Prepare sushi at home? Easy!

Japanese cuisine has gained incredible popularity. Japanese dishes have an unusual and memorable taste and are very healthy: it is believed that Japanese cuisine is one of the healthiest in the world. Japan is known for its incredible life expectancy and a huge number of long-livers, and the number of complete people there is unprecedentedly small and amounts to about 0.2% - and all this is largely due to a special diet. The main ingredients of Japanese cuisine are seafood, including seaweed, vegetables and rice. The most widespread outside of Japan were sushi, consisting of seafood and rice. There are different rumors about the sushi bars and dishes that are being prepared there, and the prices there because of their popularity are quite high, so many Japanese cuisine lovers find a way out to cook sushi at home.

Prepare sushi at home is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. Of course, the result will be imperfect - in Japan itself it is believed that in order to learn how to make good sushi, the cook needs 5 years, but who said that the cooks in our schools have such training? So you can safely start making sushi at home, and after a while they will get no worse than in sushi bars.

In order to make sushi at home, you first need to decide on their variety. Most likely, it will be rolls with some filling (poppies). It is best to give preference to seafood, preferably not raw, because in our latitudes it is extremely difficult to find quality and fresh raw fish, squid, crustaceans and other marine life. By the way, even in Japan, rarely eat raw fish, whatever we hear about it. Also often used vegetables, such as cucumber, avocado, pickled pumpkin, sweet pepper. And most importantly, without which sushi at home is not exactly possible - a bamboo mat makisu for the formation of rolls. For beginners, sushi cooking at home can be facilitated by special kits that contain all the necessary components, including a rug, all sauces, nori - all but the filling.

In addition to the filling for rolls, we will need sheets of dried kelp and some other algae, so-called nori, and rice, preferably special, but some round ones will do. You also need to stock your favorite Japanese seasonings, such as pickled ginger, soy sauce, wasabi. Our products can not be replaced.

The choice of nori is a very important stage. Most of the products presented in our market are of extremely low quality, and during the preparation such sheets will be strewed and creep. To make sushi at home, it's better to use the nori categories "Gold" and "Silver", or A and B by different labeling, since other categories for rolls are not suitable because they do not have the proper plasticity. Unfortunately, usually on sale there are nori categories not higher than "Red", or C. In principle, you can try to use them, but better before wrapping in them roll, a few seconds to hold them over a hot steam. Yes, the darker the sheets in the packages - the denser and more fragrant the nori.

The most important stage of cooking, regardless of whether sushi is cooked at home or in a restaurant is cooking rice. Rice for sushi requires careful preparation: about an hour before cooking it should be washed to such a state that the water becomes absolutely clear, and then leave to dry for an hour in a colander. Then proceed to the cooking. In a deep pan, place the rice and fill it with water so that it does not fill more than a third (about 250 ml per 200 g of rice). Before the water boils, you can add a piece of crab in the water - this algae will give the dish a special delicate flavor. To boil the rice should be brought on medium heat, and cook - on a very weak for 10-13 minutes, all with a closed lid. After all the water boils, you need to leave the pan under the closed lid for another 10-15 minutes for the rice to "reach". At this time, you need to prepare a mixture of art. L. Rice vinegar (can be replaced with white wine), sea salt and, half a l. Sugar, then add it to the rice. Salt can not be put, you can replace it with regular, and also some cooks add a spoon of sake to give flavor. You can not prevent rice in the usual way - you need to turn it gently so as not to break the grain. When preparing rolls, rice should not be hot.

Next on the makis is put a sheet of nori: depending on whether thick or thin rolls you do, you need to take a whole sheet or half. The layer of rice 7 mm thick is laid out on the nori, uniformly except for the edges - there it is supposed to leave about a centimeter free to fasten the roll, for thick rolls - 1.5-2 times larger. In the middle, you can smear the wasabi strip and put the selected stuffing - no more than 3 components for thin and not more than 5 for thick rolls.

With the help of makis we form a tight roller and several times scroll back and forth to make it as tight as possible, unfold the rug and cut the ready rolls with a very sharp knife. That's all.