I feel like if I had an unlimited supply of sushi, I'd most likely eat myself to death.

I really love sushi. A lot. Like a lot lot. If I could eat it every day, I would. But I don't get enough sushi coupons to afford that, and I think my husband likes to eat more than just fish. However, we did agree a few years ago that we would like to have sushi a little more often if we could learn to make it at home instead of paying for it at a restaurant. The best husband ever promptly surprised me with a sushi kit that Christmas and I found a fish market nearby where we used to live that sold sushi-grade fish. I had to practice a little and it didn't come out too pretty at first, but it's not near as hard as I expected. Look, I'm not coordinated. I run into walls and smack my head on cupboard doors while I'm opening them, but when I roll my own sushi it kind of looks like I know what I'm doing. 

And if I can do it, I know you can. Now I'm totally not an expert, and I am sure I have plenty to learn from a real sushi chef. But it looks alright, and it tastes delicious, so it's fine with me!

The word "sushi" is referring to rice prepared with vinegar, sugar, and salt. Often when people think sushi, they just think raw fish or rolls, but really there are many kinds of sushi, and the one thing they have in common is the seasoned rice. My sushi here is maki, or rolled, and that's really the only kind I'm good at, but the rice can be used for any of the different varieties.

Sushi is something that I never feel guilty about eating. I know the rice can be a lot of carbs if you aren't careful how much you eat, and there's some sugar added, but it's full of good protein, healthy fats, and just fresh, good ingredients. Plus it's delicious.

Sushi Rice: (for about 6 rolls)

• 2 cups short white grain rice (I always just buy the rice that says sushi rice so I know it will work)
• 2 1/3 cups water
• 1 small square kombu/dried kelp (optional)
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 1 1/2 tbsp. sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt

Start by putting the dry rice into a bowl, adding water, and stirring the rice with your hand to rinse it. Drain the water, swirl the rice, add more water, stir, and drain again. Do this about three times until your water is mostly clear. Add the rice to a large pot along with the water and kombu.

If you don't have kombu, you don't have to use it, but I think it adds a lot of flavor to the rice. You can find it at any Asian grocery store and sometimes just in the international aisle of your normal grocery store. Cover the pot and bring to a boil, turn down to medium and cook until you can see the surface of the rice. Turn pot to low and simmer until all water is absorbed, leaving the lid on the entire cooking time. Let rice sit in pot, covered, for 15 minutes, then discard kelp.

While rice is cooking, combine rice vinegar, sugar, and salt in small saucepan and heat on medium-low until sugar and salt are dissolved, then set aside to cool. Use rice vinegar that does not say "seasoned", because that means it already has salt and sugar added.

Once rice is done (and still warm), scoop it out onto a large, shallow surface. I just use a cookie sheet, but the super cool kids have a fancy wooden sushi rice bowl. It's a secret dream of mine to own one someday... *cough* MybirthdayisinSeptember *cough* Pour the cooled vinegar dressing over the rice. I usually use all of it for my rice, but you can add it to taste if you want.

Use slicing motions with a spatula or wooden spoon to thoroughly mix it in, making sure you are lifting the rice gently and not smashing it down. Keep running the spoon through so it coats all the grains of rice. As soon as rice starts to feel like it's sticking together, spread it out and fan it so it cools off a bit. Put it in a smaller container and cover with a damp towel until ready to use.

Making Sushi:

 Making sushi is the best because you can put only the stuff you want in it, instead of having to order something off a menu. I went simple this time, and besides the fish, we only used avocado, cucumber, and scallion, but add whatever you like! Other common ingredients include carrots, sprouts, crabstick, and cream cheese. Cut your veggies (and other things that aren't raw) into strips. I like to peel and seed my cucumbers first, and cut them into pretty thin slices. I make my avocado pieces bigger, mostly because of my own avocado obsession. If I lived on a desert island and could only grown one thing, it would probably be avocados. Oh, dice your scallions.

The trickiest part to sushi is finding the fresh sushi-grade fish, then going to get it and making it on the same day. There is nowhere that sells it very close to us, so this is the first time I've made sushi in over a year. I happened to find a place that was near somewhere we were already heading, so I added picking it up to our trip. I pretty much always use tuna and salmon when I make it myself, and they're the easiest to find fresh. Slice it into strips just like the vegetables on another cutting board. I minced some of each as well to make spicy versions.

To make the spicy fish, just mix the minced fish with a few drops of chili oil (mine is chili sesame oil so it has a great flavor) and the diced scallions. Add chili oil until it is spicy enough for you.



Now you just need a bamboo rolling mat, plastic wrap, seaweed (nori) sheets, and some imagination! Wrap your mat with plastic wrap so the rice doesn't get in between the slats. Put the seaweed sheet on it, shiny side down. If the rice sticks to your fingers, make a mixture of 10 parts water and 1 part rice vinegar to dip your hands in. Then press on desired amount of sushi rice, leaving a little room at the top and bottom for a seal.

Play around with this step. Sometimes you can cut a wrap in half If you are making simple rolls with only one or two things inside. Sometimes you have too much left at the end and need to cut a little off. And some people like different amounts of rice than others. But you will figure it out quickly as you start experimenting with different ingredients inside.

Now just add whatever you want in a line across the middle. If you want the roll to have the seaweed facing out, put the ingredients directly on the rice. If you want the roll to have rice on the outside, flip the wrap over after pressing on rice and add ingredients to seaweed side. 

Now just roll it up! Use your fingers to hold your ingredients in place and roll the mat up with your thumb until the roll meets itself. Squeeze it together, then pull the mat up and continue to roll to the end. Squeeze the mat to shape the roll, then take it off. This part will take some practicing, but it's just something you have to try a few times to get the hang of it.

With the rice on the outside, you can add toasted sesame seeds. Or, I added some of my spicy fish on top of two of them like this:

Have fun with it. For some reason I tried to use all the fish I bought (over a pound!) and ended up stuffing every roll full. For two people, 6 ounces of salmon and 6 ounces of tuna is more than enough. So here are the 6 rolls I made:

Wet your knife to cut them, and do this frequently in the cutting process as the rice will stick to your knife. Each of these were cut into 8 pieces. I really made way too much sushi for two of us. Who is coming to dinner next time?

And that's all I do. I don't think it really needs any sort of fancy sauces on top, though you may feel free to get creative. I know spicy mayo is popular at sushi restaurants, but neither of us eat mayo, so I don't have any recipes for that. I use sriracha sauce sometimes for heat, and other than that, we just dip it in soy sauce. Now I just need to learn to make that fire volcano out of an onion, and flip an empty eggshell into my chef's hat, and then I really won't have any reason to visit a Japanese steakhouse anymore.