Sushi: general overview

I have been practicing, and making sushi, and sashimi for a few years now.  At first it started as dabbling, but then it became a hobby.  Now, it is part of my skill set in the kitchen.  There are a several main components to making sushi/sashimi.  Use short grain rice.  My favorite is Japanese Koshihikari.  You can pick that up at any Japanese, or major Chinese supermarket.  Sushi vinegar: as opposed to making your own, it is much simpler to buy it premixed.  I go for the ones that use sugar, not high fructose corn syrup.  There is a difference!  The fish: make sure you buy sashimi grade quality, or you will get big parasites growing in your intestines, or nightmarish diarrhea for a week.  Find out where your local sushi restaurants source their fish, or order online.  It costs more, but sometimes you don't have a choice.  The knife: Shiro Kashiba, the pioneer of sushi in the USA says the beat knife is a sharp one.  I have used a $20.00 knife to cut my fish before,  and it worked fine.  Invest in a Fiskar 15° sharpener which you can buy from MAC online, or double-sided whetstone 1000/6000 grit is ideal.  Watch YouTube videos honbazuke sharpening. With those basic components, you are ready to begin your sushi-making endeavor! 

Basic nigiri, torched hamachi belly:

Torched plate:

Nigiri plates:

Sashimi platter:

Black Sea bream/kurodai:

 Shopping list:
-Rice: Nishiki sushi rice is a good beginner's rice. No washing required. I like to use 1 cup of rice to 1 1/4 cup of water. At 2 cups use 2 1/2 cups of water. This rice cooks rather dry so it should be fine to double the extra water from 1/4 to 1/2. Use a rice cooker for best results, as it will take the guess work out of timing, and will not burn it as much.  Koshihikari strain is my favorite because it has a QQ texture, tender yet bouncey to the bite. You can get a 20lb bag for about $23-$27usd at Ranch 99, or any other major Chinese supermarket. Hitomebore rice is also gaining in availability, which is similar. It will cost more at a specialty market. You can also get organic sushi rice in a smaller bag about 5lbs for $15. All rice are not created equal. I have noticed the organic rice does not have the texture I am looking for when I cook it at home. At Japanese specialty stores you might find Japanese rice from Japan starting at about $16 for a 5lb bag from Niigata up to $19 for rice from Hokkaido. It is difficult to tell you the difference as I only buy one bag at a time. My girlfriend likes the Hokkaido strain the most. The sweetest scallops, and sea urchin come from that area.

Knife:
Any chef, or slicing knife will do as long as it is sharp. Try to get an Asian knife with a 15° bevel versus the European 30° bevel. This will help you not to damage the fish as much while cutting though. The chef knife is best overall. The Japanese equivalent is the gyuto knife. As a beginner, stainless steel is the way to go. As you become more advanced you may want to invest in a high carbon steel knife with a single bevel which is the Japanese style. Although technology in metals is making it more available to have a hard stainless steel knife in the Japanese single bevel style. The main reason for these knives is the increased hardness on the Rockwell Hardness Scale (HRC). The dominant range is 62-63. Professional knives do not go below 60, most knives do not go above 64 because the difficulty of sharpening becomes an issue. There are, however knives that go up to 67 HRC which is currently the maximum HRC available to the public. Plan to spend $600+ for those sushi knives. My favorite for slicing would be the yanagiba: a single bevel slicer knife with less depth than a chef knife. Currently I have a $30 stainless 8" one from a Japanese specialty market. It is not what a sushi chef with high volume would be using, but it's cheap to learn on.

Sharpener: Fiskar makes a good rollsharp for about $15 from macknife.com. It was on Amazon, but I can't seem to find it anymore. You will want a 15° one. That'd the only kind MAC sells. Their knives are good. I have a MAC sushi knife for fine slicing of fish, or garnishes. KING make a good whetstone. You can get a 1000grit/6000grit combo from Amazon for about $44. That's what I would get if I didn't have them in two separate stones that I got on sale from Korin.com. The website is pretty pricey, but they have monthly sales on specific items. Keep an eye on those sales. Knives go for 15% off, and other items may get 25% off. The shipping is expensive from that site also.  The best alternative to Korin is Yoshihiro Cutlery.

Fish:
Find a local fish supply store that sells sashimi grade fish to the public. You may be able to charm that information out of your local sushi chef while eating at the sushi bar. You would be surprised how much they are willing to tell you. Being a chef is a hard profession. They would welcome someone interested in their work. It all depends if they see you as a threat to their business. If you are friends with the owner you may even be able to order with them from a distributor who doesn't sell to the public, and get fish from Japan. Otherwise order online, don't use supermarket fish unless specifically labeled sashimi grade, and you trust them. http://www.bluemarineseafood.com, http://www.catalinaop.com, http://www.kaigourmet.com sell within California online. I can vouch for them, but ultimately you should choose what is right for you, and your wallet.

Poke, and Yellowtail/Hamachi Collar

Poke is a great way to use your day old sashimi. Sashimi should be used the same day it is bought for maximum freshness. You will notice the fishy smell growing in the coming days. If you eat at a restaurant, and you notice a fishy smell then you know they use old fish. 

I'm using hamachi buri (mature yellowtail) from www.bluemarineseafood.com. Be warned it is only a large quantity you can buy from them. You can choose loin, or half a fish. Beginners should go with the loin as there are no bones. I use a vacuum sealer for the unused portions which I seal as soon as I get the fish to preserve the freshness. Cut a piece of the fish to desired serving size. Cube it into approximately 1/2 inch cubes depending on your bite preference.

Grind about 1 tsp of Hawaiian salt as finely as possible, mix in 1 tsp soy sauce, and 3tsp of sesame oil.  Let the mixture rest to absorb as much salt as possible into the liquid.  Toss the fish with your mixture using a spoon.  Store the mixed fish in the refrigerator for at least an hour  to marinade for best taste. This will allow the salt to permeate the fish.



The finished product:



I added some chili flakes to the mixture before putting it into the fridge for a little heat.  This will help with the fishy taste if there is any on the fish you have.  Traditionally there are chopped white onions served with poke.  I like to slice fresh green onions, and mix it with mine.  Enjoy your poke with chips of your choosing.  Taro chips go well with it, and fits the Hawaiian theme.  I like to use spicy habanero, or jalapeno chips.

You can mix ingredients, and match them to your taste preference.  The most important part is the Hawaiian salt flavoring the fish.  If you go someplace that skips this step you will notice the fish is bland, which is a waste of fish that costs more than a nice steak by the pound.

For a quick bonus if you order the half hamachi. The collar makes a delicious hot meal. Sprinkle with salt. Bake skin side up until done. Look at the skin.



I did mine by spreading miso paste on it, letting it sit over night then baking at 400° skinside down until it started to brown, then broiled it skinside up until the skin started to brown. Total cook time about 15-20, oven times will vary.  If you have a grill even better.  The result with the miso was quite salty where the miso was touching.  You may want to wipe it off, or try a different marinade mixture.  This was a first time experiment.  Nobu uses a mirin mixture, then wipes it off the black cod fish before cooking.  Enjoy your collar with some nice rice, and garnish.  I prefer Koshihikari, a short grain Japanese rice.

Handmade wheat flour noodles

It only seems fitting that for my first food blog I write about the elusive handmade noodles. I have read countless blogs and seen many videos on how to make these legendary noodles, and none of them have given me the exact recipe, time, temperature, etc. It seems the only ones who DO know how to make handmade noodles are Chinese noodle chefs in the restaurants, and there are very few in the states. If you think you are going to get the recipe and method from me you are mistaken, the only thing I can offer is my way of making noodles.

I think the obsession started when my significant other and I visited a restaurant in Seattle, WA that makes hand-shaven barley-green noodles. It never really occurred to me that Asian noodles could be any color besides white or yellow having eaten them my whole life. The only imprint in my memory is those Ron Popeil pasta makers that spinach-green pasta. The only time I tried to make green noodles they came out quite soft, and were not completely green. I think the secret is to use powdered ingredients like barley powder. I know a variation of this ingredient can be found in Japanese stores, but are quite pricey almost a dollar per serving. So if you have access to a dehydrator and want to try that out it would be the most cost effective. Some ideas of other green items to use instead of barley grass or spinach are: green onions, cilantro, thai basil, water crest, garlic greens, etc. Dry it, pulverize it in a food processor and blend it into your flour mixture before adding water to it.

This is the short version of how I started. After returning from our trip I ventured out to the supermarket to get some flour and try to make some noodles. They were very thick, wide and resembled more of an udon noodle. The texture was very doughy, and it was somewhat chewy. I thought how hard can noodles be to make? Extremely hard actually. I have gone through many different bags of flour from: rice, tapioca, glutenous, vital wheat gluten, semolina, whole wheat, wheat, high gluten wheat, all-purpose, organic, non-bromated... over a year and a half later here I am, still without the slightest clue how to make the traditional handmade noodles.

However, I have managed to fabricate my own style of noodle making that is satisfactory. The image of the noodles on the tray is my latest creation. My recipe changes from time to time depending on how experimental I am feeling. From my understanding the traditional recipe calls for high gluten wheat flour, translates into bread flour, warm water, a little bit of oil and salt. The method is to mix the ingredients prior to adding water a little at a time while continuously kneading the dough to keep it from being sticky. I heard this process by hand can take approximately 45 minutes and requires a lot of stamina. You might be able to achieve similar results in one of those upright dough mixers that run for about $250. If you can afford one of those babies I would totally go for it. As for myself I either use a hand mixer with dough hooks or just my hands. Most of the time I have been using the traditional recipe of the wheat flour with oil, occasionally adding a variety of different flours I have laying around like vital wheat gluten which makes the dough firmer, or rice flour which makes the dough less sticky.

My exact recipe for the pictured noodles was:

1 cup bread flour

2 tsp vital wheat gluten

1 tsp baking soda

3 tsp potato starch

1/2 cup filtered water at room temperature

I mixed the dry ingredients prior to adding the water, which I just dumped in there all at one, and mixed it with a spoon to keep my hand from getting sticky. After the water was absorbing I kneaded the dough by hand to get the pieces to clump together into one ball of dough. After it was smooth all around I put it in a ziplock bag to rest. This stage is vital to the process as the dough will be tough after kneading, and the gluten bonds will form during this resting period from the water and flour combining. After resting for an hour I took it out and kneaded it again. I got a bit impatient and somewhat forced the stretching of the dough instead of letting it rest a long period it only sat a few minutes. I try to use my pasta roller whenever possible and it disappoints me every time. No matter how much I dust the rollers the dough always seems to stick somehow. So, I ended up rolling it myself. If the dough does not get any flatter it just needs to rest a bit. Walk away from the dough to let it soften.

They say to keep the dough covered to prevent drying, but I find the dryer the dough the less sticky it will be. Particularly for my method which does not require pulling and stretching the dryer the better. Once rolled to the desired thickness, if you do not have a rolling pin you can use a large cup or thick glass be careful not to use a thin easily breakable glass, you can now cut the noodles. I just place it on the cutting board flat and people may think I am psychotic for doing this, but I cut the noodles one by one with a pizza roller. I do this because every time I used the pasta cutter the noodles stuck together or stuck to the machine. This way I know for sure each noodle is cut and there is no mess in the machine, which I had to disassemble to clean and have yet since been able to put back together. I then put the noodles on a try layered in plastic wrap for easy removal. What you are looking at is three layers of thinly sliced noodles ready to boil and eat.

I hope this blog helps you find your way towards making spectacular homemade noodles!!!

--Max T.