Have you ever noticed just how expensive sushi is? Or wished there was a different combination of ingredients to have just what you want? Why not try making it yourself?
Making homemade sushi is a lot of prep work, but that’s part of the fun of making your own sushi. When we made it last weekend, we had 3 people working on it, and it took about 1.5 hours. But we also weren’t using our time very wisely either. Making sushi could be a great date night with your partner, or a fun night in with the girls. Or, in my case, it’s usually my brother-in-law and me who makes the sushi when we have it as a big family Sunday afternoon meal.
Making the sushi rice correctly is the most important part of the sushi recipe. If you don’t have this correct, it won’t stick together to make the rolls.
Step by Step
While the rice is cooking, start slicing all the ingredients you want for your sushi rolls. Some of our favorite rolls are:
- California Roll: Cucumber, Avocado, Crab
- Spicy California: Cucumber, Avocado, Crab, Spicy Mayo
- Philadelphia Roll: Cream Cheese, Salmon or Crab, Cucumber
- Shaggy Dog: Shrimp Tempura, Mayo, Crab strips on top
- Shrimp Nigiri: Rice patties with Shrimp
- Salmon Nigiri: Rice patties with Salmon
Or create your own. We usually slice up the ingredients we want and just start building as we go. One time we even made a buffalo chicken roll with some cooked chicken and buffalo sauce in it! You can really put almost anything you want in a sushi roll. Another common ingredient is egg, but we haven’t tried that yet.
When you slice all the ingredients, you want to slice them into thin, long strips so they will cover the length of the sushi rolls.
To start making the rolls, lay your bamboo mat on your flat workspace. Fill a small bowl with water and a splash of rice vinegar. Place a single sheet of seaweed on the bamboo mat with the shiny side down. It helps to have all of your ingredients close at hand before you start to make your sushi.
When you are working with the rice, keep your hands very wet so it doesn’t stick.
When you are working with the seaweed, keep your hands very dry.
Get your hands wet and grab a handful of the rice. Keeping your hands wet, spread the rice until you have a thin layer covering all except the last 1/4″ of the seaweed. Lay your ingredients all the way across the seaweed at the end closest to you.
Very carefully use the bamboo mat to start rolling the sushi. You want to keep it rolled tight, and roll almost to the end. To seal the roll, dip your finger in the water and run it along the edge of the seaweed and roll it up to seal. Use the mat to form the roll slightly. Watch the video below to see my brother-in-law (the one who taught me how to make sushi) demonstrating on one of the rolls we made.
Continue doing the same with the remaining rice to make your variety of sushi rolls. Once you have finished, use a very sharp, non-serated knife to slowly slice the sushi rolls. I usually touch the edge of the knife to the sushi, and slowly slide it back and forth until it just starts to slice the seaweed. Once it slices through the top, you can usually keep the sawing motion going to cut all the way through. I like to use my good ceramic knives for slicing the sushi.
Experiment. Have fun. Create your own sushi rolls. If you do, tag me in your photos so I can see what you made! (Instagram: @sonshinekitchen or Facebook: @mysonshinekitchen)
Recipe
Sushi Rice
Ingredients
- 2 cups sushi rice
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
Instructions
- Thoroughly rinse the rice by putting it in a bowl (or the bowl of the rice steamer) and filling with water enough to completely cover the rice.
- Use your hands to stir the rice around until the water is murky.
- Use a strainer (or the lid of your steamer) to drain the water.
- Continue doing this until the water comes out clear (usually 3-4 times).
- Steam 2 cups of rice according to steamer instructions.
- While rice is cooking, in a large bowl combine the rice vinegar, sugar, and salt.
- Microwave mixture on high for 30 seconds then stir to combine.
- Once the rice is finished cooking and slightly cooled, use the rice paddle to remove rice from the steamer to a large mixing bowl. DON’T scrape rice from bottom and sides as this rice is usually hard and/or burned and doesn’t work well for sushi.
- Carefully fold vinegar mixture into rice. Make sure to only fold, you don’t want to crush or break the rice.
Notes
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This looks so delicious. Thank you for showing how to make homemade sushi. We love sushi (especially my daughter) and I have wanted to try making it from home!
You’re welcome! I love it too, just not the price! It’s so fun to make at home 🙂
I love homemade sushi! When my daughter Brooke was in high school she had a group of friends whose parents made so many spectacular sushi dishes. The kids’s favorite at that time was Spam Sushi. But I love your rice, shrimp, avocado sushi. Those are some of my favorite ingredients. It looks so yummy!
Oh how fun! I never really ate it until college because my mom is severely allergic to shellfish so we never had anything like this!! It’s so much fun to make and customize how you want.
I’ve never made sushi before and don’t think I could pull it off as well as yours look but maybe with your recipe I can. Will have to give it a try someday! Worth a shot 🙂
Trust me, ours took some practice! They didn’t look that good the first few times we made it.
oh wow! These look great! Making sushi rolls are hard!!! Now im craving some avocado!
They aren’t too hard once you get the hang of what you are doing. We had quite a few mistake rolls here and there, but even when they didn’t look great they still tasted good!
This looks so good! But I must confess that I have never made it. I did try with a Chinese student once (I am a teacher) but it was a real disaster. I was so sorry for him as he ws really looking forward to it. I should have seen this before!
Aww that’s no fun that it was a disaster. It took us a few tries to get it right, but it’s still fun to give it a try.
my grandson loves sushi i will be fun making this with him
What an awesome bonding idea with your grandson, I hope you guys have fun!
My Daughters enjoy sushi so much .
I love it too, we are going to be making it so soon again.
My husband would love this idea! Adding it to our list of “new recipes”!
It’s a great “date night” idea as well, you guys could make it together 😊
Will you believe me and my hubby have never had sushi in our lives. But I want to try this recipe.
I hadn’t had it until a few years ago. My mom is seriously allergic to seafood, so we didn’t eat it much growing up.
This looks like a must try recipe. Will bookmark for when I try this at home.
It’s so fun and delicious! I hope you have a great time with it.
Sushi is fun, though we love the vegetarian variants. Will try these at home based on your recipe.
That’s the best part of making it at home, you can make them exactly as you like them!
Though I could eat sushi every day of the week, the thought of making my own has never crossed my mind! So impressed by how beautiful yours turned out- sure they were just as delicious!
Trust me, they did not look quite as beautiful the first time or two. It took some practice to get them looking this nice, but they always taste good even if the presentation isn’t perfect!
I love sushi and have never made my own! I love your step by step instructions! Looks doable.
It’s definitely doable! And it’s great for making them just how you want them.
I’ve always heard that Sushi is difficult to make, but I also heard that about Macarons and I gave them a try. Maybe DIY sushi should be next on my list!!!
I’ve never made macarons before, maybe I should try them and you can try sushi! 😊
This looks so yummy! I love sushi! I think Ill give it a try
It’s fun to make, even though it takes some time, and customize it just how you want it!
I know that it is better when you can make your own sushi instead. And it can be delicious. A former roommate made it once. And it was to die for. There are just so many different things to remember. And getting the sticky rice right plus having really sharp knives is essential.
Yes! Those are probably the two most important parts of making your own sushi!