Temaki Sushi

TEMAKI SUSHI

Hand-rolled cone with boiled shrimp, cucumber, and smelt roe

Ingredients:

• Sheets of nori (seaweed) cut into roughly 3 ½ – 4 inch squares
• Sushi rice, cooled (not chilled)
• Gu (fillings) of your choice, such as:
  • sashimi-quality raw seafood such as tuna, salmon, prawns, scallops, squid
  • cooked octopus, shrimp, crab meat
  • crab salad or tuna salad
  • fish roe, such as ikura (salmon roe) tobiko],
  • vegetables like julienned cucumber, sliced avocado, shiso (perilla) herb, kaiware (daikon sprouts)
  • sliced plain omelette
• Condiments: soy sauce, wasabi, Japanese mayonnaise, gari (pickled ginger)

Method:

1. Prepare sushi rice and set aside, covered in plastic wrap or a moist (clean!) towel
2. Prepare the “nori”. Lightly toast the nori pieces over a hot element (don’t burn yourself!) and cut the sheets into squares.
3. Prepare the “gu” (filling) by cutting them into shapes and sizes that will fit into a small hand-rolled cone, and arrange artfully on a platter or in small bowls. Arrange platters strategically around the table, so everyone can reach everything they need to construct a roll.
4. Put your guests to work. Give everyone individual plates, dipping dishes with soy sauce, and get rolling!

How to hand-roll:

1. Put about 1 Tbsp of rice on a piece of nori and flatten it out.
2. Squirt on a little mayo and arrange the fillings diagonally across the square
3. Roll into a cone
4. Artfully arrange the leftover ingredients carefully on top of a bed of rice for a lunch of chirashizushi (literally “scattered” sushi).

Clockwise from top left: avocado, shiso (perilla) herb, boiled shrimp, cucumber, squid, tuna, tobiko (flying fish roe - center)