In this video I’m going to show you how
to roll sushi.
Rolling Square Sushi or Circular?
When it comes to rolling sushi there are two
schools of thought, there is a square school
of thought and a circular school of thought.
Now both are great, it doesn’t really matter,
I mean just whatever you prefer to roll is
what you should do. I like to mix and match
because then I do one roll one way another
roll another way, it adds diversity on the
plate, you know? You can make beautiful color
floral and you can also have them different
shapes which makes it quite interesting to
look at instead of just having the same plain
shape.
Once you’ve decided to go circular or squared
the next option is half a sheet or full sheet.
Now a full sheet is easier because most people
when they try to make a sushi roll they will
overstuff the roll and then you won’t be
able to close it. Now by using a full sheet
you can use pretty much as much filling as
you want and you’ll be more or less guaranteed
that you’ll always be able to close it.
Half a Nori Sheet Rolling
The half a sheet Nori sushi roll is what is
normally made in most sushi restaurants. You
simply take a whole sheet of Nori and you
just fold it in half and then just split and
you just use half a sheet of Nori, as suggested,
so just this.
Now, the reason why this is used in most sushi
restaurants is because you’re using way
less Nori to start with and that’s saving
costs. It’s quite efficient to roll it,
it’s pretty fast, and it produces a nice
square roll. Now how to do it.
Spreading out Sushi Rice on Nori for Inside-Out
Sushi Rolls
What I am doing here is I’m spreading out
150-grams of cooked sushi rice or 5-ounces
of cooked sushi rice over half a sheet of
Nori. Now you simply spread it out, nice and
softly, don’t overdo it, that’s fine,
it doesn’t have to be perfect, you just
want to get a nice spread over it. Later when
you roll the roll it spreads out the rice
more evenly than compressed.
Cover the Rice over the Entire Sheet of Nori
Rolling Sushi Freehand
You just add the avocado, and well it doesn’t
matter – the filling. So I’m adding here
some avocado and salmon, and you simply lift
up the back, turn it over the filling keeping
with your other fingers here, and then turning
it over and pushing it in like so. Then you
just turn it over like so, and now you firm
it up with a bamboo rolling mat.
What I like to do is turn it on its side then
firm it up again and turn it back to the original
position and firm it up one more time.
Turning it gives it a more uniform finish.
Rolling an Inside-Out Sushi Roll with a Bamboo
Rolling Mat
You want to fully cover the sheet of Nori
and now you want to flip it over, you want
to place it on top of your bamboo rolling
mat with a plastic bag over it. Now you bring
it towards the end here, like so, you leave
a little bit of space, and you add your filling.
In this case some crab sticks and a little
bit of cucumber, this is just to show, and
now you begin the rolling.
Just bring up the back of the mat, so you
roll it forwards, holding in the filling with
your fingers, and then you press in this way
towards yourself, applying pressure on the
back and firming it up like a square. This
gives it the square shape, by holding the
sushi mat in the square shape. Now you detach,
push it forward over to the next phase and
just firm up that square piece. Now you do
the same to make sure the roll is completely
done and that’s it, now you just apply pressure
from the sides and pressure on the top. You
do this with both hands and using the index
finger to press down and that creates a square
roll.
Rolling Towards Yourself or Away From Yourself?
Now rolling it, you can roll it either away
from yourself or towards yourself, I don’t
really care as long as you just roll it. Now
most sushi chefs in the restaurants they roll
it away from them, keeping the content of
the roll in with the fingers and rolling it
over with the thumb. Okay now when I started
out I used to like rolling it towards me,
and controlling the content with my thumbs
and rolling it up forward, this way I could
have visual contact with the food as you’re
rolling it and you could see what was going
on to correct it. Now the other way you can’t
you have to curve over and look down underneath,
it’s not as practical. I would say for beginners
you probably want to start rolling towards
yourself just to get some confidence and then
when you can flip it over turn it around and
do it the other way, away from yourself.
Tips for Rolling Inside-Out Sushi Rolls
Now I would say the best method is with the
plastic bag around like so, it does get a
little bit strange sometimes but if you just
leave a little gap in the corner, so don’t
completely seal it, that allows some air to
flow in and out and then you get the compression,
or if you could somehow vacuum seal this so
you just completely have no air inside so
that the rolling mat is just tight.
This is the best method and if your rice still
sticks to the plastic what you want to do
is just run this under the tap, cold water,
and even though there is no water on the plastic,
you can see there are microscopic particles
between the plastic and whatever you place
on it, so when the rice comes in contact with
it, it actually doesn’t stick to it. The
key to make sushi and not having the rice
stick to your hands or anything around you
is to have just a little bit of water just
before you touch the rice. So either cutting
it, rolling it, or touching it with your hands,
even just to grab some rice, you want to always
have them slightly damp, not wet, but just
a little bit moist.
Rolling a Maki Sushi Roll
Alright the basics of how to roll a simple
Maki roll is you just take your rice, you
spread it out, but you leave a little gap
about 3/4 of an inch long which would be about
1.5 centimeters. Just simply spread it out
and leave an imaginary line here where no
rice comes over.
Now you place your filling, in this case a
little sliver of tuna in the middle of said
rice, and then you simply bring over – now
you can do this either by hand or with the
help of a rolling mat. Now in the case of
the rolling mat just simply place it over,
bring the backend of the Nori towards the
end of the rolling mat and you leave the empty
side away from you. Now you roll it over and
you close it so the seaweed paper meets the
seaweed paper and there is no rice. Okay,
and then you simply roll it over, and there
you go. This is how you make a simple squared
Maki roll.
How Should You Roll?
I think you just find the style of sushi roll
which suits you and just have fun doing it.
How do you roll sushi?
Leave your answers below in the comments section.
END
