How to Make Sushi Rolls – A Delivery Hero Guide

The world can be neatly divided into two opposing camps – those who absolutely love sushi, and those who hate it with a passion. For those that don’t like sushi – for those who’ve never known the glorious heat wave that accompanies a mouthful of moist rice, silky salmon and furious wasabi – why don’t you check out some of our other posts, because this Delivery Hero blog post is about to turn into sushi central:)

There are several types of sushi, ranging from Maki sushi (the ‘traditional’ sushi roll), Nigiri sushi (fish on top of a chunk of rice), Uramaki (‘inside out’ sushi with the rice on the outside of the nori), and the Westernized ‘California Roll’ (which doesn’t actually use raw fish). Today we’re going to focus on how to make Maki sushi, so let’s round up the ingredients that we need and get to work…

The Right Stuff – Ingredients for Making a Maki Sushi Roll

To make a Maki sushi roll, we’re going to need:

a Bamboo Mat,

Nori Seaweed,

Sushi Rice

and your choice of ingredients. You don’t have to use raw fish to make your sushi rolls and you could even add cooked meat or just vegetables to the roll, although for a traditional style you’d usually choose;

Fresh Wild King Salmon, Yellowtail or Bluefin Tuna or other trimmed, uncooked Saltwater Fish Fillets,

Cucumber,

Avocado

You’ll also probably want condiments to add to the flavour, so you’ll need:

Japanese Soy Sauce,

Wasabi mustard,

Pickled Ginger

Making the Sushi Rice

Making the sushi rice is the most time intensive part of this whole deal, and you’ll probably need around an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes to make it. You’ll need:

2 – 3 cups of Japanese rice,

3 cups of Water,

1/3 cup of Rice Vinegar,

2 tablespoons of Sugar,

1 tablespoon of Salt

Preparing the Sushi Rice

Place the rice in a bowl and rinse it with cold water. Keep rinsing until the water is almost clear. Drain the rice with a sieve and put it into a medium saucepan over a high-heat. Bring the rice to a boil (without the lid on). Once it starts to boil, lower the heat to low and place a cover on top. Cook it for 15 minutes, then turn off the heat and let the rice stand (with the cover on) for an extra 10 minutes.

Mix the rice vinegar, sugar and salt in a saucepan and place on a low heat until the sugar dissolves, then let the mixture cool. Mix the rice in with the vinegar mix and turn it thoroughly to make sure that the rice is well covered with the mix. Now, let the rice cool and we’re ready to move on to the next steps!

Getting Down to Business – Rolling the Sushi

Here we’re going to need the bamboo mat and the Nori seaweed. We’re going to lay the Nori flat on the bamboo mat, with the ‘rough’ side facing upward. Now it starts getting fun! Wet your hands and grab a ball of the sushi rice, then place it in the middle of the sheet of Nori. Start spreading it out, trying to equally cover the Nori (with around a 2cm margin around the edges that we’ll leave uncovered so we can roll it properly). Make sure you don’t press the rice down too hard – we want it stay nice and fluffy!

Then we can start to add our fillings, so spread a strip of filling on one edge of the Nori. Depending on your taste, you can choose which fillings will go in at this point, but just be careful not to overload the roll – we want to be able to make a nice, neat Maki sushi. Roll the bamboo mat from the same side as your fillings, keeping the mat tight until you reach the edge of the Nori.

Now….cut the sushi into bite sized chunks, garnish on a plate with the pickled ginger, soy sauce and wasabi, and get ready to amaze your friends and family with your skills!

Alternatively, if the above sounds like a little bit too much work, you could always order in some Maki sushi rolls with Delivery Hero;)

Have you made sushi rolls before? What’s the best sushi you’ve ever tasted? Let us know in the comments!