Making sushi in your own home can be a daunting process. There are many steps in making sushi that require attention to detail, cutlery skills, planning, and timing appropriately. However, this series of articles is designed to teach anyone how to create a homemade sushi meal for friends and family.
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Planning is Critical to Success
The most important lesson I have learned making sushi is how critical planning is to the overall success. The entire process can take three to four hours to complete a sushi roll platter for six individuals. It is important to understand the timeline and order of operations. Even planning what kind of rolls you want to make and how much rice to cook is important. Before I get into too many details, there is a critical step at the beginning of the process. The first step to making great sushi is purchasing the correct ingredients.

What to Buy and Where to Find It
​The basic ingredients for making sushi are typically available at your local grocery store. These items consist of seasoned rice vinegar, soy sauce, short-grain rice, soy sauce, and seaweed sheets. You can make your own seasoned rice vinegar at home, but I find it easier to purchase in a bottle. It is very important you purchase the correct kind of rice. Short-grain rice is ideal, but medium-grain will work as well. I always buy the same brand to avoid this issue. For seaweed sheets, I generally use one sheet per roll. If you want to make hand rolls, you will cut a sheet into smaller pieces. Two packs of ten sheets is usually enough. I have seen these ingredients for sale at grocery stores such as Harris Teeter, Kroger, and Bi-Lo. If you are fortunate enough to have a local oriental market, I recommend going there to purchase the necessary ingredients. From my experience, oriental markets offer more selection and lower prices than large grocery stores. Here is a list of the basic ingredients and my favorite brands:

Seasoned Rice Vinegar - Kikkoman. 
Soy Sauce - Kikkoman's reduced salt version.
Short-grain Rice - Kokuho Rose's 5 lb. bag of California rice.
Wasabi Paste - Any brand that has wasabi paste pre-made in a tube.
Seaweed Sheets - Any brand with normal sized sheets.
Pickled Ginger: Harder to find at large supermarkets.
Siracha Mayo (optional): Lee Kum Kee. You can make your own mixture too. 

Beyond buying the basic ingredients, you need to consider what kind of fillings to put inside your sushi rolls. The staple fillings I always consider buying are imitation crab, cooked shrimp, smoked salmon, cucumbers, cream cheese, and avocados. This will allow you to create California Rolls (imitation crab, cucumber, avocado), Philadelphia Rolls (smoked salmon and cream cheese), and other combinations with cooked seafood. If you are planning to purchase sashimi grade tuna or salmon, I highly recommend visiting a fresh seafood market. I suggest a combined total of 1.5 to 2.0 pounds of sashimi grade tuna and salmon from a seafood market for six individuals, in addition to other filling ingredients. 

To view the more blog posts in this multi-part series on making sushi at home, click the links below:

• Homemade Sushi Part 2: Essential Tools
• Homemade Sushi Part 3: Making Sushi Rice
• Homemade Sushi Part 4: Preparation 
• Homemade Sushi Part 5: How to Roll Sushi
• Homemade Sushi Part 6: Sushi Roll Recipes
• Homemade Sushi Part 7: Hand Rolls

 

For any home project, you need the right tools for a specific job. Making sushi at home is not much different. It is important to have the appropriate tools for creating beautiful sushi rolls. This article will cover the supplies required for making sushi rolls at home. 

​Essential Tools You May Already Own
Some of the required instruments for making sushi may already be in your kitchen. If you own any large wooden bowls or utensils, then you are one step in the right direction. Sushi rice gets very sticky after adding rice vinegar to it. The rice is less likely to stick to wood-made products than other materials. I highly recommend using a large wooden bowl and wooden spatula or rice paddle for cooling and seasoning sushi rice. A wooden spoon can be used instead of a spatula, but it is not preferable for spreading rice on a seaweed sheet. 

Another common tool required for making sushi is a sharp knife. You need a sharp knife to cut rolls, pieces of fish, and other fillings. You will need a large bowl with water and a splash of seasoned rice vinegar to wash the knife periodically. Any kitchen bowl will work as long as the blade of the knife can be submerged.

Essential Tools to Buy
The worst thing that can happen to sushi rice is burning it while cooking. Any burnt rice is not edible. To help avoid this issue, I recommend using an electric rice cooker or Instant Pot. These machines will cook the rice perfectly. If I had to purchase one, I would buy the Instant Pot due to its versatility. While you can cook the rice in a pot on the stove, I would avoid this method. Another essential tool for making sushi is a bamboo mat. This tool is used to create sushi rolls. I recommend buying two of them so another person can help roll. These are inexpensive items available at an oriental market or in a sushi essentials kit.  

Inexpensive Sushi Kits to Buy
I recommend purchasing an inexpensive sushi making kit. There are many kits available at multiple price points. Amazon.com has a few affordable kits that have everything you need to get started. You can buy items individually, but I believe the following sushi kit is a great value for around $10:

Delamu Sushi Making Kit - comes with two bamboo mats, rice paddle, rice spreader, and five pairs of chopsticks. This one also comes with a link to a Beginner's Guide PDF document.  

The Essential Tools List
​Here is a quick reference list of the tools highlighted:

• Large wooden bowl for rice
• Wooden spatula or rice paddle
• Sharp Knife
• Large bowl for holding water
• Electric Rice Cooker or Instant Pot
• Two Bamboo mats

To view the more blog posts in this multi-part series on making sushi at home, click the links below:

• Homemade Sushi Part 1: Purchasing the Ingredients​
• Homemade Sushi Part 3: Making Sushi Rice
• Homemade Sushi Part 4: Preparation 
• Homemade Sushi Part 5: How to Roll Sushi
• Homemade Sushi Part 6: Sushi Roll Recipes
• Homemade Sushi Part 7: Hand Rolls

Hand rolls (temaki sushi) are another kind of sushi that you can easily make at home. They are  a rolled cone of seaweed (nori) with filling and rice inside. It takes some practice to make a hand roll correctly. The directions below are a simple way to make small, bite-sized hand rolls.
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Hand Roll Directions
1. Cut a piece of seaweed paper (nori) into four equally-sized squares.
2. Take one of the squares and hold it at a diagonal (diamond shape) in the palm of a hand.
3. Add rice to the middle of the diamond shaped seaweed.
4. Add filling on top of the rice.
5. Begin rolling the seaweed paper with your thumb towards the middle. 
6. Continue rolling after the seaweed touches filling and rice to round out the cone.
7. Put the completed hand roll on a platter for serving.

To view the more blog posts in this multi-part series on making sushi at home, click the links below:

• Homemade Sushi Part 1: Purchasing the Ingredients
• Homemade Sushi Part 2: Essential Tools
• Homemade Sushi Part 3: Making Sushi Rice
• Homemade Sushi Part 4: Preparation 
• Homemade Sushi Part 5: How to Roll Sushi
• Homemade Sushi Part 6: Sushi Roll Recipes

When making sushi for friends and family, I enjoy surprising them with interesting rolls. Meal planning is required to create flavorful and colorful rolls. My wife and I often visit a local sushi restaurant for their specialty rolls. These sushi roll recipes are some of my favorite creations inspired by the restaurant. 

Rainbow Roll
Ingredients: Cucumber, Avocado, Imitation Crab, Salmon, Tuna
1. Create a California Roll (imitation crab, avocado, and cucumber) as filling with rice on the outside1. Add sushi rice to a piece of seaweed paper (nori).
2. Before flipping over the rice covered seaweed paper, lay pieces of salmon and tuna widthwise along the top half. 
​3. Turn the rice and fish covered seaweed paper over and add the filling of imitation crab, avocado, and cucumber (California Roll).
​4. Follow the normal steps of rolling it together.

Volcano Roll
Ingredients: Cucumber, Avocado, Imitation Crab, Cooked Shrimp, Siracha, Mayonnaise
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees on BAKE.
2. Cut up pieces of jumbo cooked shrimp and mix in a bowl with Siracha Mayo (Siracha and mayonnaise mixed together). 
3. Spread the spicy mayo shrimp mixture on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil.
4. Bake the shrimp mixture in the oven for 15 minutes. 
5. When the shrimp is done cooking, add more of the spicy mayo to it and BROIL for 1-2 more minutes.
5. While the shrimp is backing, make a California Roll ​with imitation crab, avocado, and cucumber as filling with rice on the outside. Other fillings such as salmon or tuna instead can be substituted for imitation crab. This step is the same as making the Rainbow Roll without adding salmon and tuna to the outside.
​6. Plate the California Roll and spoon the shrimp mixture on top.

401 Providence Roll
Ingredients: Cucumber, Avocado, Salmon, Tuna, Seaweed Salad
1. Create a sushi roll with cucumber, avocado, salmon, and tuna with rice on the outside.
2. Plate the roll pieces on their sides instead of flat.
3. Pinch pieces of seaweed salad (pre-made at grocery stores) and add to the top of the roll pieces. 

Philadelphia Maki Roll
Ingredients: Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese
1. Cut a piece of seaweed paper in half.
2. Add rice to the seaweed paper and then add a thin line of cheese cheese as filling.
3. Add pieces of smoked salmon on top of the cream cheese.
4. Follow the normal steps of rolling it together.
*Note that you can use non-dairy almond cream cheese as well.*

Spicy Tuna Maki Roll
Ingredients: Tuna, Siracha, Mayonnaise
1. Mix together pieces of tuna with Siracha Mayo (Siracha and mayonnaise mixed) in a bowl. 
2. Cut a piece of seaweed paper in half.
3. Add rice to the seaweed paper and then add the tuna and spicy mayonnaise mixture as filling.
4. Follow the normal steps of rolling it together.