Introduction: Why make sushi at home?
Sushi is excellent. I want to eat sushi as often and as much as possible. But due to recent inflation, sushi that used to cost 500 yen per packet quickly became almost 800 yen now for the same contents. In addition, the number of nigiri sushi in a package has been reduced. As far as the news is concerned, there seems to be no hope of a recovery in the future.
So what to do? I have no choice but to cook nigiri sushi myself, so I have been making sushi for these days. At first, I started by making rice for sushi from vinegar and sugar. Soon I found that commercial sushi vinegar is much easier, and the taste of sushi is more consistent. For fish, I buy assorted sashimi (sushi topping) and blocks of fish fillet from the supermarket. I am following this page to cook sushi, even though it’s written in Japanese.
You may think that sushi cooked by yourself may not taste as good as it should. Perhaps the choice of seafood is critical. And it is also essential to choose fresh-looking seafood from a supermarket with a decent selection of fresh seafood. If the supermarket is trustworthy, even discounted sashimi at night can be tasty sushi. Oily fishes such as salmon and yellowtail should be slightly modified by dipping them in salt water.
How to Make Sushi
- Buy some sashimi-grade fish or blocks of fish fillet. Also, I recommend buying pre-made sushi vinegar rather than making your own for convenience and flavor.
- Cook some rice and mix it with sushi vinegar to make sushi rice. To mix the vinegar in, fan the rice while gradually adding the vinegar mixture. Then let it cool to room temperature. If you won’t be using the rice right away, cover it with a damp cloth to keep it from drying out.
- Slice the blocks of fish fillet into thin pieces. For fish with a strong odor like tuna, you can marinate it in a mixture of dashi and soy sauce for 5 minutes. Then you can make it more palatable.
- Take a small handful of sushi rice and gently shape it into a bite-sized piece. Place a slice of fish (or sashimi) on top and press lightly to shape it into a classic nigiri shape. That’s all!
Buying vs. Making sushi
The demerit of cooking sushi by myself is that it is not so cheap as I expected. Even if sashimi is discounted in supermarkets in the evening, it is still expensive because it is sashimi! Whether you make sushi from an assorted sashimi or from fish blocks, you can make multiple sushi with the same kind of fish. So it is difficult to eat many different kinds of fish with one sushi each, as you can with a sushi package in a supermarket.
The demerit of cooking sushi myself is that it is not as cheap as I expected. Even if the price of an assorted sashimi is discounted in the evening in supermarkets, it is still expensive. Whether you cook with the assorted sashimi or with blocks , you can make multiple sushi from the same item. It isn’t easy to eat so many kinds of sushi as in the case of the sushi assortment pack.
The benefit of cooking sushi myself is that you can eat a whole sushi meal for what it’s worth. If you buy sushi at the supermarket, you will often end up wanting more side dishes. On the other hand, if you make sushi at home, you can make many sushi for the same budget. So you can fill up on sushi alone. In addition, freshly made sushi tastes so much better than those cooked several hours ago. The freshness of the seafood may not be as good as a good sushi restaurant. But compared to buying a poor sushi from the supermarket, you will realize how delicious freshly made sushi tastes. The rice is slightly warm, the ingredients are fresh, and you will be high satisfied. Cooking nigiri sushi may seem tedious until you start, but once you get started, it’s a lot of fun.
Conclusion:
If you are interested in cooking nigiri sushi, I encourage you to try it yourself.