How to Make Sushi at Home

Sushi is actually quite easy to make from scratch. Once you get the basics right, it can be quite fun to do. I get my son involved all the time because it is his favourite food. The key though for me is getting the rice right. And yes, you can do it in a pot. But if you invest in a rice cooker, then all the guesswork gets taken out of it. So what rice do we use for sushi? We use sushi rice, which is a short grain rice, very similar to a borio. It's a little bit different though. And you can get sushi rice from all your supermarkets now. I've rinsed mine three times and we're going to add it to our rice cooker. This is a large capacity rice cooker, so it can actually cook up to 10 cups of rice. So when I have people coming over for dinner and there's rice on the menu, I definitely turn to my rice cooker. It just makes it so much easier. And it also can cook and you can just set and forget. And it keeps it nice and warm and tender. It's the most important. It doesn't dry out. So the general rule is one cup of rice to one and a half cups of water. I've got two cups of rice today. So three cups of water goes in and the lid goes on. And I'm going to set my rice to regular. You can see that I've got a few different functions here. If you want a harder rice, let's say you want it drier for a fried rice, you could press that one. A softer rice, maybe risotto. And then regular, which is what I want. So we're just going to set that to taste and we're going to press start. And it's as simple as that. And the rice is going to cook. Rice cooker is also fantastic because it cooks more than just rice. For example, this one cooks congee, which is a lovely rice soup. It cooks soups, it steams and it also reheats. So if you've got a cold soup and you want to slowly warm it up, you can also pop it in your rice cooker. So there are so many different fillings that you can prepare for your sushi. I'm going to do a traditional one with tuna. So tuna mayonnaise. But I'm also going to do one of my favourites, which is an omelette sushi. So just two eggs. I'm going to do a two-egg omelette. Crack those eggs into a bowl. You can season it if you like with some salt. I actually like to season it with just a splash of soy sauce. Just a little bit. And give it a really good whisk. And I've just been preheating my pan, just a nonstick pan. We'll just turn that up a bit. Add a tiny splash of oil. Just a little bit. And once that's nice and hot, we can pour our eggs in. That's what we want, a good sizzle. We'll swirl the pan around. And once it just starts to set, we're just going to bring the sides in and all of that runny egg can just drizzle to the exterior of it. And once it looks like that, we can just fold it on itself. There we go. Just into one corner. And then we're just going to flip it straight out onto the board. Perfect. OK, all we need to do now is just prep a few more things. So I've got an avocado. I'll slice that. Our tuna, I'm just going to place it into a bowl. I've just drained it. And I always like to add just a little bit of mayonnaise to this. So mayonnaise can go in. Not too much, about a tablespoon at most for about 185 grams of tuna. And to season this, some soy sauce. So we're just going to give that a really good mix. And I'll prepare that avocado. And we're good to go. We just have to wait for our rice to cook. OK, the rice is cooked. While it was still hot, I did add some rice vinegar and a little bit of sugar. And you just want it to sit for a little longer, just for that sugar to dissolve. And you'll get this lovely sticky rice. Look at that. Perfect sushi rice. OK, let's make our sushi. So I've got some nori sheets. And I've also got a mat. Again, all of this can now be found at your supermarket, which is fantastic. And I always have the shiny side down, because that's going to be the exterior of it. And on the rougher side, we'll add our rice. Now, it can get quite sticky. So I suggest just wetting your hands with some water. And with clean hands, we're just going to make a ball of rice. Just get it together. And then we're going to start from the top and just spread the sushi rice on. You just want a nice, thin, even sheet of our rice. Spreading that, just teasing it down until it's pretty much all covered. OK, I'm going to start with the omelette ones. I'm going to cut my omelette in half. This makes two. And we'll pop that straight in the centre. Just trim it so it fits perfectly. And to this, you can add whatever you like. This is totally not traditional. So any sushi master watching, turn away. But it tastes fantastic. And it really does work. So I've got some carrot and some cucumber. It's a great way to add some veggies. A really healthy lunch right here. So when it comes to rolling, you want to flip the closest part that's towards me right over the filling and then squish. Really compacting all of those ingredients together, pressing down so we've got that perfect cylinder. And then we can just roll over again, pressing down. We just keep doing that. And then we've got our first sushi roll. How good is that? It's such an achievement when you make your first sushi roll. Now, I won't cut it yet. I want to make another one. This one's going to be our tuna one. So I'll get another nori sheet, shiny side down. And I'm going to repeat the process, this time with tuna and avocado. Okay, so sushi rolls are ready to go. I'm going to cut it in half. And of course, you can serve it as is. Look how perfectly rolled that is. Great, isn't it? And then if you want to make smaller ones, we're going to cut them in half again. And then in half again. Ideally, you want to be cleaning your knife between each. And look at that. Perfect sushi. I'm going to place them onto a plate. And let me cut open this egg one too, just to show you. Straight down the centre. Beautiful. I just, I love the egg variety too. Very tasty. You can add just a little bit of soy sauce on the side. If you like it hot, some wasabi. There are so many different ways to do this. Once you've nailed the rice, then the rest is quite easy. Even the rolling. So much fun. And that is a really healthy lunch that the whole family's going to love.