| Making sushi at home can be a fun and interesting | | | | rolled away from you with the seam in the nori |
| learning experience. I've written several other | | | | ending up on the bottom, thus being sealed by |
| articles describing the different ingredients and | | | | the weight of the roll. When you're new, it can |
| tools that you need to get started, so now I'm | | | | also help to stick the prepared roll in the |
| going to explain some the techniques used to | | | | refrigerator for ten or fifteen minutes to help it |
| construct the individual types of sushi. One of the | | | | solidify, before you cut it into pieces. |
| most common forms of sushi is known as | | | | Thin Rolls |
| makizushi, or "rolled sushi." This is the item most | | | | Hosomaki, by contrast, contain only a single |
| commonly pictured as the archetypal | | | | ingredient and are made using a half sheet of nori, |
| representation of sushi: a variety of "fillings" such | | | | so they are noticeably smaller. There are several |
| as crab meat, raw fish and vegetables, rolled up in | | | | types of hosomaki that have different names |
| a blanket or rice and seaweed and cut into | | | | depending on the filling used: |
| bite-sized disks. There are actually two forms of | | | | - Kappamaki: Cucumber filling, named for a type |
| makizushi: hosomaki and futomaki. | | | | pf legendary water sprite named the kappa which |
| Fat Rolls | | | | loves cucumbers. Kappamaki is used to clear the |
| The futomaki or "fat rolls" are predictably enough | | | | palette in a manner similar to gari (pickled ginger.) |
| of the larger of the two, containing several | | | | - Tekkamaki: Raw ahi tuna filling, named for the |
| different fillings. These are the makizushi options | | | | Tekkaba gambling dens where they originated as |
| most typically seen on the menus at sushi bars, | | | | a kind of snack food. |
| such as spicy tuna, Philadelphia and California rolls. | | | | - Tsunamayomaki: Tuna salad, made from canned |
| They are in my opinion one of the easiest types | | | | tuna and mayonnaise. |
| of rolled sushi to make because they are very | | | | Hosomaki is made in much the same way as |
| forgiving during the rolling process. | | | | futomaki, although it is a bit trickier because |
| Making futomaki consists of lining a sheet of nori | | | | there's less material to work with, so they're |
| (dried seaweed) with the a thin layer of the | | | | more likely to fall apart. A good suggestion is to |
| prepared su-meshi (sushi rice), then placing the | | | | use a bit more than a half sheet of nori, so even |
| ingredients in horizontal rows in the approximate | | | | if you overfill the roll slightly you'll still have enough |
| center of the rice. The entire package is then | | | | material at the edges to make a good seal. |