Sushi Rolls

Our family loves sushi! When my husband and I were newly married we had some friends who taught me how to make my own and I am so grateful because it has become a staple in our house. My kids have even told me how much they prefer my homemade sushi to the sushi we've had in restaurants and I'm glad because it is so much cheaper, but it totally is not anything super complicated or extravagant. 

The ingredients are rice, canned salmon mixed with a bit of mayonnaise, carrots, cucumbers and nori. I sometimes add avocado if I have it. It's best if the rice is sushi or sticky rice but I use whatever I have on hand and in this case it's actually a Thai Jasmine rice.

You also need this special sushi roll mat. First lay a piece of nori paper on the mat smooth side down. Spread a thin layer of rice on top of it. Here I spread it almost to the top, but sometimes I leave the top 2 or 3 inches empty for a smaller more bite sized roll.  Place a line of salmon, cucumber and carrot across the rice about an inch from the bottom. 

Then roll it up. Before I roll it right to the top I smear the top edge of the nori paper with rice to make it stick closed to the nori paper. 

Give it a gentle squeeze at the top to help everything to stick. 

Then brush the outside of the roll with olive oil. You can also brush the edges of the knife with oil to help it not to stick to the rice.

Then slice the roll up. About 8 slices is good.

Then it's ready to dish up. We always serve it with soy sauce, but if you like you can also use Wasabi, pickled ginger slices and even roe.

(I posted about this years ago and I have not really changed anything about it. Only now I have six kids to feed and it takes a lot longer to make enough rolls to feed everyone! See previous post here.)