Ingredients needed:
¼ Cup Sushi Vinegar
2 Cups White Rice
4 Seaweed 9×9 Pieces
Imitation Crab Pieces (Not Chunks, Need To Be Solid Rectangles)
1/2 of Medium Cucumber
1 Avocado
Utensils & Hardware needed:
Rice Cooker
Potholder
2 Large Mixing Bowls
Large Plate
Butcher/Bread Knife
Bamboo Sushi Matte
Hand towel (optional)
1 Pitcher of Hot Tap Water
First grab a large mixing bowl. Measuring out two cups of white rice into the large mixing bowl; take the pitcher of hot tap water (not hot enough to burn your hands), and pour enough so that it is covering the rice. Then using your hands and fingers, turning the bowl, swirl the rice through your fingers – like a mixer; you should begin to notice the water turning a light gray to white milky color. This is the extra dirt/dust that has accumulated on the rice from packaging and handling. Now cusp your hand on the side of the bowl to catch any falling rice and drain the dirty water. Continue this process until the water is clear or until the pitcher is empty, whichever comes first (I find that the water usually comes clean before I get to the bottom of the pitcher).
Now the rice is clean, set it aside for a few minutes. Measure ¼ cup of sushi vinegar; (if you don’t have access to this item-most supermarkets carry it in their ethnic section-substitute distilled white vinegar instead. However, this vinegar is much stronger, so use about 1/8 cup)
Next pour the rice into the rice cooker, adding the right amount of water (I usually fill mine to the “2” line) then add the sushi vinegar and stir well. Now press the button down to “cook”. Cooking the rice usually takes about 15-30 minutes (my rice cooking manual says to only stir ONCE while cooking). So in the meantime, slice up the other ingredients (crab, cucumber, and avocado) into very fine slivers and set them aside.
Then take out the sushi matte, laying a 9×9 piece of sushi-nori seaweed on top… shiny side facing up. By this time, you should have stirred the rice and it should have popped up to “warm” (if it has not WAIT until it does). When the rice is finished, pull out the metal pot (carefully-it is HOT!) using a potholder, dump all the rice into a large mixing bowl. The rice should look like porridge and be very sticky to touch (if it isn’t-you CAN’T use it to make sushi, because you depend on the vinegar to keep the rice sticking together like glue; or become acquainted with another recipe, there are numerous ones out there that call for “Japanese mayonnaise,” which I don’t have access to, and IS NOT the same as regular mayonnaise!)
Let the rice cool, until it is room temperature (usually about 45 minutes). Finally, room temperature? Grab the other large mixing bowl and fill it with water (doesn’t matter if it’s cold or hot, but your hands better like it!). This is were it gets messy… completely immerse your hands in the bowl of water (doing this will prevent the sticky rice from sticking to your hands; it will however leave a slimy texture behind). Then grab a nice handful of rice and form it into a ball.
Next take the ball of rice and flatten it on to your already waiting 9×9 piece of sushi-nori seaweed (You may have to do this a few times to cover the seaweed. This is also where the hand towel comes in; you can use it to wipe off your hands, but I prefer to immerse my hands again and just keep going). Flatten the rice so that it’s about ¾ inch high leaving about ½ inch of space on one side and about 1 inch of space on the other. Now about three inches in press your finger down into the rice, creating an indent straight across the entire rectangle of rice.
Then taking the finely sliced crab meat and lay it inside of the indentation you just made with your finger. Next comes the cucumber and the avocado (these aren’t in any particular order). Now lining the sushi up with the end of the bamboo matte, tuck the crab, cucumber, and avocado under the rice (careful here, you don’t want to roll the matte up with the seaweed!). Then holding onto the sushi press firmly but not to tight so that everything comes popping out, and continue to roll forward until seaweed meets seaweed. Don’t forget to press firmly on each side. Ta-da! Your first roll of sushi! J
Now continue this process until there is no more rice, or until you run out of seaweed-oops – I do that sometimes! This leaves me with extra rice-that I use for other recipes.
After finishing the rolling process of all the sushi set it on a large plate making sure it doesn’t bend (bending allows all your stuff to fall out!). And set it in the fridge until the rice cools completely. I usually take this time to clean up the lovely mess I made! Dampen your hand towel and wipe clean your bamboo matte, this is the only process to keeping the bamboo matte clean; if it continue to get grimy then it is time to get a new one. By the time the cleaning is finished the sushi will be ready to be cut.
Now take the plate out and using the cutting board again(sorry, I know more dishes to wash!), take a long knife(butcher’s / bread knife), and slice the half in half, then slice each half in half, and slice each half in half(boy that’s a mouthful!), which should ultimately leave you with about eight pieces per roll. This entire recipe should yield about four rolls-depending on how much rice you use to thicken up your rolls.
Plate on traditional china-ware and enjoy with soy sauce or without! With chopsticks or without! Just plain ENJOY!
