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. 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: 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:
To view the more blog posts in this multi-part series on making sushi at home, click the links below: Magic: The Gathering's The Lost Caverns of Ixalan is Magic: The Gathering's 2023 holiday premier set release. The Lost Caverns of Ixalan is a return to the plane of Ixalan with plenty of Dinosaurs, Merfolk, Vampires and other Kindred creatures. In addition, The Lost Caverns of Ixalan features several mechanics including double-sided cards, descend, and discovery.
In my recent article, The Best Steals and Deals from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, I share a few suggested singles to buy that won't break the bank. Molten Collapse and Growing Rights of Itlimoc are two cards you may want to pick up from the set. You will want to read this article if buying powerful, yet inexpensive cards is of interest to you. Dice and spindown life counters are common tabletop gaming accessories for collectible trading card games. Magic: The Gathering players often use dice to track the number of creature tokens in play, +1/+1 counters, and other game stats. Furthermore, players use D20 spindowns to track life totals in a Constructed or Limited format. Without the use of dice and spindowns, paper MTG games can become complex and hard to follow for players.
MTG-related dice and spindowns come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and colors. For example, players opening a prerelease kit from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth may find a D20 in one of five color options, or even a special green variant. Anyone purchasing a Bundle from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth will receive an oversized spindown too. Some players and collectors strive to acquire dice and spindown from their favorite sets, promotional releases, and for other reasons. As such, demand for certain MTG-related dice and spindowns can drive secondary market prices. In my recent TCGplayer Infinite article, An Introduction to MTG Dice and Spindown Finance, I discuss several MTG dice and spindowns that can be sold for money. You may own Spindowns from older sets worth $50-100! Check out the article to see what gaming accessories you have that can add money to your pocket. |
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