How To Make Inari Sushi at Home
By Greg Rush

One of the cheaper and more popular types of sushi in the market nowadays is the Inari Sushi. It is made by stuffing sushi rice, and even some vegetables into small pouches of deep fried bean curd or tofu, also more popularly known in its Japanese term as aburage. Instead of the usual Nori seaweed or soybean paper, aburage is used in this sushi. Aburage can either be sold in packets or packaged in cans, and is widely distributed throughout most Japanese specialty stores or supermarkets. This type of sushi is also called by some famous nicknames, like pocket-sushi and brown-bag sushi. But whatever the monikers may be, this type of sushi is easy to make, less expensive, and tastes really good!

Following the simple procedures below can have you making your own Inari sushi in no time.

Inari Sushi Rice Recipe

Ingredients:

4 deep fried tofu pieces, cut into half

2 cups prepared sushi rice

3 tablespoons sugar

4 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons Mirin or sweet Japanese cooking wine

1 and ¼ cup Dashi or fish stock

Salt

¼ cup shredded carrots (par-boiled)

1 teaspoon sesame seeds (toasted) optional

Pickled ginger (for garnish)

Steps

1. Since the tofu is deep-fried, it is necessary to get rid of the excess oils. Do this by soaking them in boiling water. Cool for a while, and then cut them into half. This makes 8 tofu pouches in all.

2. Combine soy sauce, sugar, dashi and mirin in a small pan. Bring to a boil over slow to medium heat. Add the tofu pockets to the boiling sauce. Let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes, over slow heat, and completely covered. After 20 minutes, turn off heat, and drain the tofu. Squeeze them dry and set aside.

3. Combine sushi rice, carrots, and the toasted sesame seeds.

4. Stuff the rice mixture into the cut tofu, carefully folding over the ends to secure it.

5. Arrange in a plate and garnish with the pickled ginger.

This recipe yields 8 servings of Inari Sushi

Some useful tips:

• Some canned tofu are seasoned and already cut into serving pouches. Therefore, you can do away with the simmering in soy-sauce and mirin mixture. However, boiling the tofu in the sauce is most ideal, as it will ensure more flavor.

• Mirin is a kind of Japanese cooking wine, sort of a sweeter version of the usual sake. The mixture in making this wine usually consists of steamed mochigome rice, shochu (Japanese liquor), and komekoji (rice yeast). These are then fermented to make mirin. There are actually two types of mirin available in the market. Hon mirin contains 14 percent alcohol. Shin mirin has less than 1 percent alcohol, and is therefore more ideal for cooking. Shin Mirin is often bottled and has a yellow gold color. Mirin is also used to prepare seasoning for sushi rice.

• Aburage is often confused with Atsuage. While both are soybean products, and are deep fried, aburage is of the thinner variety. Atsuage is also triangular in shape, thick, and ideal for simmered soups, added in stir fries, or served with soy sauce. Aburage is often shaped into squares and rectangles. This makes the aburage perfect when stuffed with sushi rice and made into Inari Sushi.

• Dashi or fish stock is relatively easy to make. A cup of Katsuobushi or dried fish flakes can be combined with 2-3 cups of water, and then boiled over low heat. Then the fish flakes can be strained to retain the fish stock.

Want to make sushi at home, sushi that are much better than those in sushibar? Can’t find the detailed guide? Want to see more Pictures of real sushi? Then http://sushicup.com is for you!
Sushi Cooking Guide

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Japanese:
How To Make A Fancy Maki-Sushi
If you want to get fancy with sushi making, you might want to watch this video. Chef Eiichi Kumagai demonstrates how to make a yacht and a crab. I could not quite make out the yacht, but the crab looks great. The chef makes it look easy, but I’m sure it takes practice before the sushi turns out OK. The amount of rice to use is the trick on making it right. The crab should look great on a red sushi plate. This would be a fun family project.

I love the smell and taste of curry, but I never thought of making sushi with curry as an ingredient. The trick is to make curry paste that’s dry enough to hold vegetables together. Once the paste is made with the right thickness, you can use vegetables of your choise. Lettuce, carrot, and avocado are always the top sushi roll ingredients, but this is where I can exercise my creativity. I prefer green onions to lettuce, and I might use radish as well. It adds color and I like the crunchy texture to it. The curry paste is already made in the video, so I have to rely on trials and errors to make it right. Everything else looks simple enough. With my favorite sushi plates, I will try and see how it turns out.

Easy Steps of Making Maki Sushi
By David Urmann

Maki is a famous and favorite Japanese dish. It can be any kind of sushi rolled with rice and nori (also known as seaweed) inside. “Maki” in Japanese means “roll.”

There are many kinds of maki, depending on the filling used. For example, there is California maki. This is salmon and mango rolled in rice and seaweed. Kappa maki is cucumber rolled in rice. And tekka maki is tuna fish rolled in rice.

Uramaki is more complex. Only an expert chef can do it to perfection. The easier ones to make are temaki. Temaki is often served in social gatherings at home.

There are several maki sushi according to thickness of the roll. Hosomaki is the most common and is made of thin rolls. By thin, it means the rolls are slender, with small strips of every ingredient inside. Hosamaki is cut to small sizes before serving.

Thicker rolls are called futomaki. These are thick because of the many ingredients inside. Thick roll can measure 1 to 1 ½ inches in diameter. Most futomaki are made of vegetables like radish and cucumber. Some have eggs also. Like hosamaki, futomaki is also commonly cut to small pieces before serving. However, in big festivals, it is served in whole uncut rolls.

Next, there is also the uramaki, wherein the rice is outside the roll. And temaki is a cone-shaped sushi rice roll.

When making maki, remember to freeze raw fish or seafood first below 4oF to kill any possible pathogens or parasites that may be harmful when consumed.

In making a maki sushi, one should have a sharp knife, and bamboo mat. A rice cooker is optional. It just makes it easier to cook rice. There is a special sushi knife with only one sharpened edge. It is advisable to use this when you can buy one, instead of using an ordinary kitchen knife.

Maki Sushi Recipe

Ingredients:
Sashimi-grade fish or sushi
Nori (thin sheet of seaweed)
Wasabi
Vegetables or other fillings (e.g. asparagus, avocado, cucumber)
Short-grained rice with sticky consistency
Vinegar rice
Gari (thinly sliced ginger roots)
Soy sauce

First make the sushi rice. Prepare the vinegar rice. Combine it with heated salt and sugar. Cook rice, making sure it will have a sticky consistency. It is the suitable type of rice for spreading on the nori.

Lay out the bamboo mat and place a plastic wrap on top. Lay out the nori, with the shinier side facing down. Slightly wet your hands and take a handful of rice. Spread it evenly and thinly on the nori. Leave a margin of half inch on all sides of the nori. Put the other ingredients in the middle.

Next, hold the two ends of the bamboo mat and roll it away from you. Make sure that the food tightens as you roll. Don’t roll too tightly though or the fillings will fall out.

Unfold the bamboo carefully, making sure the rolled food does not break. Place the rolled sushi in a cutting board and slice it evenly to several pieces. Serve it with soy sauce dip on the side.

For more information on Sushi Knives and Sushi Plates please visit our website.

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Learn to Make Sushi – 3 Reasons You Simply “Must” Learn to Make Sushi
By Dav M.

If you have never imagined yourself rolling raw fish into seaweed and rice? Well… there’s no need to start now. Learning to make sushi has a lot more to do with craftsmanship and artistry than rolling around with fish. Here are some reasons you really “must” learn to make sushi and some may surprise you.

1st) You can save a bundle of money staying home for dinner but that’s not what I had in mind. I was thinking that opening up your mind to a new and exciting skill always pays dividends. Haven’t you ever noticed the liberal arts majors were always the most interesting ones in the room.

2nd) Seafood is good for you. It’s undeniably true but the things that are bad are so much more fun. No, my second reason had more to do the fact that if something is fun to do chances are you can get good without having to “work” at it. Anything that makes you look smarter, cooler, or different than the other guys in the room instantly equals sexier to the other girls in the room. Be sure to invite several of both to your first sushi platter to maximize that effect.

3rd)Lastly sushi is hot. People love it or hate it but the ones that love it will love you for it. If you don’t believe me ask the hot intern out for a sushi lunch tomorrow at work and see if she’s game. If she says yes and I know she will, try inviting her to your place a month from now when you’ve mastered tempura…Well, maybe a couple of California rolls and tempura the month after. She’ll probably help you practice.

If you’re like me and love to eat sushi you have to make learning how to prepare it a priority in your life. There’s no time like now to learn more about something you love. Learn to make sushi to impress your friends or include your family in a fun style of cooking together. If your new to sushi or just want to find out more, feel free to check out http://www.squidoo.com/howtomakesushi for some great ideas about letting this wonderful passion into your life.

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