**The Art of Making Sushi at Home**

To start making sushi, we first need to prepare our ingredients and tools. The cucumber is an essential component of many sushi rolls, including maki. To ensure even coating, it's crucial to apply a consistent layer of rice on the cucumber. This can be achieved by using a sushi mat, which is invaluable in getting a nice even roll. The mat helps to apply pressure evenly, ensuring that the rice adheres to the nori sheet. A little dampness on the nori will also help it stick to itself.

Next, we need to prepare our rolling mat. A small amount of plastic can be placed on the mat to keep it clean and prevent the rice from sticking to it. This is a crucial step in making sushi, as it ensures that the roll remains tight and free of gaps. The first few attempts at making sushi may result in loose rolls with air pockets inside. However, with practice, one can achieve a good, tight roll.

**Using Sharp Knives and Damp Blades**

When cutting fish for sushi, a sharp knife is essential. A dull knife will only lead to mushy or uneven cuts, which can ruin the entire dish. It's also important to keep the blade damp, as this prevents the rice from sticking to it. With these skills in place, we can now move on to preparing our first roll.

**Smoked Salmon Sushi**

For this recipe, we'll be using smoked salmon and cream cheese. The Philadelphia cream cheese is an excellent choice due to its firm texture and ease of use. It's already in a block shape, making it simple to cut into strips. Unlike traditional sushi rolls, this one will have rice on the outside, so we need to cover more surface area with it. This allows us to fill the roll more generously without gaps.

To start, we'll flip over our nori sheet and place it shiny-side down. On the underside, which has a small gap, we'll add a layer of toasted sesame seeds for decoration. Then, we'll carefully place our ingredients inside. The smoked salmon is added in generous amounts, ensuring an even distribution throughout the roll. A little dampness on the nori helps it stick to itself, and using our sushi mat, we can shape the roll into a tight cylinder.

**Tuna Sushi**

For this recipe, we'll be using fatty tuna, which requires a sharp knife to cut evenly. The knife should also be kept damp to prevent the rice from sticking to it. Traditionally, finer sushi restaurants use a tiny smear of wasabi on the underside of the fish and then make a small patty of rice. To replicate this at home, we'll add a little bit of wasabi to our dish and create a similar presentation.

To assemble the tuna roll, we'll place the fish on top of the rice, giving it a gentle pat to ensure flatness on the bottom. This is a key step in creating a visually appealing sushi dish. With these skills in place, we can now move on to preparing the final touch for our homemade sushi: pickled ginger and soy sauce.

**The Final Touch**

In this article, we've covered the basics of making sushi at home. From preparing ingredients to using sharp knives and damp blades, each step is crucial to achieving a beautiful, restaurant-quality dish. The key to success lies in practice, so don't be discouraged if your first attempts don't turn out perfectly. With time and patience, you'll master the art of making sushi that rivals even the finest restaurants.

**Tips and Tricks**

* When working with nori sheets, it's essential to keep them clean and dry to prevent sticking.

* Using a small amount of plastic on the rolling mat can make a big difference in achieving a tight roll.

* Keep your hands damp when handling sushi rice to prevent it from sticking to them.

* Experiment with different flavors and ingredients to find your favorite combinations.

* Practice makes perfect, so don't be discouraged if your first attempts at making sushi don't turn out exactly as expected.

**Conclusion**

Making sushi at home is a fun and rewarding experience that requires patience, practice, and attention to detail. With the right tools and ingredients, you can create beautiful, restaurant-quality dishes that delight your taste buds. Remember to love your food and experiment with different flavors and combinations to find your favorite sushi creations.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enand welcome back to love your food this week we're doing sort of a double header we're going to be doing sushi rice and we're also going to show you how to make some basic sushi at home if you're a big sushi fan it's not too hard honestly to make sushi at home and make it look pretty restaurant quality this is all sushi we made just at home and none of us are particularly trained in making sushi so here's our ingredients we're starting with sushi rice and sushi vinegar this is for the rice and there's some special properties i'll talk about later we're going to be making sushi with some cucumbers some cream cheese we've got some nice toasted sesame seeds here we've got some beautiful sushi quality tuna some smoked salmon and of course some nori which is just a dried sheet of seaweed that we use for wrapping so let's get going with our rice first now we're just going to use our rice cooker for this and you want to follow whatever the instructions are that your rice cooker gives you and the first thing we're going to do is rinse our rice so we definitely want to try and wash some of the extra starch off the outside of our rice you can see here the water is extremely cloudy and we are starting off by getting rid of some of that extra starch on our rice so we're just going to pour that off if you're very gentle and very careful you don't need to strain it or run it through colander anything you can just very gently pour it off and we're going to continue to rinse this until that water is much clearer basically we want to keep going until you can see individual grains of rice through the water and that may take a few attempts because sometimes that rice is very starchy and we have a lot to pour off so next round we are just going to pour that off and then run it under the water again make sure you have good clean hands and you can just give it a little rinse in the water with your hand starting to clear up a little bit it's still pretty cloudy so we're just going to pour off that one and then again we're just going to run more of that and you want to rinse this in pretty decently cold water honestly now we're starting to see some individual grains uh through the water but it's still cloudy so we're gonna run this uh through one more time so draining it off once more and then one last rinse and now we're ready to just add the water in there and cook our sushi rice now you can continue running water through your rice until it is perfectly clear but it's usually not completely necessary and this will help your rice come out less clumpy and a little bit more individual grains instead of one big piece now for cooking your rice we're just gonna do the rice cooker for this and some people will actually put kombu seaweed in the rice cooker for this we're gonna actually do it differently the sushi vinegar we have has the flavor of the kombu seaweed in it so we're just going to do it that way so we're going to take our sushi rice out of the rice cooker once it's cooked and then you just want to gently break it up because we're going to add some vinegar to this right now and you can see it's nice and fluffy but you want to make sure that you're not squishing it so you don't want to mush it against the side of the bowl you also want to use if you don't have a wooden bowl which is much more traditional don't use a metal bowl because it will because of the vinegar pick up flavors of the metal so it'll get a sort of metallic flavor if you if you use a metal bowl so plastic bowl or glass bowl is really what you want to use and then to mix in the sushi vinegar you just want to gently sort of cut through the rice until it's all well blended then we want to make sure that once it's all well combined and the sushi vinegar is added to the rice uh sort of make sure there's none stuck to the sides get it loosely clumped in the middle and then cover it with a clean damp cloth now i know this cloth doesn't look particularly clean it is it's fresh out of the laundry it is just uh it's just stained from from old things but it is clean i promise so now while that's waiting uh and covered with a damp rag to keep it from drying out we're going to start getting our ingredients for the sushi together so we're going to start with the cucumber for the copper roll and we're just going to cut this into long thin strips so we're going to start by cutting it into panels you can remove the skin entirely if you like we're going to leave it on it's got a lot of flavor it's really good for you we're just going to cut this into these nice long thin strips helps to have a very sharp knife to do this and then just set that aside and uh this is ready to go this the uh cucumber sushi is the easiest one for sure it's uh just cucumber so we're just gonna get our seaweed ready uh sheets of nori have a smooth side and a rough side so this is the rough side you can see it's got a little bit more texture to it and this is the smooth side you can see it's a little bit shinier we want to leave the smooth side on the outside of the roll and we're going to be putting the rice on the rougher side you want to leave a little bit of a margin at one side to be able to sort of seal your roll closed you also want to make sure that your hands are good and damp when you're handling the sushi rice to prevent it from sticking to your fingers so we're going to get some of our rice out and just mush it down onto again the rough side of the nori and there we go you can see we've got our rice stuck down and we're just going to pop some of that cucumber on there and you can cut it up you can you know help it fit however best it fits so you get a nice sort of even coating an even layer of cucumber in the middle there and then we're going to use our sushi mat which is absolutely invaluable in getting you a nice even roll so we're gonna use that sushi mat and just apply pretty even pressure a little bit of dampness on the nori will help it sort of stick to itself and of course a little bit of plastic on your uh on your rolling mat will help it to keep it clean and will help rice to keep rice from sticking to it and we're just going to roll that up you want to get a good nice tight roll no gaps of air or anything in there and that's something that just comes with practice usually your first one will be a little bit loose and they'll get better as you as you practice it so a good sharp knife and again you want to to perhaps let the blade be a little bit damp so the rice won't stick to it and there you go you can see good uh distribution of the cucumber through there and then again you just want to cut that with your very sharp knife if your knife isn't quite sharp enough it will mush the sushi a little bit and then next up is our smoked salmon so we're just going to cut our smoked salmon into strips this is obviously a little bit more of a non-traditional flavor combination for sushi but it's one you see a lot in sushi restaurants in north america for sure so we're just going to be doing smoked salmon and cream cheese and we're just using philadelphia cream cheese because it is easiest to work with for this sort of application it's already in a block shape so it's easy to cut into strips and it's got that good firm texture a lot of uh really nice more artisanal cream cheeses are softer and come sort of in like a scoop shape instead so this is just easier to work with now unlike the last time we are going to be turning this roll inside out so it's one of those rolls with rice on the outside so we're going to actually stick the rice to the shiny side of the nori sheet we're going to cover a little bit more of it as well because rolling it up on the outside it has more space to cover we're going to add a little bit of our nice toasted sesame seeds again this is a beautiful decoration for the outside of your sushi and then we're going to flip over our nori sheet and starting on the side that has this little uh gap we're going to start putting our ingredients down so on goes the smoked salmon and again if you uh if you're having a hard time making it fit then you can cut little bits off or anything it doesn't matter as long as you can get a good sort of even layer in the middle there and we like to be generous so we're just going to load it up with that beautiful smoked salmon and then once again just a little dash just a little dampening on the nori will help it stick to itself and use your mat to just help you shape it and give you a good tight roll and there you go and that side is going to end up facing down so you don't need it doesn't need to look perfect once again this is home sushi it doesn't need to be restaurant quality we are certainly not experts in rolling sushi good sharp knife with a damp blade again and you can see that's a good tight roll and all your ingredients are well balanced in there now the last thing we're going to do is deal with this beautiful tuna that we got this amazing fatty tuna and this is sushi quality you don't want to just go to a fish store you do need to make sure that what you're buying is sushi quality and you want a very sharp knife our knife is maybe not quite sharp enough and we are not experts at sushi as i said now traditionally in finer sushi restaurants has a tiny little smear of wasabi on the underside of the fish and then you can just make yourself a little patty of rice again you want to make sure that your hands are damp so that the sushi rice doesn't stick to them and then just put the put the fish on top of the rice give it a little pat and it'll be flat on the bottom and this is a pretty standard you know restaurant sort of presentation of sushi and really really easy to do at home uh where you know bought some pickled ginger a little bit of wasabi in a tube and it comes out really really nicely some soy sauce and that's it really not so hard to make your own sushi at home and make it look pretty close to restaurant quality so we hope you'll give this a try if you like this recipe please do like and subscribe and if you have any recipes you'd like to see chef caleb try on the channel please let us know in the comments below and remember to love your food soand welcome back to love your food this week we're doing sort of a double header we're going to be doing sushi rice and we're also going to show you how to make some basic sushi at home if you're a big sushi fan it's not too hard honestly to make sushi at home and make it look pretty restaurant quality this is all sushi we made just at home and none of us are particularly trained in making sushi so here's our ingredients we're starting with sushi rice and sushi vinegar this is for the rice and there's some special properties i'll talk about later we're going to be making sushi with some cucumbers some cream cheese we've got some nice toasted sesame seeds here we've got some beautiful sushi quality tuna some smoked salmon and of course some nori which is just a dried sheet of seaweed that we use for wrapping so let's get going with our rice first now we're just going to use our rice cooker for this and you want to follow whatever the instructions are that your rice cooker gives you and the first thing we're going to do is rinse our rice so we definitely want to try and wash some of the extra starch off the outside of our rice you can see here the water is extremely cloudy and we are starting off by getting rid of some of that extra starch on our rice so we're just going to pour that off if you're very gentle and very careful you don't need to strain it or run it through colander anything you can just very gently pour it off and we're going to continue to rinse this until that water is much clearer basically we want to keep going until you can see individual grains of rice through the water and that may take a few attempts because sometimes that rice is very starchy and we have a lot to pour off so next round we are just going to pour that off and then run it under the water again make sure you have good clean hands and you can just give it a little rinse in the water with your hand starting to clear up a little bit it's still pretty cloudy so we're just going to pour off that one and then again we're just going to run more of that and you want to rinse this in pretty decently cold water honestly now we're starting to see some individual grains uh through the water but it's still cloudy so we're gonna run this uh through one more time so draining it off once more and then one last rinse and now we're ready to just add the water in there and cook our sushi rice now you can continue running water through your rice until it is perfectly clear but it's usually not completely necessary and this will help your rice come out less clumpy and a little bit more individual grains instead of one big piece now for cooking your rice we're just gonna do the rice cooker for this and some people will actually put kombu seaweed in the rice cooker for this we're gonna actually do it differently the sushi vinegar we have has the flavor of the kombu seaweed in it so we're just going to do it that way so we're going to take our sushi rice out of the rice cooker once it's cooked and then you just want to gently break it up because we're going to add some vinegar to this right now and you can see it's nice and fluffy but you want to make sure that you're not squishing it so you don't want to mush it against the side of the bowl you also want to use if you don't have a wooden bowl which is much more traditional don't use a metal bowl because it will because of the vinegar pick up flavors of the metal so it'll get a sort of metallic flavor if you if you use a metal bowl so plastic bowl or glass bowl is really what you want to use and then to mix in the sushi vinegar you just want to gently sort of cut through the rice until it's all well blended then we want to make sure that once it's all well combined and the sushi vinegar is added to the rice uh sort of make sure there's none stuck to the sides get it loosely clumped in the middle and then cover it with a clean damp cloth now i know this cloth doesn't look particularly clean it is it's fresh out of the laundry it is just uh it's just stained from from old things but it is clean i promise so now while that's waiting uh and covered with a damp rag to keep it from drying out we're going to start getting our ingredients for the sushi together so we're going to start with the cucumber for the copper roll and we're just going to cut this into long thin strips so we're going to start by cutting it into panels you can remove the skin entirely if you like we're going to leave it on it's got a lot of flavor it's really good for you we're just going to cut this into these nice long thin strips helps to have a very sharp knife to do this and then just set that aside and uh this is ready to go this the uh cucumber sushi is the easiest one for sure it's uh just cucumber so we're just gonna get our seaweed ready uh sheets of nori have a smooth side and a rough side so this is the rough side you can see it's got a little bit more texture to it and this is the smooth side you can see it's a little bit shinier we want to leave the smooth side on the outside of the roll and we're going to be putting the rice on the rougher side you want to leave a little bit of a margin at one side to be able to sort of seal your roll closed you also want to make sure that your hands are good and damp when you're handling the sushi rice to prevent it from sticking to your fingers so we're going to get some of our rice out and just mush it down onto again the rough side of the nori and there we go you can see we've got our rice stuck down and we're just going to pop some of that cucumber on there and you can cut it up you can you know help it fit however best it fits so you get a nice sort of even coating an even layer of cucumber in the middle there and then we're going to use our sushi mat which is absolutely invaluable in getting you a nice even roll so we're gonna use that sushi mat and just apply pretty even pressure a little bit of dampness on the nori will help it sort of stick to itself and of course a little bit of plastic on your uh on your rolling mat will help it to keep it clean and will help rice to keep rice from sticking to it and we're just going to roll that up you want to get a good nice tight roll no gaps of air or anything in there and that's something that just comes with practice usually your first one will be a little bit loose and they'll get better as you as you practice it so a good sharp knife and again you want to to perhaps let the blade be a little bit damp so the rice won't stick to it and there you go you can see good uh distribution of the cucumber through there and then again you just want to cut that with your very sharp knife if your knife isn't quite sharp enough it will mush the sushi a little bit and then next up is our smoked salmon so we're just going to cut our smoked salmon into strips this is obviously a little bit more of a non-traditional flavor combination for sushi but it's one you see a lot in sushi restaurants in north america for sure so we're just going to be doing smoked salmon and cream cheese and we're just using philadelphia cream cheese because it is easiest to work with for this sort of application it's already in a block shape so it's easy to cut into strips and it's got that good firm texture a lot of uh really nice more artisanal cream cheeses are softer and come sort of in like a scoop shape instead so this is just easier to work with now unlike the last time we are going to be turning this roll inside out so it's one of those rolls with rice on the outside so we're going to actually stick the rice to the shiny side of the nori sheet we're going to cover a little bit more of it as well because rolling it up on the outside it has more space to cover we're going to add a little bit of our nice toasted sesame seeds again this is a beautiful decoration for the outside of your sushi and then we're going to flip over our nori sheet and starting on the side that has this little uh gap we're going to start putting our ingredients down so on goes the smoked salmon and again if you uh if you're having a hard time making it fit then you can cut little bits off or anything it doesn't matter as long as you can get a good sort of even layer in the middle there and we like to be generous so we're just going to load it up with that beautiful smoked salmon and then once again just a little dash just a little dampening on the nori will help it stick to itself and use your mat to just help you shape it and give you a good tight roll and there you go and that side is going to end up facing down so you don't need it doesn't need to look perfect once again this is home sushi it doesn't need to be restaurant quality we are certainly not experts in rolling sushi good sharp knife with a damp blade again and you can see that's a good tight roll and all your ingredients are well balanced in there now the last thing we're going to do is deal with this beautiful tuna that we got this amazing fatty tuna and this is sushi quality you don't want to just go to a fish store you do need to make sure that what you're buying is sushi quality and you want a very sharp knife our knife is maybe not quite sharp enough and we are not experts at sushi as i said now traditionally in finer sushi restaurants has a tiny little smear of wasabi on the underside of the fish and then you can just make yourself a little patty of rice again you want to make sure that your hands are damp so that the sushi rice doesn't stick to them and then just put the put the fish on top of the rice give it a little pat and it'll be flat on the bottom and this is a pretty standard you know restaurant sort of presentation of sushi and really really easy to do at home uh where you know bought some pickled ginger a little bit of wasabi in a tube and it comes out really really nicely some soy sauce and that's it really not so hard to make your own sushi at home and make it look pretty close to restaurant quality so we hope you'll give this a try if you like this recipe please do like and subscribe and if you have any recipes you'd like to see chef caleb try on the channel please let us know in the comments below and remember to love your food so\n"