We had another lovely dinner with our friends, John and Whitney. We decided to do a sushi night so Whitney busted out her awesome sushi and sake set and we had a grand old time. If you’re looking for how to make sushi, I did a post earlier with some helpful videos.
What’s really fun about sushi night is that everyone gets to make their own rolls. They can customize them to make them spicy or not, simple or extreme. And what’s even better is that it’s so much cheaper than going out to a sushi bar. A half pound of sushi grade tuna which was just the right amount for us (with a bit leftover) was only $7.50. If you consider most people will spend about $40 (often more!) on just two people at a sushi bar, this is the way to go for anyone who loves sushi, but just can’t take the high prices!
If you’re looking to have a sushi night and need suggestions for what to bring, here’s a list of the things we used:
- cooked steelhead trout
- sushi grade wild tuna
- imitation crab
- cucumber
- asparagus
- avocado
- carrots
- lemon
- cream cheese
- wasabi
- siracha
- pickled ginger
- soy sauce
In addition to nori, Whitney bought spring roll wrappers. If you find nori to be a bit chewy, you might want to give these a try.
One of the things that prevented me from trying to make sushi at home was the difficulty of finding sushi grade fish. There are many alternatives though!
- cooked fish
- smoked salmon
- crab or imitation crab
- shrimp (try it in tempura!)
- or just veggies
This was my roll. It included sushi grade tuna, steelhead, avocado, and lemon.
I really like the lemon in the sushi roll, it tastes great! If you ever make sushi at home, give it a try!
This was the McTroll (aka McT roll). This beast of a roll had tuna, crab, avocado, asparagus, lemon juice, siracha, cream cheese, and wasabi.
Here’s some tips on having a sushi night
- Make the rice ahead of time, maybe three hours before. You want it to be cool. If you make it too late and attempt to cool it in the fridge or freezer, you’ll most likely end up drying out the rice.
- Usually the rice is made with rice vinegar, sugar, and salt. However we didn’t have any vinegar so we just used a splash of lemon juice to add a bit of acidity. It tasted great!
- We found that it’s nice to have two sushi rollers between four people. It’s nice to have an extra set so more people can partake in the rolling.
- Putting the sushi rollers in a ziploc bag makes it easier to clean.
- Have a sharp knife on hand. A dull knife will smash and rip your rolls. You need a nice clean cut to get good looking rolls.
Check out this post for videos on how to roll sushi
Beautiful sushi, that’s not easy to do…I’ve tried!
one of my friends came over this week and we made homemade sushi. we were a little embarrassed that our sushi was a tempura shrimp roll! not very innovative, but it was definitely tasty!
This looks like so much fun! What a great idea! I really need to try making my own sometime!
That’s a good idea to use baggies for the rolling mat. My parents do homemade sushi but they use seran wrap, which isn’t exactly the best.
Well this is one dish that I never made”homemade sushi”..I have some in my fridge from publix, they making it fresh every day in front of the people. I have to give it a try..looks fantastic and easy how you presented!!
ohh so jealous! I’m half Japanese so sushi holds a very dear place in my heart, but I’m terrible at making it! Takes a bit of practice… well that’s what my grandma-san says. Looks delicious!
Have you ever watched videos on how to roll it? I learned from them and they are the only reason I kind make sushi now.
And now that I learned, I’ll definitely be practicing it more and more. I can’t complain about making sushi! And for cheap too! Love it!
This looks so cool! I’ve always had a bit of an aversion to making my own sushi, just because it seems like it would be a lot of work. However, after hearing about your sushi party, it actually seems pretty easy, especially if you’ve got a great group of sous chefs!
It’s really not too bad. I learned how to roll by watching videos (I posted a link to them above). They don’t come out as beautiful in the ones at the sushi bar, but they still taste great if not better because you get to choose what’s in it.
I hate sushi but your photos are making me reconsider. My boyfriend loves the stuff and this seems like a really fun meal to make together (I’ll just have a side of rice made with lemon, sounds delicious!),
Well there’s always options. If you don’t like fish, you could try pieces of chicken with vegetables, or just veggies. Even though it’s not true sushi, it’s just fun to eat pieces of rolled up goodness with chopsticks.