Making Sushi at Home

My wife and I like to cook and enjoy the process, finding good ingredients, using kitchen gadgets, etc. Her birthday is next week and she has talked about trying to do some sushi at home. I thought I would get her a few things to get started. I'm thinking about ordering these three.

https://www.amazon.com/BambooWorx-M...1484229084&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=bambopo+worx

https://www.amazon.com/Yoshihiro-Sh...qid=1484229150&sr=8-1&keywords=yoshihiro+10.5

https://www.amazon.com/King-Sided-S...rd_wg=VQICf&psc=1&refRID=DRJGFTASHZ5VVT9CDTK5

Anybody know enough to say if this would be a good start?

 

Cool timing on this. I've been kicking around the same idea the last few days.

 

Looks good. Is she really going to be the one who sharpens that knife?

 

Do you have a quality rice cooker? I would say that's the first step. If not, I bought a Sanyo last Christmas (on the advice of a Japanese friend) and that thing is amazing.

 

I'll sharpen the knife I'm sure. I'm told that these high carbon Japanese knives don't come with a fine edge and you need the stone to keep an edge on them. I'm pretty good at sharpening things (years of filleting fish). The only knife we have that I don't touch is a Shun dual core. It has some kind of weird edge on it.

She makes rice but not in a rice cooker. That's an interesting idea.

 

I learned about them from our Japanese friend. As ubiquitous to the Japanese home as a toaster is to us. And the difference in taste and ease of operation actually blew me away. We made Jasmine rice the other night and it came out exactly like the sticky rice you find in restaurants. Basmati rice tastes like you're at an Indian feast. I know I sound goofy going on about this thing but it's one of the first kitchen items in years that makes me wonder how I existed without. And friggin simple...pour in the amount with the supplied measuring cup, add water at the sink and place the bowl into the cooker. Turn on and in 50 minutes you have restaurant quality rice.

 

Rice cookers are awesome. Which model did you get? Ours recently died.

 

The rice cooker is a must. It just makes everything easier. Making sushi rice is a pain in the ass. It's tough to get it the right consistency and sticky enough that it bonds, but not too sticky.

The other challenge is finding great fish. I got some sashimi grade stuff from a local importer that was okay, but the only time it was really good was when I bought it from a friend's sushi restaurant and cut it myself.

I played with it a handful of times and the results ranged from decadent to embarrassing. It's rewarding when you nail it, but for me it was more trouble that it was worth. If you love cooking it would probably be really fun.

 

Here's the one we bought. Looks like it might be discontinued now but I'm sure they have a new model.

https://uedata.amazon.com/Sanyo-ECJ...ce-Cooker-and-Slow-Cooker-White/dp/B000X8VBWU

 

This.

Get a good rice cooker, follow the directions.

It's a skill like anything else; you'll make a bunch of lumpy, shitty rolls before you make one good one, but it will be worth it. Have a bowl of water nearby so you can rinse your hands a lot; until you get the hang of dealing with the rice, it's going to get everywhere.

If there's an Asian market near you, they'll often have sashimi grade fish. Go early to get the best stuff.

 

Get a good rice cooker - Japanese. Zojirushi makes good ones. Then make sure you buy the right kind of rice. The best rice for Sushi outside of Japan is grown in California (really, it's true). You want short-grain Japonica rice. You can buy Tamanishiki rice from amazon.com. This stuff is exported to Japan because it's good, and tastes Japanese-authentic.

Whole Foods sells the seaweed wrappers. Don't buy cheap wasabi - buy the good stuff. Whole Foods sells that too.

And, buy real Japanese soy sauce. You can get authentic Kikkoman soy sauce from amazon.com, which is NOT the same as the Kikkoman in the local supermarket.

 

Chinese-focused stores usually have shit-quality fish. Local fish markets are better.

 

I got a Krups 4 in 1 "rice cooker" and it's proven to be worth its weight in gold.

 

The knife and block are overkill. A thin sharp knife and a bowl of warm water will do ya, no need so spend $200. Most important things are going to be ingredients, like the rice wine vinegar, dont leave that out of the rice, and making the rice in advance, nothing more annoying than trying to rush cool rice because you are hungry and trying to roll in a hurry. If you are keen on spending $ find real wasabi and a shark skin grater.

 

Authentic Japanese rice wine vinegar is available on amazon.com as well

 

We also have a Zojirushi rice cooker. It's the Longacre tire gauge/Chickenhawk warmers of the kitchen. Spend the $ and never worry about it again. You need a bowl to mix the rice.

We took a class first which was fun, and kickstarted the process. If you can find a cooking class locally where they have a sushi class do it.

 

Yep.

It's important to learn how to properly wash the rice before cooking. Just rinsing and cooking doesn't cut it for Sushi.

 

We tried it, I REALLY fucked the sushi rice up and it was a total disaster. Pretty sure we ordered pizza after.

 

Last time I caught fish worthy of sashimi, it was better the 2nd day. I trimmed and cleaned up the steak, wrapped it in plastic wrap, and left it in the fridge. The flavors were just better.

Any filet knife will do sushi well enough. Just keep wiping the knife off and cut slowly in one pull.

The flavor of sushi rice is so hard to get right.

Avoid premade wasabi. Even the powdered stuff in a tin is tons better.