Temaki Sushi

Temaki sushi means hand rolled sushi. It’s a popular japanese dish. It has the shape of a cone, made of seaweed paper called nori, rice and different fillings. Temaki is not really common in restaurants, but a very popular dish at home and parties. Because rolling a temaki is fun and easy, it’s often the first contact of Western people with making sushi.

We can put inside the cone different fillings, but my favourite combination is with fresh salmon, spring onions and fresh cheese – a recipe from my Brazilian flatmate Fernanda. Yes, Brazilian! There is a lot of Japanese immigrants in Brazil, who brought with them their cuisine. Temaki is actually a type of sushi that had developed outside of Japan by the influence of Western cuisine. That’s also the reason of its shape, because its preparation is much easier.

INGREDIENTS:

salmon

spring onions

fresh cheese (Philadelphia)

seaweed paper

1,5 cups sushi rice

Michan japanese vinegar (if it’s not possible to find it, then white vinegar)

sugar

Soy sauce

PREPARATION:

Wash rice in water so long, that we wash out all the starch (so long, that the water is clear, not murky anymore). This type of rice is grey, we leave it in water so long, that it becomes white ( around 10 minutes). We put the rice in a pot and cook it on hot fire with the lid on, until the water boils. Now we lower the fire, but we continue to cook it with the lid on. We cook until the rice is done (10 – 15 minutes). We turn off the fire, but we leave the rice in the pot, with the lid on for at least another 10 minutes.

We put two spoons of sugar in half cup of vinegar and stir well. We put still hot rice in a bowl, spill on it the mixture of vinegar and sugar and stir very well. It’s important that the rice is still hot, otherwise sugar won’t melt. We taste the rice and if necessary add a bit more vinegar or sugar.

We put on the table the bowl with rice, the bowl with pieces of fresh salmon, mixed with small pieces of spring onions, fresh cheese and seaweed paper. one seaweed paper is too big, so we cut it on half. We put it in our left hand. On half of the paper we spread some rice, put on it a few pieces of salmon and some cheese. With our right hand we start rolling carefully the outside bottom corner with rice towards the middle and we roll so long, that we roll all around and get the shape of a cone.  We put a few drops of soy sauce on the top.

TIME OF COOKING: around 30 minutes