Doug and I both love sushi. Awhile ago, I suggested we take a class and learn how to roll our own sushi rolls. We talked about it a few times, but never seriously looked into it. Well, luckily for us, ESPN decided to offer "Sushi 101" to their employees for only $35 a person. We signed up and bought some wine that we paired well with sushi (the class was BYOB). Finally, the day of our class came and it couldn't have been better. In a sectioned off area of the cafeteria, there was a U-shaped table set up for us to sit at. Each person had a rolling mat, cutting board, chopsticks and glossary of common Japanese words associated with sushi. The class of about 20 was lead by sushi chef for the building, and two sous chefs. I really wish I could remember their names to say how amazing they were, but it was a few weeks ago and I really can't remember. After uncorking all of our wine and introducing themselves (maybe that's why I can't remember their names, I was distracted by wine!) the head chef opened up the class by teaching us what to look for when picking out a fresh fish. He pulled out a salmon he purchased earlier that day at Wild Ediblies, in Grand Central Market. Here are his pointers on making sure you get a good quality fish:
1. Make sure the eyes are bulging. If the fish's eyes are sunken into it's head, it means it has been sitting out of water for a long time.
2. Look at the gills, they should be a bright, vibrant color. The duller and browner they are, the longer it has been out of water.
3. The fish should be firm to the touch. If you touch it and your fingers do not meet resistance, you don't want it.
4. If it smells bad, it is bad.
After teaching us how to pick out a fish, our head chef showed us how to fillet the fish. I will not attempt to explain how to fillet fish here, as I think I would butcher (hehe) the explanation. However, I did learn that the best part of the fillet is the meat closest to the head. Also, if you fillet the fish yourself, be sure to pull out all pin or rib bones - in a salmon there are 32, if I recall correctly. It was great seeing this chef fillet the salmon so easily, but I think for now I will have a fish monger do it for me until I'm confident enough in my filleting skills.
After the fish demonstration, our chef taught us about sushi rice. Sushi rice is a higher quality grain of rice and is prepared in a special way to make it sticky. Our chef provided all the students with rice, but also demonstrated how to make it. Here is the recipe we were provided with:
Vinegar Mixture:
5 parts rice vinegar
4 parts sugar
1 part mirin
1 part salt
Dast of kobu
Rice:
16 oz. sushi rice, rinsed twice with water
16 oz. water
-Place the rice into a rice maker with the 16 oz. of water and cook until done.-
-Mix the cooked rice with the vinegar mixture (5 parts rice, 1 part vinegar). Stir until liquid is absorbed.
What's important to remember when working with the sushi rice, is to keep your hands wet. We used a bowl of water to dip our fingers/hands in before we picked up our rice. We then shaped our rice into a ball. The ball of rice should fit into your palm. We then took our ball and touched a stack of nori with it. The rice stuck to it so it lifted up the first sheet. We placed it on our rolling mats and then began to spread the rice out. Once the rice was covering the nori, we sprinkled some sesame seeds and flipped the whole thing over so the rice side was down. Now it came time to create our rolls.
The class provided all of us with a plethora of ingredients. It's important not to stuff the rolls with too much, they won't roll and close nicely. When rolling, it's important to tuck the end in and keep it tight. Once it's "sealed" we placed the roll so then end lined up with the edge of the rolling mat and rolled it up tightly and pushed any extra stuffing into the roll. We did the same for the other side. When it was all done and rolled tightly it was time to cut them up. A slice down the middle, then line them up one on top of the other, and two more cuts. Flip them sideways and you have your rolls. The only thing left for us to do was to eat them! Overall, the class itself was great and we enjoyed ourselves. We learned a lot and ate a lot. We finished the night off with a glass of sake and took our tools, experience and rolls with us! See below for pictures.
Ingredients: Seared tuna, crab, shrimp, salmon, tuna, yellowtail and on the other side: wasabi, ginger, seaweed salad, cucumber, avocado, crab salad and spicy tuna
The rice spread over the nori:
With seared tuna and avocado, pre-rolling:
Just rolled it up
All cut up and ready to eat!
Tuna and seaweed salad, ready to be rolled:
Rolled up, cut & ready to eat!
A salmon roll we made:
That's only about half of the rolls I made, the other half had already been eaten!
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