Homemade Sushi : California Rolls! (With Photos!)

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	Homemade Sushi : California Rolls! September 10, 2005	Printable Version

	Here are the ingredients, cost, and recipe for making your own homemade sushi. We'll be making California Rolls here. It's easy, and much cheaper than what you'd pay in trendy sushi bars.

Ingredients: 1 small handful of Sushi Rice ½ sheet Nori some Crab meat some Avacado some Cucumber some Cream Cheese		Cost to Make (93¢ per roll) 11¢ Sushi Rice 11¢ ½ Nori sheet ($2.29 for 10 sheets) 50¢ Crab Meat (probably less) 10¢ Avacado (from $1.49 Avacado) 2¢ Cucumber (from 39¢ cucumber) 9¢ Cream Cheese (from $1.99 block)

The Basic California Roll Process: Make the rice (a given, eh?) Cover the bamboo mat in plastic wrap. Cut a piece of Nori (seaweed/algae) in two.. Cut up some avacado, cucumber and cream cheese. Place the ½ nori sheet at the end (toward you) of the mat. Spread a small handfull of sushi rice on the nori sheet, leaving a ¼ of an inch on either side.. Shake on some sesame seeds.. Flip the whole thing over (yes it's sticky enough that it's possible) Place chopped avacado, cucumber and crab meat along the middle of the roll. Roll gently with even pressure. Cut roll in half.. Align the 2 halves and cut twice into 6 even pieces.

Now onto photos of the process! Woo.

We'll need some crab meat, cream cheese, avacado, cucumber, and sesame seeds.

Note: Unless you live next to the coast (and have connections), crab meat is never "fresh" (as in raw).. Crab is usually cooked and flash freezed as soon as it was unloaded from the boat that caught it. If the 'fresh' crab legs you just bought were orange or red they were already cooked.. =)

You can buy sheets of Nori (dried seaweed (or more accurately dried algae)) in most well stocked stores, even the local chain store down the street in most places.

Cut a sheet of the Nori in 2 pieces. A whole sheet is way more than we need for just 1 roll..

Here we have 2 pieces of Nori ready to make sushi rolls with..

I peeled the skin off the cucumber, and then scraped out the seeds and guts with a spoon. I cut the avacado around and removed the middle. I then cut the exterior skin off the avacado before cutting it into strips too..

Wet your hands a little and add on some of the sushi rice, leaving ¼ of an inch on each side. And I wouldn't add any more rice than it takes to make the rice ¼ inch high. Any more than ¼ inch high and you probably won't be able to complete the roll and close it..

Being a California Roll we pat the rice down and then sprinkel on some sesame seeds. Flip the roll over (as sticky as the rice is it's easy) so we can add the other ingredients..

We then add on the strips of cucumber, avacado and some crab meat.. I also used some cream cheese too, good stuff.

I LOVE cream cheese in sushi rolls! mMmm..

Roll with an even pressure along the roll..

If all went well place the roll on the board and cut in two..

Place the 2 chunks side by side and cut into 3 pieces, which should make 6 sushi pieces.

Add a dab of wasabi, some soy sauce, and we're ready to chow down.. Woo?

Note: The small can you see near the coffee machine is the "wasabi". You mix it 1 to 1 with some water to make the dough/paste you're used to getting on your sushi platter at a sushi bar. And just like the stuff at your favorite sushi bar this stuff is just mostly horseradish, and contains almost no real wasabi root.

While mixing up the 'wasabi' paste I made the mistake of trying to smell it to see if it was what I was used to.. And yes, it was. My eyes watered for at least 10 minutes after I got away from the stuff.. woo.