No clue what inspired me, but randomly got in my head to try and make sushi at home since I love getting it whenever I can.
All in all, definitely made me appreciate the professionals.
My main things I found, I need a way sharper knife, the one I had was nowhere near sharp enough. Also holy cow was my rice sticky. I didn’t wash it under the assumption I’d actually want it to have that starch. Big mistake, stuck to everything, especially me.
Was probably the worst sushi I’ve ever seen, but flavor was alright.
Looking forward to improve for next time.
Figured I’d show my shame so others can appreciate how good they are.
You guys are amazing and this really made me appreciate the effort and skill sushi chefs have.
by LegitGingerDude
4 Comments
These look like shit but it’s a great start!! Keep trying!
Looks rough but id still smash 🤣
Hey man, everyone starts somewhere. I myself would identify to be only intermediate at home sushi at best.
My best advice here is two points.
1) your knife is plenty sharp, probably. Rice and nori paper isn’t hard to cut through. But even if you had a hand forged single bevel blade that was freshly stoned, you will still get a mangled cut. The key is to wipe the blade with water before the cuts. This applies to both cutting rolls and raw fish. If you don’t do this, no matter what you will get sticky cuts. I can get clean cuts on rolls with my beater Chinese cleaver, as long as it is wet
See this video here, from someone I consider to be a top sushi chef in the US:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3JhKiKs-Py/?igsh=MTQ0NzlzdHBmbm1xNQ==
Notice how his hands keeps moving off camera. He has a wet towel soaked with water/vinegar mix that he keeps touching. He does the same for his knife when cutting the rolls.
Which leads to point 2:
2) lube up your hands. There are two ways to do this. The sushi masters use a 50-50 blend of cold water and vinegar that they will touch between rolls. The liquid prevents rice from globbing up in your hands. The easier way that’s used a lot by AYCE roll makers is to put on some service gloves and lightly rub them with neutral oil (only necessary if you’re making a few rolls at a time).
Your rolls look bad due to lack of experience. But fundamentally it looks like there is a proper amount of rice and filling, so it comes down to focusing on practicing the fundamentals.
When the rice gets too sticky on your knife, use water. Wet the knife a little and the rice shouldnt get stuck as much. Also when cutting, you gotta do it in one motion, never see-saw. Keep practicing! It’s fun and quite rewarding when it comes out great.