Sushi for Beginners

Sarah Senff

by Sarah Senff
October 13, 2010

Sushi can be a bit intimidating for beginners. It’s foreign and strange; everything has Japanese names; and ohmygod is that eel? Yet, it’s become such popular fare that many grocery stores and Chinese buffets now have sushi bars.

There’s no reason to fear a tiny bit of rice and fish wrapped in nori, or seaweed. After all, you outweigh it by quite a bit. You could probably take it in a fight, couldn’t you? So ditch the fear, strap on your big-girl pants and start out slow. There are all different kinds of sushi; some are great for beginners and some are not for the faint of heart.

Head down to my favorite Jackson sushi spot, Nagoya (6351 Interstate 55 N., Suite 131, 601-977-8881), or to any quality Japanese restaurant for your first foray. It’s easy to get turned off of the stuff if all you’re eating is grocery store or buffet sushi where it’s not, generally speaking, all that fresh, which has a huge impact on taste.

Begin with miso soup and then tackle the ordering process. Don’t be afraid to ask if you’re unsure of what something is. Sushi names are usually in Japanese, but the menu will often have a description of what it contains.

If you find yourself apprehensive, try kappa maki, a simple cucumber roll, or a California roll, which contains cucumber, crab, avocado and sesame seeds. Another great starter choice is tamago sushi. It’s like a tiny omelet placed on top of a block of rice. How cute is that?

Your sushi will be served with soy sauce, wasabi and thin slices of pickled ginger on the side. Go easy on both the soy and the wasabi. Soy sauce is stratospherically high in sodium and covers up the subtle flavors of sushi. Wasabi is a very spicy green paste, which in America is usually made of horseradish, mustard and food coloring, and contains no actual wasabi root. If you’re brand new to wasabi, apply it with a sparing hand; it can bite you back if you try too much of it at once. The ginger is used as a palate cleanser between courses of sushi. It’s part of the whole sushi ritual that many people enjoy, but if you dislike it, feel free to skip it.

Now that you’re starting to feel the sushi love, try a few cooked rolls, like unagi, which is barbecued eel. Trust me, it’s delicious and not nearly so strange as it sounds. Go for some amaebi nigiri, which is shrimp.

If you haven’t been scared off yet, it’s time to move on to raw fish. Start with varieties of fish whose flavors are familiar to you before moving on to more foreign ground: tuna (maguro), salmon (sake), flounder (hirame), and my personal sushi favorite, yellowtail (hamachi). From here on out, be fearless; try everything. It’s a brave new sushi-filled world for you.

You can also make sushi yourself.

You’ll need:
sharp knife
makisu, a bamboo mat used for rolling sushi, available in most kitchen stores
rice vinegar
Japanese-style rice
nori, dried seaweed sold in sheets
whatever fish or vegetable fillings you choose
optional: wasabi, soy sauce, pickled ginger

It’s important to choose your fish carefully. Freshwater fish should never be used for raw sushi pieces made at home, as the risk of contamination is much greater than in saltwater fish. Ask the attendant at the counter if the fish is sushi or sashimi grade, meaning safe to eat raw. If they don’t know or seem to be guessing, ask someone else or buy your fish elsewhere. After you purchase your fish, you should take care to keep it properly refrigerated and use it the same day.

First, make your rice. The type of rice you buy is also important. If it’s not a really sticky, short-grain rice, your sushi will not hold together, so make sure you buy sushi rice, or “pearl” rice. In an ideal world, you’d use a rice cooker, but a saucepan with a lid will work as well. Each roll will take about a cup of cooked rice, so adjust according to your plans.


Sushi Rice

2 cups pearl rice, rinsed
2 cups water
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt

Bring rice and water to a boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and allow rice to steam for 20 additional minutes.

Combine rice vinegar, sugar and salt in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until the salt and sugar dissolve.

Spread cooked rice onto a large flat dish such as a casserole pan. Sprinkle vinegar combination evenly over the rice, and mix it in with a wooden spoon. Allow to cool to room temperature.


Hosomaki Sushi
For the sake of simplicity, I suggest sticking to one to two filling ingredients in each roll until you get the hang of it.

To make your roll, begin by cutting a sheet of nori in half. Place it shiny side down on your bamboo mat. Dip your clean fingers in some tezu (a 1:1 ratio of water and rice vinegar) and use your hands to spread a thin layer of rice, about 1/4”, onto the nori, leaving an inch or so of bare nori at one end.

Add your filling ingredients in a strip running horizontally, laying down the largest strip first. Don’t be afraid to be a bit spare with these on your first couple rolls; overfilling is a common problem. When you’ve done this, lift the edge of the bamboo mat closest to you and use it to fold the sushi into itself. Continue rolling, applying steady and even pressure, until the bare edge of the nori seals the roll. This should happen automatically, but if it fails to do so, use a bit of tezu to make it stick. Finally, cut your roll into sixths.

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