Sushi montreal canada

Once you've got a grasp on things and have gotten used to the basics, you should consider a few advanced types of sushi. I haven't quite mastered a few of them myself, so bear with me and take what I'm teaching as example. But first, I think it's time you learn to make your own gari and a few words on presentation.

The gari you find at most sushi bars and grocery stores is perfectly fine, but it's been colored and contains a lot more ingredients in it than are necessary. More natural gari may have a dull pink color to it, but it won't be the unnaturally red color you find in prepared packaged products. Gari is easy to make at home, and everyone that likes it should try making it.

Ingredients:

• 6 ounces of fresh ginger


• 1/4 cup rice vinegar


• 2 tablespoons mirin


• 2 tablespoons sake


• 4 teaspoons sugar

Cut and grate your ginger. Bring a saucepan with a few cups of water to a boil, and boil your pieces of ginger for a minute or two. Remove it from the boiling water and let it cool. While it's cooling, combine your other ingredients and bring them to a boil. While they're coming to a boil, slice your ginger as thinly as possible. Put your thin slices of ginger in a clean jar with a lid on it. Pour your liquid over the ginger slices, let it cool, then allow the ginger to pickle in your refrigerator for a few days. Your gari should last a month if refrigerated.

wasabi

Wasabi isn't just a condiment, it's also decorative. Rather than presenting your guests with a nondescript blob of green, try making a leaf, a flower, or a small pyramid out of it. The easiest way to make a leaf is to mould the general shape with your fingers, then press a knife slightly into it to make the lines. It's easier to press the knife in rather than running the tip along the wasabi, because the wasabi tends to break apart. It doesn't take much effort to make your wasabi look great. Don't overdo it on the wasabi, however, as it tends to numb the taste buds if used too much.

presentation

Sushi is really about presentation. It's food art. The best sushi chefs will prepare something in such a way that you'll feel guilty even touching it, let alone eating it. If you're serious about serving sushi at home, I'd suggest you purchase some sushi plates. It's a small investment but it adds an immense amount of visual appeal to your sushi. I purchase my dishes at Uwajimaya, a local asian market. Here are a few pictures showing how I'll arrange my sushi.

From top to bottom, left to right, soy and wasabi, tea, mackerel and unagi nigri, tamago nigri, tuna sashimi, tamago shikai-maki and tuna hoso-maki

From top to bottom, left to right, spicy tuna with baby daikon sprouts maki-sushi, spicy tuna with baby daikon sprouts inside-out rolls, kiwi shikai-maki, masago gunkan sushi, soy and wasabi.

From top to bottom, left to right, sake, wasabi and soy, shredded carrot and salmon shikai-maki and maki-sushi, salmon hand rolls, and salmon sashimi

From top to bottom, left to right, sake, tuna maki-sushi with red leaf lettuce, inside-out tuna maki with red leaf lettuce and masago on the outside, tuna sashimi, soy and ginger, and masago gunkan.

Sashimi technically isn't sushi. Sushi uses vinegared rice, while sashimi is simply raw sliced fish. I felt it was necessary to include it, however, because sashimi is often eaten at the beginning of a sushi meal, and I actually prefer to eat it over sushi.

There are two regular cuts when cutting sashimi, the angled cut and the flat cut. Most fish is cut flat for sashimi. Holding the fillet in one hand, cut 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.

Select the best fish you can find. If you're not using a sashimi knife (I don't have one yet myself), it may be helpful to place the fish in the freezer for a few minutes to firm it up a bit. Run your fish under cold running water, rubbing the surface slightly. Using paper towels, pat (do not rub) the surface of the fish dry, then place it on a clean cutting board. It's now ready to cut for sashimi.

Here I'm cutting tuna using the angle-cut method. Using a rectangular piece of fish, cut a triangular shape off one end. You can use this for pieces in thin rolls or to make a minced fish for gunkan or hand rolls. Hold the knife at an angle, and slice off thin pieces. This is the perfect way to cut neta (toppings) for nigri.
Here's some flat cut tuna, about 1/4 of an inch in thickness. Flat cut fish allows for thicker pieces, preserving more of the texture of the fish.
Here's some angle cut tuna. With the angled cut, you're able to expose more surface area. In foods, flavor is most evident by exposing more surface area. While it's not the common procedure, I prefer to cut finer tuna thinner to experience the flavor rather than the texture.

ne of the easiest types of sushi you can make is oshi sushi. Oshi sushi resembles nigri sushi in some ways, but it's not made by hand per se. When making Oshi sushi, a press is required. The press I use is a small plastic one that cost me a few dollars at an Asian food store.

Here's the oshi sushi box with nothing in it. There's a lid and base piece that aren't visible here. You simple put one of the pieces on the bottom to begin.
Start by filling the box about 2/3 of the way up with sushi rice.
In order to best gauge how large to cut your toppings, you may want to place the lid on top of whatever you're cutting (if cutting is necessary for the chosen topping).
Lay your topping or toppings on top of the rice. Here I have some baked sweet potato slices.
Here's some sushi omelet going on top of the sweet potato. You may also have a layer of nori, or rice in between layers of topping.
Place the lid on the top, and using even pressure, press the sushi.
Take the lid off the top, lift the box, and place the lid on the bottom to elevate the oshi sushi a bit so your knife cuts cleanly through each layer to the bottom.
Slice your oshi-sushi with a sharp knife inside each of the slits on the box.
Here's the finished sushi. It's uniform and interesting, and easier to make than most other types.
Here's a cut piece of mackerel sushi. Notice how uniform the shape and size is.
And finally, here's the mackerel sushi presented. There's less artistry involved, but it's quick, easy, and still looks great.

onto the rice

Start by dipping your hands in your tezu. Pull out a small handful of rice like in the picture.
Press the rice into a rounded-off oval about 3/4 of an inch thick. Make it flatter than the finished piece should be. When you press the fish on, it will thicken up in size.
Run the desired amount of wasabi across the rice or the fish. I find it's easier to put it on the rice.
Place the fish on top of the rice, covering the wasabi side.
Place the fish and rice in your palm, and squeeze the fish so that the sides of the fish cover the sides of the rice. Squeeze 5 or more times so the fish is firmly attached to the rice.
For unagi (broiled eel, the brown nigri on the square plate), cut a belt of nori with your scissors (once again I find this to be the easiest way to get uniform pieces) and wrap it around the whole finished nigri to hold it together. Do the same with omelet, the nigri in the center dish.

Inside-out rolls aren't really any more difficult than standard rolls, and they look great. You're sure to impress people once you learn the technique to making these. For thicker rolls, either use a whole sheet of nori or cut your sheet vertically rather than horizontally and only cut it into four pieces.

Start out with a half sheet of nori just like you would if you were making a standard roll.
Coat the whole sheet of nori with rice. I tend to put a bit more rice at the top than at the bottom, overlapping the top of the sheet by a quarter inch or so. When you're rolling the sushi up, this aids in covering all of the nori so all you see is rice, even on the bottom of the roll. Cover the top with saran, or apply a bit of tezu. I usually don't use any saran wrap, but I show it here because lots of people find it helpful in keeping the rice from sticking all over the rolling mat.
Flip the nori and rice over. About 2/3 of the way down, apply the desired amount of wasabi.
Add your ingredients. A bit of lettuce overlapping the ends makes the cut sushi look very nice.
Carefully begin rolling up the roll, making sure you're un peeling the saran wrap off the rice so you don't roll it up in the sushi. Roll from the end without the extra rice on it. Roll it a bit, apply pressure, then roll a bit more, and continue in this manner until the entire roll is compressed and you've ended up with the roll inside the saran wrap.
Here's what it will look like before you cut it. At this point, you can coat the roll in masago, tobiko, furikake, or sesame seeds for a bit of color, flavor, and crunch. Cut in the same manner you cut your standard thin rolls.

Rolled sushi, whether it be hosomaki (thin roll) or futomaki (thick or fat roll) is quite easy to make. Thin rolled sushi consists of one or two ingredients while thick rolled sushi usually has three or four ingredients. These instructions are for a thin roll. To make a thick roll (futomaki) cut your nori vertically instead of horizontally, and only cut it into four pieces.

Start by cutting a sheet of nori in half. Purists use a knife, amatures fold and tear the nori, I prefer to use scissors. I find that I get the cleanest cut and nicest edge on the nori using scissors.
Place your half sheet of nori on the rolling mat like this.
Moisten your hands with tezu and spread rice onto the nori using your hands. Leave about 1/2 an inch of the nori bare. Beginners may find it's easier to leave a bit more than that. Spread some wasabi along your rice.
Add your ingredient. Here I'm using left over pieces of tuna from sashimi I cut earlier that evening.
Holding the mat with both hands, carefully roll the bottom end over the filling, taking care to squeeze and compress evenly across the entire roll.
Here I've opened the rolling mat back up so you can see what I've done. If there's a bit too much rice at this point, you can use the back end of your knife to scrape a bit of it away.
Continue rolling the nori around the rice and ingredients until the bare nori seals itself. If it doesn't seal on its own, use a slight bit of tezu to seal the edge off.
If your knife is sharp enough, cut the roll in half now. If your knife isn't the greatest, put the roll in the refrigerator for a few minutes. This allows the roll to harden slightly to make it easier to cut. Once cut in half, place the pieces on top of each other as in the picture.
Continue to cut the roll into six pieces by cutting through both halves at once. It's bad luck to cut a roll into four pieces, and six is the standard amount.

The five links above detail the most common basic sushi techniques, but before you master them, you'll want to read up on the real basics. Before you can make any kind of sushi, you need to learn how to make your rice, how to handle your rice, and what to put with the rice, so scroll down and read up on the absolute necessary basics before you tackle anything else.

ushi rice

The key to all types of sushi is the sushi rice. There are a lot of ways to make sushi rice, and most of them will end up pretty much the same. Here's the method I use.

Begin by rinsing the rice. You used to have to rinse rice to remove talc that used to be used to coat rice. Now rice is coated with a cereal starch instead, so this isn't strictly necessary, but I find I get better results when I rinse my rice. If I don't, the rice doesn't end up as sticky as it should be. The method I use to rinse my rice is simple, I measure out how much rice I'll be using, usually 2 cups, into the bowl to my rice cooker, then I fill it halfway with water, swish it around, and slowly let the water drain out. I repeat this until the water is fairly clear.

The ratio of rice to water I use is 1:1. When I make rice at home, I usually cook 2 cups of rice with 2 cups of water. If you can, let your rice and water sit for about 20-30 minutes before you cook it. Once again, this is not necessary, but I find I get better results this way. I then cook my rice in my rice cooker. If you don't have a rice cooker, a saucepan with a good lid will work just fine. If you're doing it that way, follow these steps:

• Bring rice and water to a boil
• Reduce heat to a simmer
• Cover rice and water, allow to cook for 10 minutes
• Turn off heat and allow rice to steam for 20 minute

Whichever method you use to cook your rice, while it is cooking, make up your sushi vinegar. The ingredients and ratios I use per 2 cups of uncooked rice

• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of salt

combine these ingredients in a small saucepan and heat them until the salt and sugar are dissolved. The idea behind the sugar is to cause the tartness of the vinegar to be lessened, while the salt is to bring out the flavor of the vinegar while cutting the sweetness a bit. I've dissolved the ingredients in a microwave and never had any problems, but your mileage may vary. Whichever method you use, once your rice is cooked, place your rice in a large flat bowl or rice cooling bowl. I use a large pyrex casserole dish. Evenly sprinkle your sushi vinegar mix over your rice, and using a wooden spoon or spatula, mix the rice and vinegar well.Try to avoid using metal, as it will change the flavor of the rice. Be careful not to break the kernels of the rice or to flatten the rice or it won't have the same look and feel to it. Once it's well mixed, using a fan or a plate, fan the rice down to room temperature. By doing this, the rice will have the right glossy look while still being nice and sticky. If you don't fan it, the rice's hull won't remain intact as well and kernels will break when you use it. At this point, your rice is ready to use.

tezu

Tezu is important when preparing sushi. Many newcomers are afraid to get the rice on their hands so they spread the rice with the wooden spoon. The best way to handle rice is with your hands, and the best way to keep it from sticking to your hands is to use tezu. Tezu is simply a mix of one part water and one part rice vinegar. Apply it to your hands slightly sparingly, and you'll be able to handle rice without it sticking. Also soak some into a rag, and use this rag to clean your knife after every few slices when cutting rolled sushi.

practice fillings

Rather than starting with an expensive fillet I'd suggest you use some practice fillings first. My favorite cheap filling is very simple, in fact, you've probably made something similar to it already if you've ever made tuna fish sandwiches. Here's what I use

• One can of tuna fish
• One tablespoon of mayonnaise
• One teaspoon of chili sauce

Equipment and Ingredients

equipment

Basic sushi equipment is fairly easy to find. Sushi chefs and dedicated aficionados will usually use knives sharpened only on one side. They are capable of cutting much thinner and more cleanly than western knives that are sharpened on both sides. They're not necessary for what I'd call "kitchen sushi", so I won't go into detailed information about them.

necessary equipment includes

• a tub or large dish to cool rice
• a spatula to turn and spread rice while cooling
• a fan to cool rice
• bowls for ingredients
• cutting board
• sushi rolling mat
• knives

optional equipment includes

• sushi knives
• geta (wooden sushi trays)
• sushi serving dishes
• condiment dishes
• japanese omelet pan or square cast iron skillet

ingredients

Sushi ingredients are so varied that it would be nearly impossible to catalog all of them in one place. For simplicity's sake I'm only going to list the ingredients normally used to make sushi in one's own kitchen. I'm lucky to have a wonderful asian market nearby. If you live in the Portland or Seattle area, check out Uwajimaya, it's hands-down the best resource to find what you want. Click on the link for their web site.

Sushi rice

• Rice for sushi has to be glutinous (sticky) and should be short or medium grain. Most Japanese style rice available at grocery stores will suffice. I've been using Nishiki lately and I like it quite a bit. You can use brown rice, but it takes a bit of practice because it's not nearly as sticky as white rice.

Vinegar

• Use a rice vinegar. If you can't find rice vinegar you're not looking very hard. If you must, you can substitute white vinegar for rice vinegar.

Soy sauce

• Dipping condiment.

Wasabi

• Wasabi found in most stores contains little or no real wasabi. It's usually mustard with green food coloring added. If you can find it, opt for real wasabi. It can be found in better asian food stores and online.

Gari

• Pickled ginger, it's used to clean the pallet between bites of sushi. Can be found in most asian markets and many grocery stores. Gari made in your own kitchen will be more authentic, and I'll tell you how to do it in the advanced sushi technique section

Nori

• Seaweed is used extensively in Japanese cooking and is used in most types of sushi. Make sure you buy enough of it, it's cheap and you'll make mistakes at first.

Fish

• Fish is the main showcase ingredient in most sushi. Make sure if you're using raw fish that you select a good grade of fish. Ask the person at the counter where you buy your fish if he has any sushi or sashimi grade fish. He won't fib, he doesn't want to be liable if he sells you bad fish. Some places have fish pre-cut for you, some places make you cut it yourself. I would suggest for your first few times making sushi you stick to tuna fish in a can. You can make a simple tuna salad from it which is useful for both maki and gunkan style sushi, and if you ruin it, you're not out much financially.

Later, once you are more accustomed to making sushi, you might want to try with salmon and tuna. Where I buy my fish I have the ability to purchase pre-sliced fish which is great for nigri, such as tuna, salmon, freshwater eel, and mackerel.

Fruits and Vegetables

• Most any sort of vegetables you want are acceptable in sushi. I often use avocado, baby daikon sprouts, cucumbers, and carrots in maki sushi. Leaf lettuce in a roll gives a nice ruffled appearance as it peeks out of the end pieces. For vegetarian nigri, you can use steamed asparagus or other stalky vegetables.
• Fruits can also be used in sushi. For a slightly sweet dessert, try making apple or kiwi sushi. Fibrous fruits lend themselves well to sushi, but more juicy fruits like citrus should be used by itself at the end of a meal for dessert.

Miscellaneous items used in sushi include eggs for omelet and fish eggs such as tobiko or masago, sugar and salt in preparing sushi rice, sesame seeds for the outsides of inside-out rolls or to add crunch to the inside of a regular roll, cooked chicken, cooked shrimp, imitation crab, cream cheese, etc. Just about anything you can fit inside a roll will work, even if purists stick their noses up at it.