I failed at making sushi
 

So me and my wife tried making spicy tuna rolls since I LOVE sushi. Well let's just say I threw over $40 in the garbage for the bamboo mat, chopsticks and ingridients. It was the most disgusting thing I've ever tryed. I honestly don't think I could ever eat sushi again. I coulda spent those $40 on a nice sushi restaurant.

There is a skill to it, and the ingredients need to be a certain way and of certain quality. None of those I have, so I buy mine and let a pro handle it. It takes many many years to perfect sushi. I've always wanted to try beef sashimi but have never found it in any decent sushi bars. My first time trying it I want it to be the best possible for being in the southeast US.

If it was easy it would be McSushi, patience grasshopper. Its a skill, go forth and study.

I've had sushi made perfectly...where you can feel the protein change flavor with every chomp as it and the rice hit the palate. I'll never try to make it at home, lime BBQ which is also an art I can not replicate.

The problem with sushi is there are a lot of ingredients in it that need to be prepared properly, and it's stuff that us Americans aren't used to making. If it was hamburger wrapped in seaweed, we'd be all over it. Perfect your sticky rice first, and use it to practice rolling. Try only simple ingredients while you perfect the rice and rolling, like avocado and/or cucumber. With soy sauce, wasabi, and ginger, there's enough flavoring to make even plain rice and seaweed taste good. Don't give up, it's very fun and rewarding once you figure it out.

God damn. I wrote a whole damn spiel on how to make good sushi, then it suddenly disappeared. Oh well.

When making sushi, of course, the most important ingredient is the quality of the fish. But what most people forget, when they make sushi for the first time, is that the rice quality is an important factor in good sushi, if not the most important. Its almost as important as the fish IMO. For god's sake, it takes up more than 60% of the sushi (well, thats how most stingy restaurants make it.)

The rice I use is a special short grain rice that you can find at special Japanese grocery stores. The brand I usually buy is "Tamaki Gold," but there are more expensive kinds out there. You might be able to find some at your typical chinese grocery store, but most of you probably wont have much luck. If any of you guys are lucky enough to live close to mitsuwa, or a nijiya market, you can find all the ingredients there.

What rice did you use? Jasmine is probably the most lousy type or rice you can use for sushi. the problem with short grain is the price of it. You can get a HUGE 50lbs bag at a chinese market for like, 20 bucks. It'll last you more than a few months. Short grain comes is less than half that size (usually) and costs about 15-25 bucks, depending on the brand.

Short grain rice has a "sticky" consistency. Strangely enough, It also has its own "flavor." Tastes completely different from jasmine rice or brown rice.

when preparing the rice, you need to prep it while it's still warm and a bit "wet." If you use jasmine rice, I can guarantee you that the rice wil fall apart and you will have nothing but mashed rice. Short grain will retain its shape well in preparation. I'm sure you can find a video on youtube on how to prep the sushi rice. Gotta use a big pan/bowl and a hand fan (a magazine or your junk mail can work :giggle:

You need to use a special rice vinegar that's specific for sushi. I think kikkoman has it available, you can find it anywhere, but make sure it says its specific for sushi. I think you'll see in big hiragana letters すし.

From there, its pretty easy, rolls may be a little more tricky to make right off the bat, but the traditional nigiri sushi is easy peasy.

When we buy a salmon steak from Costco, I usually end up eating atleast 1/4 of it raw. It's normally pretty good quality.

I've never tried my hand at making rolls, but the episode of Good Eats might help:




Chris

Thats pretty bold. I wouldn't eat raw anything unless im sure its sashimi grade

God i hate ginger :barf:

sushi is not rolled up like a fucking burrito, that's typical American inability to appreciate food that's not covered in random shit. Take a ball of perfectly prep'd ride, put a piece of perfect fish on it, eat.

Each time I've done this it's come from South American waters or Norway. I'm pretty sure they freeze it for transit, which should kill the parasites.
Sashimi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I feel safer eating raw fish from Costco than eating chicken from KFC/Bojangles. :shrug:

Chris

When I first started eating sushi years ago, I would sometimes grab it from Price Chopper during my lunch break as there was a hired sushi chef making it there on the spot. However, he used the fish that Price Chopper carried. Needless to say, I had the raw stuff three times from there. Two of them I got sick from it. Having fresh quality fish is crucial. I made friends with a local Sushi restaurant owner and he has fresh fish shipments 5 times a week. Also in regards to the rice, he said that for his first four years of learning to make sushi, it was four years straight of learning how to make the rice.

The rice I used was Han kuk mi. No idea if it's good or not but it was like $6 for 5lbs. Maybe the fish was shit! I don't know I think I'm just gonna leave he sushi to the experts as it's only $5.50 for a roll of spicy tuna at this local place and it's delicious

Reenforces what I mean doesnt it ^_^ Making the rice is slow and painstaking sometimes.

Lol. Well, if you ever try again, make sure you get some good rice. Honestly, I think the rice brings out the fish's flavor in sushi. Without good rice, sushi isnt sushi. Hell, chirashizushi is sashimi with a huge bowl of sushi rice.