I’m bored and have nothing much to do these days except cook little throwaway dishes.
While visiting the city market on Sunday morning, I stopped to chat with the fish monger. He’s the closest source of “sashimi grade” ahi (yellow fin) tuna I have that I can buy before the sushi restaurants in town snap it all up.
I bought a small piece of vacuum packed tuna and made 3 kinds of sushi with it … one hosomaki (thin maki rolls with a single filling), 2 nigiri sushi and 2 gunkan (battleship) sushi.
I made the mistake of buying a package of 200 half nori sheets, so my maki rolls have been sloppy when I tried to stuff them with the usual 2 or 3 fillings I use. For a single ingredient, like tuna, tempura shrimp, a couple of very thin or one thick asparagus spear, the nori sheets are just fine. If you ever do this, you CAN slightly overlap the 2 half sheets and get more filling inside, but I haven’t yet. Maybe tomorrow.
Hosomaki – one inch diameter roll cut into 6-8 pieces
Nigiri sushi – an oval (~5 cm) of sushi rice, smeared with a bit of wasabi paste and covered with topping of raw fish, sweet Japanese omelet etc.
Not a great job of slicing the tuna but passable.
Gunkan sushi – 3-4 cm tall strip of nori wrapped around an oval (~5 cm) of sushi rice and topped with a loose filling like spicy tuna
Home made wasabi – enough for 1 or 2 people depending on how much they like their wasabi
1 heaping tsp wasabi powder**
1 tsp very cold water
In a small bowl, stir the two ingredients together with a single chopstick, about 10-15 min before you want to use your wasabi. Cover the bowl tightly with a piece of plastic wrap and refrigerate. Don’t make more wasabi than you’ll use as the hotness levels decreases dramatically with time.
** Your wasabi powder should be a pale green colour and in a sealed bag, preferably vacuum sealed. Once you open your package, store the rest in an small air tight container in the freezer.
Seasoned Rice Wine Vinegar for Sushi Rice – makes 1/4 cup
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
4 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
Stir until sugar and salt is dissolved and store in a small tightly sealed bottle in the fridge. Use 1 1/-2 tbsp per 1 cup sushi rice that’s been cooked with 1 1/3 cups of water.
Cooking is Fun ... Really!! 
These look incredible. Love Japanese food!
Thank you.
You did a great job with the sushi Maria, it looks delicious! I haven’t made sushi in a really long time…you’ve inspired me to do it again.
Thank you.
I love your sushi – you are very proficient! My personal preference is nigiri. Gunkan filled with ikura and quail egg on top is a close second, but it’s hard to find fresh quail eggs. When I do a class, I usually teach people how to make futomaki – the easiest. I am very impressed with yours!
Thank you. I started out with regular sized (maki) rolls but the last time I went shopping I made a mistake and bought a pkg of 200 half sheets so now I’m making hoso-maki and temaki (hand) rolls. 🙂
I like fish roe on my rolls but usually end up using tobiko and masago when I make it at home. Salmon roe … I just get that at the sushi restaurant. Raw egg, Just can’t get around that. 😦
Classes … various cuisines, sushi, Japanese?
I love temaki – just made some with salmon skin left from making poke. Here it is the opposite: caviar is very easily obtained in one of the several Eastern European stores at a pretty reasonable price, but masago we can only get at a restaurant.
When I ran the school (before retirement), I used to do International Food Festivals in the afterschool program and summer camp. Those were behavior modification and team building activities structured around a cooking class. Nowadays I only teach sushi once in a while at my synagogue, per request. And, of course, my own grandchildren, as well as my friends’ kiddies and grandkids, love rolling.
As a new immigrant to Canada, one of my mom’s first jobs was in a Jewish deli. She stayed for over 20 yrs. It specialised in corned beef and pastrami sandwiches as well as everything from matzoh ball, kreplach or chicken noodle soups to speck, blintzes, chopped liver, and knishes. That’s where I was first exposed to Jewish food. My first taste of real beluga caviar came from leftovers from a Jewish bar mitzvah. She made extra money by washing dishes after the parties and was given some of the leftovers to take home. I did NOT like it though my brother thought it wasn’t bad.
You are quite knowledgeable about traditional Jewish cuisine! It is said that caviar is an acquired taste. We are used to it from childhood, but my adopted son, when introduced to it, declared it “fishy” and refused to even look at it at parties and family events.