I love sushi, but eating good sushi out can be expensive and supermarket sushi is usually disappointing. My friends Margaux and Tim got me started on making sushi at home and I was surprised by how good it was. While I am certainly no expert, it isn’t as daunting as I thought and we have had fun experimenting.
Luckily there is a great Japanese supermarket in Columbus Tensuke Market, so procuring the necessary ingredients can be done in one stop. Tensuke Market is an inexhaustible source of wacky and wonderful Japanese ingredients. I find it impossible to spend less than half an hour reading the english translations and wondering what on earth things are and how to use them. Our current addiction is furikake, a mix of seaweed, sesame seeds and bonito flakes, that you can eat on fish, eggs, rice or just off the palm of your hand.
Start with some sushi grade fish (unless you just want to make vegetarian sushi). Pictured above are tuna, salmon and tilapia. Make your sushi rice, making sure that you have time to cool it before you need it. Alton Brown’s method has proved to be a winner.
Assemble your ingredients (nori sheets, vegetables, wasabi) and equipment (sushi rolling mat, very sharp knife, cutting board, water). Start rolling. We pretty much improvised, but there are plenty of resources online if you want more advice on how to make sushi rolls. Admittedly there is quite an investment in ingredients the first time but the nori, rice, soy sauce etc will last you for several sushi making attempts.
Add accompaniments such as soy sauce, wasabi, seaweed salad, miso soup and pickled ginger. The hardcore can even experiment with homemade pickled ginger.