Making Sushi at Home - Part 1 - Pantry Ingredients
By Ross A. Christensen
 

Yes, I do make sushi at home. No, not as often as you think I would.  While on occasion I will cater a sushi party for some friends, I’m happier just eating it.  I always have the dry ingredients required to make sushi on hand in case I come across some perfect seafood or veggies that scream out for me to make some sushi.  My daughter loves it when I make sushi and when she invites friends over she has me make more western friendly sushi like teriyaki chicken rolls or canned tuna salad gunkans. 

Let’s start off by stocking your kitchen with the items you’ll need to make sushi at home.  Some will be easy to find at your local supermarket, other items can be found there but you might need to ask someone where they are, and others might best be purchased at an Asian market.  The great thing is that the most common ingredients - rice, nori, vinegar, mirin, soy sauce, and wasabi powder - are all very shelf stable and patient, waiting in your cupboard for you to make sushi at a moment’s notice.  Plus these ingredients can be used for so many more applications that you can always find a use for them.  When I need Asian specialty products I go to an Asian market and I buy a LOT, mainly because for me, the closest Asian market is sixty miles away.

When you want to make sushi at home you will first need to get some supplies.  Resist the urge to buy “Sushi kits” - they are far from necessary, expensive, and wasteful.  Sushi is finger food, not just in the eating of it but in the preparation of it.  If you resort to using the shortcuts, like plastic molds and tubes, you’ll wind up just making odd artificial looking sushi that doesn’t have the right look or texture, which interferes with the whole presentation and experience.  Other than a bamboo rolling mat, the one item I would recommend is a supply of one gallon size zipper lock plastic bags.  They are the exact size needed to store nori, kelp, AND instead of wrapping your bamboo rolling mat in plastic wrap, it fits perfectly in a one-gallon zip bag.

So let’s talk about the items you’ll want to get that you can store in your pantry until the time you’re ready to make your own sushi.

Short grained rice.  Medium grained will work, but the shorter grained is considered better. Calrose is one of the most popular and widely available. I’ve received tons of questions over the years asking if short grained brown rice will work, and after extensive testing I can tell you this:  yes it will work, but the shari (rice ball) doesn’t hold together quite as well and takes a more delicate touch when being picked up.  I compensate for this by adding a little extra white sugar to the cooking mixture to help hold it together.  The brown rice adds a slightly nutty flavor and a much chewier texture which I don’t really prefer in my own sushi, but if you like brown rice that might appeal to you.  The fact that brown rice takes twice the time to cook than white sushi rice should be noted and accommodated in your preparation time.  Long grained, jasmine, basmati, and Arborio rices will simply not work at all.

Rice for sushi is considered to be better if it is a little older and dryer, so I buy rice in ten or twenty pound bags and store it in a dry place in my pantry.

Rice wine vinegar.  Seasoned or plain, it doesn’t really matter because both perform well. I prefer to purchase mine at the Asian market because the price is a fraction of that you will pay at the local mega-mart for the exact same bottle.  For those of you who cook a lot like me, buy rice vinegar in a gallon jug and then use it to refill an easy to use shelf-sized bottle.  Rice wine vinegar is actually made from the filtered-off rice (called lees) used in making sake.  Rice wine vinegar comes in high and low quality versions, and I do keep both versions in my kitchen depending on the intended use (much like having on hand both a lower quality balsamic vinegar for cooking and a higher quality one for salad dressing).  Since there are many different qualities of vinegar I recommend that you ask your store employees what they would recommend.

Mirin, sweetened sake.  There are many different styles but you should be concerned with just two different types, Hon-mirin and Aji-mirin.  Hon-mirin is the good stuff.  This mirin has an alcohol content around 15% and, although sweet, is drinking quality. Aji-mirin (or ajinohaha mirin) is the cheap stuff. Think of it like you would that synthetic cheese that sounds like velveteen. It’s NOT cheese, but it’s cheese-like. Aji-mirin isn’t mirin, but it’s mirin-like.  It has an alcohol content of only 1% or so, just enough to call it “wine.” It is so NOT mirin that it can’t even be sold in Japan.  If you don’t have mirin on hand, you can make a substitute by mixing together ¼ cup sake, 2 teaspoons white sugar, and 1 teaspoon brown sugar. This will work in a pinch fairly well.  If you don’t have sake just use sugar without any liquid.

Nori.  Nori is a sea-vegetable that has been grown for centuries.  The general rule is the darker the color, the higher the quality.  Forest green would indicate lower quality while dark black-green higher.  It should be shiny, thin, and smooth, and have an aroma of the sea.  When eaten it should dissolve in the mouth without effort.  There are ten billion sheets of nori used in Japan every year and the demand continues to rise.  Nori is highly nutritious, high in fiber, calcium, vitamins, and minerals yet low in calories.  China makes very high quality nori at a cheaper price than Japan and a good amount of that is sold to the U.S. This is one rare occasion where the Chinese product is recommended.

Konbu.  Bull kelp grown in the Pacific Ocean.  This is added to the sushi rice prior to cooking and adds a mild ethereal oceanic quality with a hint of iodine scent that is ever present in the sea air.  There are many different qualities and grades of kelp that are used in Asia, but very few varieties can be found in the U.S.  Kelp adds calcium, alginic acids (a dietary fiber), and L-glutamate (the origin of the taste “umami”).  It is always recommended to wipe your konbu with a damp cloth before putting it in with the rice to remove any sand or undesirable particles.  The silvery crystal layer all over the konbu is flavorful and you don’t want to remove it, so it is a very fine line you don’t want to cross, so be very careful that your damp cloth isn’t too wet.

Wasabi.  Japanese horseradish root. Although it is available as a dried powder in a can in most mega marts, the product in those cans isn’t actually wasabi at all but a plain horseradish processed with artificial and natural coloring to make it look like wasabi.  Real wasabi paste is available at your local Asian market or online and comes in a toothpaste-like tube. The difference in taste between canned wasabi and fresh wasabi is as drastic as comparing hamburger to a great steak.  If you do a quick search online for fresh wasabi you can find it quite easily.  For the all-out sushi fan there are even live wasabi roots you can purchase that can be grown as a houseplant until they are ready to be harvested - makes a great conversation piece growing in your living room. A little known chef’s trick to make powdered wasabi seem more high quality is they mix the powdered wasabi with sake instead of water; it becomes then more flavorful and enhances the flavors of the sushi better.  Newly mixed wasabi powder is very bitter but mellows after about an hour, so if you use powdered, be sure to prepare it in advance.  In a pinch, Colman’s dry mustard with a little water and green food coloring makes a great substitute for wasabi that most people would never even notice.

Sriracha sauce.  This is a spicy Southeast Asian chili sauce.  Actually manufactured in California, this sauce is spicy and quite garlicky.  It’s available in almost every mega-mart in the Asian foods section. Sriracha is great for making spicy tuna sushi or spicy mayonnaise.  If you like spicy foods this will become your new ketchup replacement.

Kewpie Mayonnaise.  This is a popular Japanese mayonnaise that has a sweeter and “eggier” taste to it than western mayonnaise.  It is used in making many different sauces in the sushi bar and its flavor is just different enough that western palates can’t quite tell what it is.  If you were to try this type of mayonnaise in your everyday cooking you would definitely enjoy it. This is one item that isn’t commonly found in most grocery stores, but it is an easy to find staple in Asian markets.  

Togarashi.  Japanese hot pepper flakes.  There are many different varieties containing ingredients like hot pepper flakes, orange peel, sesame seeds, etc.  Multi-colored and textured togarashi is a great sushi garnish and it’s used in many ways to make spicy sushi dishes with a different depth of flavor than other means.  Experiment with different varieties to find what you like.

Furikake.  Rice seasoning.  This rice seasoning is popular in Japan and has become an absolute necessity when serving rice in my house.  It’s available in many flavors like nori, shrimp, egg, shiso, and bonito.  Using it to decorate a plate full of sushi or sprinkling it all over the inside or outside of a sushi roll will provide your guests with a flavor experience that very few western people are accustomed to.  Making a small addition of Furikake to your sushi adds a flavor that very few people can pinpoint, but they are pleasantly surprised by the added dimension of taste.  Furikake is typically only available in Asian markets, but it is well worth the search.

Shoyu.  Soy sauce.  I might be the first one to tell you this, but soy sauce is a subject about which sushi chefs roll their eyes and chuckle at Americans.  Too many times I myself have heard someone say “The dark soy sauce is too strong, can I have some light soy sauce?”  Well oddly enough, light soy sauce is saltier and stronger tasting than dark soy sauce.  I know it’s the opposite of how Americans usually think but that’s the fact.  If you would like something less strongly flavored than dark soy sauce then ask for Tamari, which is a soy sauce that is brewed without wheat in it and is lighter flavored, and goes well with sushi. The phrase “Naturally Brewed” means nothing pertaining to the quality of the soy sauce in the U.S., so don’t let it sway you in your choice.  Due to some oddly worded laws, artificially manufactured soy sauce is still allowed to be called “naturally brewed.”  For your home and personal use I recommend tamari that is made in Japan, not the U.S.  Kikkoman is probably the most well-know brand of soy sauce in the U.S. and I personally use it by the gallon for every-day purposes, but for sushi I prefer to use something a bit milder and with more of a “micro-brewed” quality to it, so experiment a little to find what you like.

Gari.  Pickled ginger.  Typically a light pink to red in color, it is difficult to make at home since it is made from immature ginger rhizomes.  Most of the ginger on the market is too mature and too fibrous to make gari. Gari can usually be found in the refrigerated case near the tofu and wonton wrappers at most mega-markets. 

Maki-su.  Bamboo rolling mat.  This is a required item if you want to make rolls or “maki.” It is made out of strips of bamboo and lashed together with cotton string.  There are plastic flexible cutting mats that work well as a substitute to the maki-zu.  Many sushi bars wrap the maki-su in plastic wrap for sanitation but I’ve found that a one gallon zip-top bag works just as well and is easier to use in a home setting.

These are all the ingredients you can stock up on well in advance of preparing sushi at home.  In the next article, I’ll discuss the fresh ingredients you’ll need and how to prepare the sushi rice.  We’re not done yet.

© Ross A. Christensen 2008