Conference turris::cooks

    Jessica,
    
    You mean maki-sushi, right?
    
    Well, this is the recipe I use:
    
    2 cups rice
    
    the dashi:  (I don't know what you would call it in English)
    
    	3 tablespoons vinegar (rice vinegar is nice)
    	2 tablespoons sugar
    	dash Hondashi (fish stock base)
    
    	warm up to melt and let cool
    
    	then put the dashi in the middle of the cooked rice.  let it
    	sit for a second and mix it in well.  (If you want the easy
    	way out, you can buy packaged dashi, which is a dry mix that
    	you can mix in with the rice rather than making your own from
    	scratch.
    
    Then it's all dependent on your taste what you put in the sushi.
    I like putting in egg, dried flaked shrimp (pretty colors, too),
    gourd (kampyo), black mushroom (shitake), sanma kabayaki (it's a
    type of fish that comes in a can....cooked in a sauce similar to
    teriyaki), fish cake (kamaboko).  The egg I make as if I am making
    an omelete, but I don't roll it, so I leave it flat which I cut
    into strips.  Both the kampyo and shitake I cook in the following
    manner:
    
    	wash and soak 10 minutes in cold water
    
    	wring out excess water
    
    	1/2 teaspoon Hondashi          bring to boil
    	1/2 cup water
    	                                            
    	after the above is boiling, add the kampyo and shitake.
    
    	add soy sauce and sugar to taste.
    
    	Cook until looks like it's ready (it has taken on some color
    	and the taste of the "dashi".
    
    	To roll the sushi, you'll need something that looks like a bunch
    of bamboo skewers tied together (I have no idea what you would call
    it in English).  Anyway, you lay the seaweed on top of this, and
    spread a layer of rice on top of the seaweed, leaving about 1/2
    inch of the seaweed from the edge free of rice (need that to help
    seal the roll).  Then about 3/8ths of the way from the edge (opposite
    edge of the riceless one) lay whatever you decided to put into the
    middle.  Then comes the difficult part, rolling the whole thing
    without losing anything.  It takes practice to be able to get it
    nice and tight.  Good luck!
    
    
    Actually, it might be easier if you find a book with pictures. 
    By the way, the kampyo comes dried.
    	

    There is an excellent book "Sushi" available in the
    Boston Art Museum book store.  If I remember, I will
    bring it in to work and enter some of it here.

    Is the egg you are referring to just scrambled egg
    or Tamago ?

    When making the rice, it's helpful to use rice suited to sushi.
    Joyce Chen (in Acton and Chambridge and who knows where else) sells
    such a rice.  It cooks up sticker than regular rice which makes
    it easier to shape and actually tasts a lot better than other rice.
    I use it for everything now.
    
    My favorite filling is raw tuna or other raw fish, but you have
    to get it fresh.  The Quarter Deck in Maynard is the best.  And
    don't forget the Japanese horseradish, I don't know what it's called,
    but it's sold in very small tins.  You mix just a bit of the green
    power with water and make a paste.  The paste you spread on the
    filling just before you roll it all up.  You can get this and pickled
    ginger to eat on the side at Joyce Chen's also.  As for the Saki
    (what, sushi without Saki!), the best brand is the only one they
    sell in the NH state liquor stores.  Heat it by putting it in a
    glass jar and putting the jar in hot water.  This is making me hungry.
    
    Happy eating.
    

    Most kinds of regular rice will not stick together well enough to
    make sushi once you have added the vinegar, even if the rice was
    fairly sticky to begin with.  Sushi being popular now, you can usually
    get the right sort of rice at "gourmet" stores, or an oriental grocery
    store.  Around central Mass., you can buy sushi rice at Duck Soup
    in Sudbury (expensive) or at Ichiban on route 9 in framingham (cheaper
    - and you can watch my friend Jerry make sushi there, for inspiration
    or for your lunch...).
    
    The bamboo thing is usually just called a "sushi mat".  Places that
    sell the rice usually have them, too, and they are cheap.  They
    often come with a paddle-shaped wooden fan which you are supposed
    to fan the rice with after you have added the vinegar stuff, to
    achieve the right temperature and moisture content (nice and maybe
    authentic, but not essential).
    
    Life is easier if you buy the seaweed sheets (nori) already toasted,
    but you can buy the untoasted kind and toast it over a flame
    (supposedly; I'm lazy and buy the toasted kind).  This is supposed
    to improve the flavor and is probably not essential.
         
    I agree that tuna is one of the best things to put in sushi.

    
    
    Thanks to all of you.  I'll give it a try as soon as I got the rice.
    What's the exact name or type of rice should I buy?  Is there any
    brand name that is especially good for making sushi?
    
    For the seaweed part, do I have to steam it first before I wrap
    it?  Will the toasted one be too crispy to try to wrap?
    
    Thanks,
    Jessica
    
    

    Japanese HorseRadish    =	Wasabe	(Pronounced Wah-Sah-Bee)
    Rice Wine		    =	Sake  (Pronounced Sah-Kay)
    

    What's this special sushi rice everyone keeps mentioning?  Are you
    guys just talking about normal Japanese rice, such as Kokuho Rose
    (my favorite and one I grew up eating).
    Jessica, don't steam the nori; just toast it.  
    What's also good to try is strips of cucumber with wasabe (horseradish)
    on them.  For these, you use only half of hte nori sheet.  I also
    like making "mini" rolls (using only half of the nori sheet) with
    takwan (pickled white radish) as filling.  
    
    Re .4:  no, not scrambled eggs...what do you mean by tamago....I
    have been always taught that "tamago" means egg.

re: sushi rice - I found a brand of sushi-nori in the Manchester NH 
health food store with a recipe for making sushi rice from standard 
short grain BROWN rice. Sounded easy, too, but I haven't tried that 
recipe yet.

Other ingredients - wasabi powder - I found some of this in a GNC store, 
of all places. Gourmet style supermarkets frequently have it, too. 
Wasabi is Japanese style horseradish; I always call it "green death 
mustard" for some reason.....

The pickled ginger is known as gari, can be found in bottles for $$$, or 
sometimes in cold-pack plastic containers (like tofu comes in), which 
seems to taste better. I've only found that in the Washington DC area, 
anyone know of source in southern NH?

Fish can be had at the fish market in Nashua on 101A. Don't go in with 
the idea that you want a specific fish; ask what they have that day 
that's fresh enough for sushi. I had my heart set on salmon last time; I 
went in and asked about the nice looking salmon, and they told me that I 
didn't want that for sushi today. I got tuna and scallops instead, which 
were great.

                             Enjoy; and invite me over! :-)
                             ken "sushi boy" macdonald

Also, sake to have with your sushi: Geikekkan (sp) sake can be had in the NH 
liquor stores, and is pretty good, but the best I've found is 
Kiku-Masamune. Has somewhat more of that subtle rice flavor that makes 
sake so neat. Also, for those interested, sake is a rice BEER, not a 
wine. Although the final product resembles white wine, is is made by 
BREWING (as a beer) and not by VINIFYING (as a wine). It is really a 
high-alcohol content flat beer.

                                       The little old sake-brewer,
                                       ken

    Tamago as in sweetened omelete.  Yes egg.

    Maybe "regular Japanese rice" really *IS* sushi rice; I have been
    buying the brand he mentionned, too (Rose), but it is not the same
    as "regular American rice" or "regular Chinese rice" or Chinese
    glutinous rice (which might work, at that, but would be pretty
    strange!).   I would be suspicious of brown rice as not sticking
    together very well, which is the problem you get if you try to use
    regular American long-grain rice.
    
    Don't worry about the nori (which you DON'T boil!  That would be
    very soggy...); that is why you use a mat to roll up the maki,
    to support the nori (you could probably get away with something
    like a dry dishtowel or some cheesecloth, if you had to).  It gets
    more flexible when you have patted the seasoned rice onto it, and
    is not as brittle as you would expect.

    
    "Regular" Japanese rice IS sushi rice.  It is short-grained white
    rice, as opposed to the long-grained and converted rices most
    common in the US.
    

    Aha!  This note has finally attracted the attention of Cathy Bence,
    who knows a good deal more about making sushi than I do (haven't
    made any since Jerry Tsai started making it at Ichiban - I cook
    so I can eat (except for big parties, like the Chinese NewYear's)).
    Cathy, what about the idea of making sushi with short-grain brown
    rice?  Think it would work?  Some folks are really hung up (from
    my persepctive - I eat nearly anything) about the nutrional values
    of brown rice.

    As a kid, I lived 2 years with a Japanese family, here in Switzerland
    So, from time to time I get nostalgia for Japanese Food. This usually
    happens on evenings or weekends, i.e. when there is no way to buy
    the necessary accessories...  
    
    A couple of months ago I decided to make sushi myself for the first
    time, and once the rice was cooked, I figured out that I did not
    have any banboo mats.  I finally used SIMPLE PLASTIC BAGS (the ones
    I use for storing food in the fridge). It is not the transparent
    soft kind, but the kind which sounds like paper when you crumple
    it.  I do not put the things inside, but I use It almost the same
    way as the mat, with the difference that to squeeze the sushi together
    I fold the sheet over the sushi roll, then holding the 2 parts of
    the sheet coming together, I use a ruler to press against the
    sushi to squeeze it as tightly and regularly together as possible.
    It works really well.
    
    By the way, I found some bamboo sushi mats in the nearby supermarket
    (Migros)... where they are sold as place mats for the table.
    
    Ines

    I have watched Jerry Tsai, who makes the sushi at Ichiban in
    Framingham, Mass., roll maki using plastic wrap, but only when he
    is rolling one that has a layer of rice on the outside (he makes
    his "California roll" - the kind that has fake crabmeat, avacado,
    and mayonnaise in it; I don't know the Japanese name for them -
    that way, so that the laver is rolled up inside).  I think it is
    a lot easier with a bamboo mat if you can get one, but I am not
    the expert that Jerry is: in fact, I haven't made sushi since they
    hired a sushi chef!

    In southern NH, the Fish Market in Nashua has really fresh fish.  Their
    prices may be a bit high, but they have excellent quality and service,
    not to mention great take-out.
    
    It's on Route 101A, across from K-mart/Market Basket; next to the PSNH
    office.  603.882.1820.  

Actually the Doctah may have a point ... a family friend has a saying in respect
of Sushi

	"if it isn't swimming ... it isn't fresh"

Which of course is why so many Oriental fish markets sell fish direct from
holding tanks.

/. Ian .\

    Re: .27
    
    I agree with Greg's observations in the previous note... some other
    cultures cannot understand how we can bring ourselves to eat spoiled,
    lumpy milk (read "cheese")!  I find some of the "easier" types of
    sushi, such as tuna, to be very palatable... if only I hadn't had that
    college course on Parasitology!
    
    P.S. I haven't noticed this information in the conference... has anyone
    been able to make their OWN pickled ginger (the thin pinkish slices
    served with sushi) that tastes close to that served at the sushi bars?
    Would/has someone posted a recipe for this?

    A friend of mine swears by pickled ginger as a cure for seasickness and
    carsickness (both of which give him a lot of trouble - he has to drive
    a lot).   He makes it by slicing fresh peeled ginger ropot very finely,
    covering it with a small amount of water in a saucepan, and then
    boiling it until it changes color (goes from grey to sort of the color
    of ground dried ginger - orange-y).  Then he drains the stuff and
    bottles it with Japanese rice vinegar, a pinch of sugar, and sometimes
    some salt.  It keeps for a long time in the refrigerator, but he eats
    so much of this stuff that I bet a batch never lasts a week in that
    household anyhow.  Apparently the proportions of ingredients aren't
    critical.  His finished product doesn't quite taste like what a sushi
    place gives you - the commercial pickled ginger is usually saltier than
    my friend's, and comes out much pinker (food coloring?).
                                   

    Pickled ginger's pink color comes from beefsteak leaves (shiso?). 
    Sorry, I have no idea where you might find these.
    
    Nancy

    Beefsteak plant or shiso is also sold by seed companies such as Burpee
    as Perilla (sp). It comes as either Red Perilla or green. It's very
    easy to grow in a pot and is a wonderful herb for flavoring. I'm
    starting some as we speak.
    
    Tamzen

    First of all, I am a sushi lover.
    
    I always would hear stories from people who didn't like sushi about
    how it would make you sick.  For the most part I ignored them, and
    decided if you get food poisoning it would not be fun but what's
    a day or two of being sick for this stuff, and besides I would
    just use VERY fresh fish and stick to reputable restaurants.
    
    I have been hearing stories lately about the parasites that live in
    fresh fish and how if they get in your system they stick with you for
    life.  I am hard pressed, however, to find any literature on the
    subject or any hard facts.
    
    Can anyone enlighten me, or provide me with a fact or two. 
    
    				-David

 I'll look through my back issues of Sportfishing because I think they did
an article on this subject a year or two ago.

 I believe that tuna are considered to be safe in that the only parasites 
they get are not harmful to humans. I can't remember about the rest of them
(but I recall that there are indeed some parasites which doctors do not yet
know how to get rid of). I'd stick to sashimi in the meanwhile. :-)

    I'll relate something from a friend of mine. Those of you who are
    squimish should probably stop reading...
    
    Okay, my friend ended up needing an enema, so his doctor sent him over
    to the guy that does these. As the water comes back out, this guy
    watches the fluid. He is looking for blood and other signs of potential
    problems.
    
    He suddenly asks my friend if he ate a lot of sushi. My friend
    answered, yes, and asked why he was asked the question. The guy doing
    the enema said that he recognized some parasites in the fluid.
    
    So, the answer is that there are parasites in some fish that can live
    in your colon. My friend is healthy, so the parasites aren't harmful.
    
    	Marty Sasaki

    I just saw "Wall Street" on cable the other day and was wondering if
    the plexiglass sushi maker used in the movie was real and if anyone has
    any information about it.
    
    Being into the eating and not the authenticity, it sure would make my
    life easier.
    
    -joet