Tips To Follow When Rolling Your Sushi

Sushi seems like a pretty easy meal to make. After all, a basic roll only consists of a few ingredients neatly wrapped in seaweed, right? Not necessarily – in fact, a lot of even the most seasoned culinary academy students struggle to perfect their maki rolls. However, with a few pointers, you can learn what you’re doing that causes the whole thing to crumble in your hands, and what to do instead. Here are some of the simplest tips for rolling sushi:

With a few pointers, you can roll your sushi like a pro.

Keep your hands moist
If you’ve ever had to deal with grains of rice constantly sticking to your hands while trying to assemble your rolls, you know how impossible it can be to neatly roll your sushi. Simply wetting your hands will prevent the rice from sticking to your hands. Some sushi chefs keep a bowl of water by their work station solely for this reason. It’s also important not to overwork the rice. You should be able to see each individual grain, as opposed to all of it being packed together.

Keep your knife sharp
Have you ever made a perfect sushi roll, only to watch it crumble before your eyes when you began cutting it? That’s probably because your knife wasn’t sharp enough. Use your sharpest knife when cutting your rolls, and be sure to wet it just a tad so that rice doesn’t stick to it. The sharper the knife, the less pressure you have to use and you won’t end up smashing your whole roll.

Don’t overstuff
When it comes to rolls that won’t stay closed, the biggest issue tends to be the fact that your maki is overstuffed. According to Sushi FAQ, a good guideline is to put a layer of rice about 1/4 of an inch thick on your sheet, and make sure you leave at least an inch free at the closing end so you can effectively seal the roll.

Make stuffing manageable
Many people think it’s easy to cut their fish, avocado, cream cheese or other soft ingredients into cubes or other small, manageable pieces. However, this can cause you to lose a lot of your sushi’s filling. Instead, opt for long slices and line them along the direction that you’ll be rolling the sushi. This way, you won’t have to worry about all of your filling falling out when you slice it.