Written By: Kimikoshi Sumo

One of the most popular types of sushi is the sushi roll. Japanese and American restaurants serve two types of sushi to their patrons.

Sushi rolls served with seaweed or nori outside are one variant. The second type has nori inside the roll.

Presence of nori be it inside or outside changes dramatically the flavor and texture of sushi rolls. Seaweed on outside of sushi rolls is more preferred by nori lovers.

This style of sushi roll is called futomaki. Uramaki is the name of sushi rolls that have seaweed stuffed in. People who like sushi prefer futomaki as it is more popular and traditional compared to the other form.

A sushi restaurant or sushi bar, even a grocery store, would supply you the futomaki variant. Even though futomaki is vegetarian it is served with toppings of fish eggs.

Generally futomaki is cut into pieces and then served. However, on certain Japanese festivals it is offered as a roll. Since Japanese prefer to eat with their fingers, uramaki is not a preferred choice. Uramaki is very difficult to eat with fingers and chopsticks due to its tendency to not only be sticky, but fall apart under pressure.

Moreover, a uramaki sushi roll is essentially non-vegetarian with fish eggs or sesame toppings. Since most Americans do not fancy futomaki with its black coating, uramaki is the preferred form of sushi rolls.

In the entire spread of sushi rolls hosomaki is the clear winner. Like futomaki, hosomaki is wrapped with the nori on the outside of the roll.

Kappamaki, Tekkamaki, Negitoromaki and Tsunamayomaki are the four varieties of hosomaki.

• Kappamaki that has cucumber as its main ingredient is said to cleanse the palate after eating raw fish dishes and its accompaniments.

• The red color of tuna fish gives tekkamaki its name and base ingredient.

• Negitoromaki is filled with tuna and scallions. Fatty tuna is commonly used in this type of sushi roll.

• Lastly Tsunamayomaki has canned tuna and mayonnaise in it. This is considered a home style sushi, and can be made by virtually anyone easily.

Kimikoshi Sumo is an intercontinental cuisine expert and self proclaimed perfectionist. Her sushi help website at http://www.hereishelp.com offers simple yet delicious Japanese rolls for creating the perfect meal on a fixed budget. Kimi’s sushi cookbook “Introduction to Sushi” is jam packed with tips and techniques for sushi enthusiasts.

Written By: Scott Schirkofsky

In the United States, maki zushi is the most common form of sushi. This form involves rice and nori rolled up with the toppings on a bamboo mat, it is then sliced into small bite-size rolls. The popular California roll is an inside-out roll with crab meat, avocado and cucumber as the ingredients. Rice is the key ingredient in all sushi. Short or medium grain is cooked carefully and blended with a special mix of rice vinegar, sugar and salt. The texture and consistency of the rice are both vital to making proper sushi – it should be a bit sticky, not gooey or clumpy. The vinegar used should not overpower the natural flavor of the rice.
So sushi is simply specially prepared rice served with various toppings in a variety of shapes and sizes. In fact, chirashizushi, sometimes called rice salad in the United States, is simply a bowl of sushi rice with toppings.

Nigiri-zushi(finger roll sushi) – hand-pressed mounds of rice with a dab of wasabi and a slice of raw fish/shellfish/other ingredients on top. Popular nigiri-zushi are maguro (tuna), toro (belly of tuna), hamachi (yellowtail), ebi (shrimp), tamago (omlet), anago (grilled sea-eel), uni (sea urchin), ikura (salmon roe), ika (squid), tako (boiled octopus), hotategai (scallop), and so on.

Maki-zushi (sushi) – sushi rolls wrapped by seaweed (nori). This is also called norimaki. There are many kind of sushi roll: Tekkamaki – raw tuna roll, Kappamaki – cucumber, Futomaki (fat roll sushi) – 4-8 ingredients (Includes kampyo (seasoned gourd strips), oboro or denbu sweet powder, tamago sweet omelet, and shiitake mushrooms).

Inari-zushi(sushi) -aburaage – deep-fried tofu pouches- stuffed with sushi rice). This sushi is brown and oval-shaped. It has a sweet taste. Chirashi-zushi(mixed sushi) – spread different ingredients (includes raw fish, shiitake mushroom, omlet, seaweed, and more) over seasoned rice on a dish.

Scott Schirkofsky is the chef and owner of At Home Gourmet. You can find more recipes, and cookware on his highly recommended website: http://www.athomegourmet.com. Scott is also the owner of http://sushihousesupplies.com.

Written By: Scott Schirkofsky

With the exception of sashimi most sushi dishes contain some amount of rice.

To make great sushi you need the right sushi rice, cooked to perfection and seasoned with the right sushi rice seasoning. To make sushi rice you need a short grain rice. Sushi rice such as Koshihikari Japanese rice, short grain glutinous rice, sometimes known as pearl rice, is the best kind of rice to use. Similar to risotto rice but very different in taste.

The best sushi rolls, use a branded “sushi rice” like Akitakomachi all readily available at many online Asian grocery stores. It’s worth the extra hunting around for ingredients as the taste is fantastic and it will have the correct adhesive qualities after all, rice is the biggest part of your sushi meal ! There are many kinds of rice available (some estimates say up to 38,000 varieties!) but sushi rice is special for it’s tendency to bind together perfectly for sushi. All these kinds of rice can be divided into three distinct categories; long, medium and short grain rice. All rice used in traditional sushi is short grain white rice. Along with the length of rice, varieties are also divided up by colour and content of fibre. Short grain sushi rice is almost round and is very starchy even when washed. It is this starch that makes sushi rice so sticky and great for the job of making things like nigiri. Sushi, as we have all heard, is very healthy. The sushi rice plays a big part in this. White rice is basically brown rice with the husk polished off. This process removes a lot of the fibre from the rice. However it also leaves lots of carbohydrates to give you energy. In maki for example, there is a great deal of fibre from the nori wrapped around the roll, add to this all the vitamins and oils from the fish and you can see how healthy a diet that regularly includes sushi is.

The essential quality is its stickiness. Rice that is too sticky has a mushy texture; if not sticky enough, it feels dry. Freshly harvested rice (shinmai) typically has too much water, and requires extra time to drain the rice cooker after washing.

There are regional variations in sushi rice and, of course, individual chefs have their individual methods. Most of the variations are in the rice vinegar dressing: the Tokyo version of the dressing commonly uses more salt; in Osaka, the dressing has more sugar.

Scott Schirkofsky is the chef and owner of At Home Gourmet. You can find more recipes, and cookware on his highly recommended website: http://www.athomegourmet.com. Scott is also the owner of http://sushihousesupplies.com.

This video shows how to make tuna maki or tuna rolls. The chef makes it look incredibly easy, but if you try this for the first time, you have to make sure that you put just the right amount of sushi rice on nori. Tuna must be cut to the right length. You also want to keep nori (seaweed) as dry as possible. Nori only tastes good when it’s dry and crispy so you want to work fast. And one more thing… You need to know how to make sushi rice before you even think about making tuna rolls. If you practice a few times, you will be great at it. Take out your favorite plate and make your own presentation.