Sushi
 

OK, so I've been making sushi lately and have found that I believe that I can eat sushi at home for pretty cheap as an everyday diet. I am curious as to what kinds of fish you just dont want to put in sushi that you can get at the grocery. As long as it's fresh (caught that day) I'm thinking it should be OK. Is this the correct mindset? Are there any types of fish that just aren't OK to eat raw. Also, I know that there are some types of things that go in sushi cooked, if you would like to share that would be kickass.

Sushi does not require raw fish to be sushi, it is mearly the prepared vinigeared rice usually server with nori. So, while raw fish complements sushi, it is not needed. Heck, there is even vegatarian sushi. Still some very good ingredients you can use (without worrying about disease) is crab (real or fake), smoked fish (I really enjoy salmon), smoked eel, canned fish (like tuna), boiled shrimp, squid, ham, beef, egg, tofu, wasabi, avacado, carrot, cucumber, water chestnut. Basically whatever you have in your fridge, it's an extremely flexible food.

I've never made sushi, though I'd love to try it. I have friends who do, though, and they only make cooked things, never raw. I guess they figure they don't need the headache of food poisoning and intestinal parasites...

Sushi is actually incredibley easy to make. I remember making it with my mom back when I was in elementary school.

As for fish. Salmon reigns supreme in my book. Unless someone wants to introduce me to something better.

And I can't stand white tuna. I really loathe it. But who knows, maybe you'll like it.

I made friends with a Korean couple in university. They were over here doing a masters in English, and only had the money that they were given by the Korean gov't for room/board & tuition.

So they invited me to dinner one night, and served me home made sushi (although, being Korean they referred to it as kim-pah). They claimed that it could be made with anything that you had in your fridge ( as Kodega says) and the ones that they gave me that evening had carrot strips and thinly sliced cooked hot dogs.

Still tastey, on account of the vinigared rice and the wasabi...

Sushi doesn't have to involve raw fish at all. That's sashimi. I remember making sushi rolls for people years ago using watercress and hot dogs, believe it or not. As long as the sweetened vinegar rice is involved, it's sushi.

Now, for sashimi, on the other hand, you can use any fish you like, with one rule: it must be seafood. Freshwater fish can have parasites living in it that must be cooked to be killed. Saltwater fish don't have this issue.

I have been making sushi for sometime now but I have never used Vinegar. How much vinegar should one use to put into sushi rice?

about 1.5 tablespoons for 6 oz of uncooked rice (as per the recipe at this link: http://www.bento.com/trt-sushirice.html ) or pasted below:

Sushi Rice (Sushi-Meshi)
Ingredients:
175g / 6 oz uncooked, matured short-grain rice
225ml / 8 fl oz cold water
2.5- to 5-cm /1- to 2-in strip dried kelp, wiped clean

For sushi vinegar:
1 1/2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon caster sugar [superfine granulated sugar]
1/2 teaspoon salt

This recipe will make one quantity of rice, which is sufficient for
2 uncut large rolls (futomaki-zushi)
or 4 uncut small rolls (hosomaki-zushi)
or 16 finger sushi (nigiri-zushi)

This is the basic technique for producing the glutinous, vinegar-flavoured rice that forms the basis of all types of sushi. Matured, Japanese or Californian short-grain rice is essential. To vary the quantity of cooked rice, remember that the ratio of uncooked rice to water should be 1 part rice to 1 1/4 parts water.

1. Start by washing the rice thoroughly until the water comes clear. Let the rice drain for 30 to 60 minutes. This will allow the grains to absorb moisture and start to swell.

2. Put the rice, water and kelp in a pan with a tight-fitting lid. Bring the mixture to the boil over a medium heat, removing the kelp just before the boiling point. Cover the pan and simmer for about 10 minutes. (Simmering time will vary depending on the quantity of rice.) Resist the temptation to lift the lid while the rice is cooking.

3. Turn off the heat, remove the lid and cover the pan with a teatowel. Leave to cool for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, mix together the ingredients for sushi vinegar in a pan. Heat until the sugar dissolves, then remove from the heat and pour the sushi vinegar into a cool bowl. To stop the vinegar distilling off, sit the bowl in cold water to speed cooling.

4. Using a wooden rice paddle, spoon the rice into a rice tub or bowl. Spread it out evenly, then run the paddle briefly through the rice cutting it first from side to side, then from top to bottom.

5. Continue cutting - never mashing or stirring - the rice, adding the sushi vinegar a little at a time. At the same time, ask someone to fan the rice to cool it. It should take about 10 minutes to mix in the sushi vinegar thoroughly and bring the rice to room temperature.

as far a sushi goes, we normally have a sushi party once every couple months

Other ingrediants to try
Cut Mango (cut thin like cucumber)
macadamia nuts
terriyaki Beef (I made a what I call arbys roll, beef, and cheddar cheese with little bbq sauce)
surf and turf beef and crab

the options are limitless, but we rarely have the raw fish, sushi grade fish is a bit harder to find. but it is not generally fresh meaning the same day, but fresh in color and smell.

Sushi-grade fish, available at specialty stores and fish vendors, must meet certain aesthetic and health requirements. According to New Hampshire's WMUR television station, fish that is suitable for eating raw must be frozen for seven days at negative 4 degrees Fahrenheit, or flash frozen for 15 hours at negative 31 degrees.
Contrary to popular belief, fish that's "fresh out of the ocean" is often dangerous to eat. This abstract of a recently archived New York Times article revealed some helpful facts:


Fifty to sixty percent of sushi in United States is frozen at some point.
The Food and Drug Administration stipulates that all fish to be eaten raw (with the exception of tuna) must be frozen first, in order to kill parasites.
The FDA leaves enforcement of the frozen-fish rule to local health officials.
Tina Ujlaki of Food & Wine magazine rather unhelpfully notes that in addition to meeting the FDA freezing guidelines, "sushi-grade" fish must meet standards of freshness, fat content, and firmness.


http://ask.yahoo.com/20040513.html

They tried to impose the "frozen first" rule on sushi here in Ontario but it was struck down... apparently fresh fish is better when it isn't frozen first.

in korea they have kim-bop...which has ham and cheese in it.

fish fit for eating raw will always be labelled as sushi-grade. always go for grade 1, which is more expensive but absolutely critical. if the fish has been frozen, the letters IQF should be floating somewhere around the packaging.

and for the record, coming from a Korean, kim-bap is not sushi. it's kim-bap.

most of the stuff mentioned in the replies above, sorry to say, is not sushi. if you want to call it sushi, enroll in cutting school, buy yourself a yanagiba, and actually learn the techniques behind the art.

Okay, we may not be the masters of sushi, which is mostly about presentation of this rice. As much as I may loathe it, Coors is still beer, and what I make is still sushi. Not high grade, or incredible, but it's still in the category.

Since I'm busy homebrewing for now, and working on becoming better at that art, I'll stick with that for now. Mayhap when I win the lottery I'll learn how to make 'real' sushi.

Oh, and I have a Kershaw Yanagiba, for the few occasions I make sashimi. :D

before I continue with my reply I'd like to extinguish any potential flames that may have been sparked by misinterpretation of my prior post. I'm a line cook/chef in training, and not coincidentally also an asshole. my typically unintentional animosity is directed towards noone, I just have a tendency to be a bit intense, and my writing style only emphasizes that.

that being said, I still disagree that what one makes at home qualifies as sushi. without the requisite hours of training in all the fields required to make sushi as it is recognized by other Itamae, one will never know the delicate balance of ingredients that makes sushi what it is. I have not studied the art of making sushi, I've only had the opportunity to observe in great detail the work of a master sushi chef. He taught me how to cut fish with my own Kershaw (nice taste in knives, Anxst), but nothing of cooking or seasoning rice, or the thousands of mise en place components and garnishes.

I don't think of my nigiri or maki as sushi. Even as an alumn from a respectable sushi establishment, I don't deserve that privelidge. The shit I made in my garde manger class is as much a bastardization as anyone else's.

Heretic!! Cooking and canning albacore tuna should be punishable by requiring the person who does it to live on McDonalds' regular hamburgers, fries, and Orange Drink for a month.

Albacore sushi melts in my mouth. It is ambrosia!

OTOH, if you don't like it, more for me!! :D mmmmm

Can we still attempt to make it at home? we wont advertise it to anybody official as sushi, but my kids still call it that.

My Korean friends called it 'kimpah'. Maybe their accent or ennunciation is different.

why yes, of course you can. you can also put a feather in your hat and call it macaroni, if you'd like.

mmmm...sushi.

I made my own for many years, but with sushi so cheap around here there is no point. Don't worry about the uptight people, just make what you think tastes good and call it what you like. I'm a traditional type sushi lover, I don't care for the basterdized rolls you see everywhere.
Gah...Creem cheeze in maki...who thinks of this shit?


*happy I live in an area where freezing isn't the law and itamae don't wear plastic gloves*

Here's a pic I took a while back. It's takeout from a local place around here...this should make any sushi lover hungry ;)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...sushinames.jpg

Is that an albacore tuna maki??

Hey, I'm sorry if I came back towards you a little harsh in return, as it wasn't meant that way either. A little indignant, perhaps, but I didn't mean to seem hostile.

I've had sushi and sashimi, made by chefs who had had all the schooling you speak of. (Thank the gods I wasn't paying for those meals.) I agree that what I make barely belongs in the same room with that kind of thing.

My only question, then, is what the heck do we call what we're making?

yea, it's albacore.

Why Thank-you! I feel better already.

Without tasting it, I'm not sure if I should be horrified or going "mmmmm!" I think it may be time for a sushi run tonight. :)

Yes...

Now I'm really hungry. This sucks. I'm too poor. :(

Why would you be horrified?

I'll take the uni and unagi, you can have the tuna...deal?

Maybe you should go with me on my sushi run.

'Cause there's too much rice for the amount of amount of albacore, maybe. As I said, I'll have to try it. The problem is that while albacore sushi/maki is easy to get on the US west coast, it's harder to get here in Massachusetts. I'll have to hope.

For starters, sure. But I want the taco (octopus), the tobiko, the salmon, and the ebi. We can split the ama ebi, the salmon maki, the surf clam, and the snapper. You're welcome to the tamago, as I don't need the cholesterol. I don't know what scalop is like, or at least I don't remember, so I'll try it. I like unagi in a good dragon or caterpillar maki, wrapped in avacado. I don't see any squid there, but if I missed it, you're welcome to it. It's too chewy for me. Taco is about my limit for "chewy".

Now I feel like onesnowyowl! I be hungry.

Y'know, although this is a bit off topic, I figured I'd share my opinion on sushi. I'm all for trying new things, and have actually ordered it on a couple of occasions. However, raw fish may sound foreign and exotic - and possibly tasty - in my mind, the reality of the situation is that is... raw fish. On my plate. And I'm expected to eat it.

I usually can't get down more than a few bites...

And just so you don't all think I'm close minded about food, I've sample a variety of things, including bear, bison, buffalo, rattlesnake, squid, shark, and a variety of other non-traditional food items :D

i've never understood the problem with the fish being raw. it's sooo good. But then I love the beef done up Korean style (raw) or the steak Tartare as well. I also love the herring filets done up as roll-mops (pickled with sour cream) like the northern Europeans eat.

mmmm... tartare.. but Carpaccio, done correctly, is absolute heaven... Vegetarians don't know what they are missing :)

Ohhh...carpaccio...I had some beautiful carpaccio when I was in Las Vegas. Mmmmm. Definitely a new favorite.