfully hard to make "just a few sushi", LOL. I mean, if you buy a can of inari skins, you're stuck with almost 2 dozen 'pouches' - more than 2 people can easily eat in a couple of days! Some of the pkg'ed inari are easier to manage, with "only" 12 in a pkg.

That's the joy of restaurant or take-out food - you can get as little or as much as you want. No shopping, no prep, no clean-up, and leftovers only if you want them. My spouse prefers to eat at home, but I'd rather go out and enjoy somebody else doing the work ;) .
 
Lethe200 said:
Radishrose, you're welcome. Hope the info was of use to some folks here.

Well, another trouble with sushi is that it's awfully hard to make "just a few sushi", LOL. I mean, if you buy a can of inari skins, you're stuck with almost 2 dozen 'pouches' - more than 2 people can easily eat in a couple of days! Some of the pkg'ed inari are easier to manage, with "only" 12 in a pkg.

That's the joy of restaurant or take-out food - you can get as little or as much as you want. No shopping, no prep, no clean-up, and leftovers only if you want them. My spouse prefers to eat at home, but I'd rather go out and enjoy somebody else doing the work ;) .
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I do see what you mean Lethe200, and I'm only one person here.

I didn't know the truth about what they pass as Wasabi until your post!
 
SetWave said:
Yuk yuk and yuk some more. Tried it as a kid in Japan and hated it. Gross. Just gross.
But I do enjoy chewing on a piece of kelp while waiting for a wave.:cool:
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I think that it probably makes a lot of difference what is put in the sushi. I am not sure that I would like it made with raw fish, like some places make it. The sushi from our little Korean store was pretty much just veggie sushi, and the main flavors were the cucumber and the sweet potato slices. It might be worth trying a different one, just to see if you like it better now.

My sushi making kit arrived, and I just made my first sushi roll. The only rice we have is brown rice, and it did not stick together like sushi rice is supposed to do, and I didn’t get the wrapper sealed together well enough; so between those two things, my first roll fell apart.
It still tasted good, but had to be eaten with a fork from the plate, and I added a sprinkle of soy sauce and some wasabi mustard.

The second roll held together better, but I left it in the mold and put it in the refrigerator to see if it will harden and stick together better this time. I used cucumber, sweet potato, pickled ginger, a couple of those tiny canned shrimp, and a few parsley leaves for added color, and the flavor was pretty good, even if it didn’t look like it was supposed to look.
I am definitely going to buy some regular sushi rice for the next time I make some sushi, and see how that does.
 
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