For special occasions dinners, my dad often brings out platters of speciality sushi rolls that makes our entire extended family break into oohs and ahhs. And when he's not doing them as hor d'ouevres for the Ritz-Carlton dining room, he often makes them for me at home. I once asked him how he learned to roll sushi, whether he studied books, TV shows, or just went to restaurants and studied chefs.
"I just kind of figured it out on my own," he said with a shrug.
"Pardon?" I asked.
"On one of my first days on the job, Chef came over and asked me whether I could roll sushi. I had no idea, but I wanted to make a good impression. I went over to garde manger and asked your mother for advice. She wasn't much help. So I went back to my station and thought about it until I came up with a process for the rice and rolling that sort of made sense. A couple of hours later, I had platters of three different kinds. The Chef said, 'Wow, I doubted you at first, but I guess you really did know.'"
"So the lesson here is if you don't know something, just lie and figure it out later?"
"Sure."
And that, my friends, is the Kuan family way. Wisdom passed down through the generations.
Enough digressions.
Since I'm not as adept as my dad in conjuring recipes out of thin air (he was a baker for ten years), I had him show me how to make my own sushi. We were a little short on ingredients, but what's important is the rice preparation and rolling techniques.
Sushi (Unagi sushi and Crab rolls)
To make enough rice for roughly 3 dozen pieces and rolls, you'll need:
2 cups sushi rice
2 1/4 cups cold water
1 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
12 oz to 1 lb. package of cooked unagi
1 strip of imitation crab, cut into quarters (you'll have leftovers)
2 squares of dried seaweed, cut into 1/4 x 4 inch strips
4 squares of dried seaweed, left whole
Cook the rice with the water in a rice cooker until done. Combine the vinegar, salt, and sugar into a small bowl and mix until dissolved.
After the rice is done, spread the rice out on a large plate so that the moisture escapes. (Or better yet, spread it out on the bottom of a wooden salad bowl if you have one. The reason is that wood will soak up moisture from the bottom of the rice also and make it better for rolling.) Set rice aside for 10 minutes or until cooled.
For the sushi (not the rolls), we only had 12 oz of eel and a few sticks of crab, so we had to make do. The eel we cut into 1x2 inch strips.
It's a little hard to describe in words how to make the beds of rice. But first, fills a bowl with water and a couple tablespoons of rice vinegar. You'll want to dip your hands in before and after every roll so that the rice doens't stick in your palms.
Gather a small scoop and squeeze it tight with one hand. Then slowly form it along the sides of your thumb and indez fingers until it (more or less) resembles a rectangular block. Repeat until you have enough beds for the strips of eel.
Place a strip of eel on top of a rice bed. Wrap a seaweed strip around the width. The strip should close around the bottom. The rice will act as a natural adhesive.
And now comes the fun part. (My dad is the hand model in these pictures, but don't worry, I rolled my own share.)
First, spread the rice out on the seaweed in one thin layer. There should be a half inch to one inch border that is rice-less. Place the crab meat about 3 inches from the side closest to you.
Now here comes the most important part. Pull and roll the bottom of the sushi mat over so that the bottom is over the top, while holding the center (where the roll is) very tightly. It is IMPERITIVE that you hold the center as tightly as possible. There is no way to tighten the rest of the rolls if the center is loose.
Then, keep pulling the mat with your top hand while the bottom hand keeps the roll tight.
Keep pulling until you've gone through the entire length of the mat.
Voila. Now all you have to do is chop off the ends and cut the rest into 1 inch tall rolls. Be sure to cut with a sharp smooth edge knife, not serrated.
Mix a little wasabi with soy sauce (or not, since we didn't use raw fish), pop into your mouth, and enjoy.
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