Making Sushi at Home: Must-Have Tools

Your Essential Equipment And Why They’re Important

Presuming you have the recipe and knowledge to make sushi, all you need is time, space and the paraphernalia in making your favorite delicacy at home. Let us start then.

Certainly you should have your rice. But not just any rice; it should be short grain Japanese rice specifically for sushi. Any substitute rice cannot recreate the roll that only Japanese rice can. While any Japanese-style rice will do, the best is Japonica short rice which has a length:width ratio of 2.5:1. Grains look translucent and rounded, sometimes with a small white spot at one end. It has a sticky texture when cooked.

An electric rice cooker would be more convenient. No need to worry about burning the rice or having it boil over on the stove. Don’t leave the rice on warm in the cooker, but transfer it to a mixing bowl to cool.

On the other hand, a Sushi Oke/Hangiri is optional, but recommended. This is where you transfer the rice after it’s done, though any mixing bowl is alright. It’s a shallow flat-bottomed, wooden sushi rice bucket made from Japanese cypress. You spread the sushi rice in it, season with rice vinegar and mix with a bamboo rice paddle, and cover with a towel to keep it moist. There’s better sushi texture using the hangiri.

The bamboo rice paddle is used to disperse the vinegar throughout the rice. It’s not made of metal so there would be no reaction with the vinegar to affect the taste of the rice. It will not also react with the metal of the rice cooker. As far as the vinegar is concerned, a good quality rice vinegar or rice wine vinegar is ideal. Apple cider vinegar is the best substitute for it, with a faint apple aroma. White wine and white balsamic vinegars are rich, fruity, and tangy, a bit stronger than rice vinegar. Don’t use white vinegar, it’s too strong. Your sushi rice will be slightly sweet and tart with the addition of rice vinegar and sugar.

A bamboo rolling mat is essential, but make sure that you cover it with plastic wrap to keep rice from sticking to the mat. Bamboo mats make the sushi easier to roll and shape into the desired round or square shape. Roasted seaweed sheets or Nori are your thin sheet, traditional wrapping for sushi rolls. A very sharp, good cutting knife is essential to make perfectly clean, exact cuts of sushi. Of course, have soy sauce and wasabi as condiments, and pickled ginger to eat in between sushi bites. Have fun!

Sushi Varieties All You Want in Bothell

Isn’t that fun? Now, when you don’t feel like a sushi chef any time, come over to Sushi Hana in Bothell and you’ll not just have one but different varieties of delicious sushi to enjoy.