Vegetarian Sushi From Scratch

I’m not really sure why I was so hesitant to take on making my own sushi, it seemed rather daunting to me and so I procrastinated.

One Friday (before Corona) when we popped over to visit my daughter Batya (the same one who convinced me to go to the amazing baking course) she said, Mom, me and the kids are all gonna make sushi together. I sorta said, Whhhhut? and it turns out that between recipes and videos she figured it out and sent me pics of it and said, really, mom this is totally your kinda thing, you could do this in a snap, why not try it already?

So, Bess, you talked me into yet another culinary adventure. I figured if she and her kids could do it, heck, I could too. Now I feel responsible to my readers not to post anything I haven’t made numerous times (and usually have many guinea pigs) but let’s just say, DH snorfed down untold amounts of sushi. Really, he is the big sushi fan in the house and just like he made me buy the high speed blender for gazpacho (yes I make it all the time now) he said, quick! let’s buy the bamboo mat to roll them, the rice, the vinegar etc. etc.

And ya know what? I got it right the very first time I attempted it. It was truly surprisingly easy to make and great fun and a sense of pride in how pretty it looks as well as delicious. You don’t even need a great many things to prepare it.

You must start with sushi rice, which is basically a short grain very sticky rice (how else do you thing it sticks together?) the nori sheets (those green pressed sheets), rice vinegar and you might as well get the pickled ginger and of course, soy sauce. The bamboo rolling mat is crazy cheap and if you cover it all over with plastic wrap (definitely do it, much less mess) will last you a long time.

Even though I didn’t precisely follow them, Jet Tila was great fun to watch and I also read/watched Masaharu Morimoto (an Iron Chef) and the explanations. Then I just got down to it and it all was good.

Start with the rice. This will make around 8 rolls or so, and expect one or two not to be perfect. No biggie. You must rinse the rice since it’s crazy starchy. The number of times is a matter of debate, but I rinsed mine 4 times.

See how cloudy? Swish it about in the water and drain and repeat around 4-5 times or till the water looks like this.

It’s okay if it doesn’t run totally clear.

Drain the rice well. Now the cooking of this rice is different from normal water to rice proportions. It is 1:1. That is, cook 3 cups rice in 3 cups water or 2 cups rice in 2 cups water, you get it. I’ve done it with 2 cups and 3 cups and 3 cups gives you enough to make mistakes and still have a really nice amount of sushi.

Now cook the rice and water (no salt, nothing extra) together in a pan with a lid, bringing them to a boil (covered) and lowering to a simmer for 20 minutes. No peeking, just let the rice sit and cool covered for another 20 minutes. Set aside.

While rice is cooking and cooling, prepare the vinegar mixture with which you season the rice. Yeah, I didn’t realize that more than half the flavor is in the rice. Although, since sushi is mainly rice, it makes perfect sense. I give you a range of how much vinegar to put in the rice (many variations out there) but I like flavorful not overpowering.

You combine rice vinegar, sugar and salt together and either zap in microwave in pyrex measuring cup or bring to a boil in a pan and stir just till sugar dissolves. Set aside.

Put your still warm but not hot rice in as big a bowl as you have and slowly pour a third of the vinegar mix on the rice, gently stirring the liquid into the rice, repeating until all liquid is used up and you see it coating the rice. Try not to smush up the rice, just separate and lift so no chunks are left.

Okay, I like to save myself and my readers unnecessary aggro and clean up so I advise you to take plastic wrap and cover your work surface with it so cleanup will be quick and easy. Also, now’s the time to wrap your bamboo mat in plastic wrap so it’ll stay clean. Remember, it’s sticky rice and supposed to be sticky so it’ll cling to your hands, spoon and everywhere. I tried latex gloves, stuck to that too, so simply put another bowl by your side half full of water and dip your hands into the water, shake off excess and use that to keep the rice off (more or less) when you scoop it out.

Onward.

Take a cutting board and prepare your veggies. I love avocado so I thinly sliced that, cucumber (peeled or not as you wish) and carrot, peeled and very thinly sliced like so:

you want them to be present in the sushi both visually and taste wise so not too thin.

K. Now take your bamboo mat which you’ve plastic wrapped (or that rice is gonna stick whoa!) and place a sheet of nori with the shiny side down on the mat-the rough side (run your finger over it, you will immediately feel the diff) face up so the rice clings to it even more. Now “water” your hands and scoop a nice handful of the rice and place on the sheet of nori covering the part of the nori nearest to you but leaving a border at the end uncovered for sealing it, like so:

Then take your prepared vegetables and put them about a third of the way down on the rice keeping them together.

Now you have the option of dabbing some wasabi paste on it but I discovered a eureka moment since I have horseradish mayo and it’s in a squeeze bottle so I gently squeezed some on it and it was perfect. Now this is the tricky part. Take your bamboo mat and gently lift the end facing you and cover the veggies with the nori, using the mat to help, and take a dab of water on your finger and run along the uncovered edge of the nori to dampen it (it helps seal the roll) and finish rolling till you’ve formed a roll and using the mat, gently squeeze the roll and it will stick and look like this.

Take a deadly sharp knife carefully and cut the sushi into pieces. You will actually see marks on the nori where you can cut, making them thinner or thicker as you wish. Don’t go too thin or they can fall apart.

Now just take a pretty plate, set out your slices and at either end place a small bowl one with soy sauce and one with pickled ginger with a dab or two of wasabi paste (green and powerfully sharp) and dig in!

Vegetarian Sushi From Scratch
For the rice:
3 cups sushi rice
3 cups water
For the vinegar sauce:
1/3-1/2 cup rice vinegar (I actually do something in between 1/3-1/2 cup)
2 teaspoons kosher salt or 1 teaspoon regular salt
3 heaping tablespoons sugar
Sushi prep:
8 sheets nori
Bamboo mat
Plastic wrap
Avocado peeled and sliced thin and long
Carrot peeled and sliced thin and long
Cucumber peeled or not as you like and sliced thin and long
Pickled ginger
Soy sauce
Wasabi
horseradish mayo (optional)

Directions:

Start by cooking the sushi rice, 3 cups rice to 3 cups water. Bring the rice to the boil with cover
on, lower to simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Take off flame, leave cover on and let sit for
another 20 minutes. While this happens, prepare the vinegar sauce and the vegetables.
In a small pot on the stove, or pyrex cup in the microwave, bring vinegar, sugar and salt to a
brief boil, stirring just till sugar dissolves and set off the flame. Let cool. While cooling, get
veggies ready.

Take avocado and if thin skinned, use a vegetable peeler (sharp one!) and peel off the skin, if
thick skinned, cut ends off and it’ll shuck off easily. Slice in half (mind the pit!) and make thin
pretty slices. Now take your cucumbers and I like the peel on for added color but you can peel if
you wish and slice thinly. Peel carrots and make very thin slices.
Cover your work surface with plastic wrap and take out the bamboo mat and seal all over in
plastic wrap. If you don’t, it will get gummy from the rice and be a pain to clean midway.
Now take a big bowl to put all the rice in and a third at a time, add the vinegar mixture and fold
into the rice gently, don’t smush the rice, you want the grains to stay whole. Do this till you
finish the liquid and the rice is coated.

Take a sheet of the nori and place shiny (smooth) side down against the bamboo mat. The other
side will feel a bit rough. The rice goes on the rough side to stick to it more easily. Set a bowl of
water near the rice and dip your hand in shaking off excess water and scoop a generous handful
of rice and place on nori gently patting it down leaving a border at the end (see above pic) empty.
You will seal the roll with that empty bit.

Now take a little of your veggies, not too bulky or the roll won’t close over it, set a third of the
way down the center of the rice (check the pic for accuracy). You can dab a bit of wasabi down
the middle or as I now do, horseradish mayo drizzle. Dab your finger in the water and run along
the unriced edge then take the bamboo mat and carefully fold with the nori and rice over the
veggies, rolling till the edge and gently squeeze to seal. Take a deadly sharp knife (careful) and
slice firmly into slices. Do this with all the nori, rice and veggies till you use them up.
Place nicely on a platter and serve with little bowls of soy sauce, pickled ginger and some wasabi.