Sushi-Q

SOOOOOOOSHI

I love sushi. I’m not gonna lie.

But I’m a terrible sushi consumer because I add a ton of tamari (gluten-free soy sauce) and wasabi and that’s no way to enjoy QUALITY sushi.

I don’t care. That burn is so so so good. And the flavors? Muah! Magnifique!

But even with the relatively inexpensive cost of the sushi rolls at my favorite place (conveniently located near my work, Sushi Muramoto — I recommend it if you’re visiting Madison) … I need to set some funding boundaries.

But I love sushi. But money. But sushi!

deep sigh It’s a true conundrum, friends.

So I solved it by making my own “sushi”!

Why Call it Sushi-Q?

Honestly? Because true sushi-afficionados would be insulted that I would call it sushi. I don’t use raw fish in any of my rolls (I’m not confident in my skills or my supply).

Also? I’m going to be making rolls that most definitely aren’t sushi-related. They’ll just LOOK like sushi.

For example, I made a glorious roll out of ground pork chops and herbed cheese and roasted red peppers. You don’t get that roll in this post because the seaweed wrap didn’t quite work with it, but experimentation is a go!

So yes. All my stuff, I’m calling Sushi-Q, even if it’s pretty-darn-close to what a bargain sushi joint would give you.

Ingredients

For this particular roll, I used the following:

Rice. You can make REAL sushi rice if you’d like, but we have a giant costco bag of a longer-grain rice. It works just fine for my needs, no special prep involved at all.

Smoked Salmon (fully cooked. Wild-caught if you can get it)

Fresh slices of avocado (mmmm, yomyom)

Wasabi sauce (it’s pathetic compared to the good stuff or even the real stuff, but it’s available in my local grocery store.)

Seaweed wrap.

That wrap SHOULD be relatively easy to find in a big enough grocery store. I picked this one up from World Market, but others tell me they’ve seen these flat green sheets elsewhere.

Tools

Bamboo sushi rolling mat

I got this from World Market, too. You could absolutely use almost anything with similar properties (it’s not a magical mat or anything) but this does its job PERFECTLY. Protip, if you cover it with cling wrap, it still works AND is easier to clean.

Wooden spoon

The paddle I’m using is very much a sushi paddle thing, but it probably doesn’t matter. The shape of this makes it easy to spread the rice around.

Container of cold water

Rice is STICKY. Dipping your spoon in this helps you move it around on the seaweed without it all getting stuck on the spoon. Also useful for quick hand-wetting if you need to use your hands for some of it.

The Process

1) Make sure you’ve got all your stuff cut up and ready to go. Put a sheet of seaweed on the mat, rough-side up.

2) Spread the rice out on the seaweed. Try to get a relatively thin, even layer, and leave a small section closest to you clean. This is the bit that will “seal” the roll when the seaweed touches itself. Plus, as you roll, the contents will push down to fill some of this space.

3) Add your fillings! One column towards the top (about an inch or so from the very top) is all you need. DO NOT OVERFILL. I learned this lesson for you. (you’re welcome). This picture may seem like not a lot of filling, but I assure you, it’s plenty.

4) Roll it up! Use the mat to get a firm grip on the roll and keep it tight as you go.

5) Slice your beautiful roll into even pieces using a sharp knife. You may want to dip your knife into your water container a few times to keep it from getting too sticky from the rice.

6) The two very-end pieces will probably be jagged and unpretty. You might just need to eat those first so nobody sees them. (oh, darn)

7) Om to the Nom Nom. I made two rolls for these pics, so one of them went in mah bellah and the other got arranged in our normal leftover containers. The round shape of my container is a little unforgiving, but I arranged them as pretty as I could.

You’ll notice below that I had another previously-made roll on hand for a photo shoot. This one was made with shrimp and roasted red peppers and spicy mustard. It was made into a lunch with a rice ball, some roasted root vegetables, two extra shrimps on top, and a sweet egg roll (tamagoyaki. Mmmmm so good)