Sushi is vinegar rice combined with other ingredients, such as fish and vegetables. If you want to make the basic sushi at home, this is the right instructions you should read. This instruction does not require any technical ability and most materials you can find in your kitchen. It is a very easy instruction, so let's just follow it and make sushi together!

The whole process takes about 50 minutes, which include 10 minutes preparing time, 30 minutes rice cooking time, and 10 minutes sushi making time.

Thing you need to prepare for making 6 rolls of sushi (see picture 2):

1. Two cups of rice

2. Three cucumbers

3. Three carrots

4. Salmon, crab, or other filling food

5. Seaweed layer

6. A bamboo mat

7. Salt and sugar

8. Rice Vinegar

9. A small bowl and a large bowl

10. A rice cooker and a small pot

11. A sharp knife and a cutting board

12. A large spoon and a small spoon

You can find most of these items in your kitchen, the rest can be found in the supermarket easily.

Safety Feature

1. During the sushi making process, you will use a sharp knife to cut the roll. Be careful when you use the knife, it may cause harm if used incorrectly.

2. The rice pot is very hot after cooking, be sure the pot has been cooled before touching it.

Tips:

1. For the seaweed layer, make sure they are large and thick enough. Otherwise, the seaweed layer may be hard to cover the sushi and is easy to break into several parts.

2. When you make the seasoning of sushi rice, the slat and sugar cannot dissolve in vinegar easily. However, you can heat them to let this process become faster.

Step 1: Making the Sushi Rice

Place about 2 cups of rice in a rice cooker and add some water into the cooker. (Note: 1 rice cooker cup is 180 ml, not same as 1 US cup.) Then you should rinse the rice repeatedly until the rice water is not cloudy. After that, fill the rice pot with clean water and make sure the ratio between volume of rice and water is 4:5. Next, you should cook the rice in the rice cooker; it may take around 30 minutes (see picture 1).

While the rice is cooking, we can begin the next process of making sushi rice, which is seasoning the rice. This is the most important process in this step, making the rice taste like the sushi rice. In order to do that, we need to use sugar, salt, and vinegar. For two cups of rice, we should use 3 tablespoons of sugar, 2 teaspoons of salt, and 4 tablespoons of rice vinegar. Mix the above seasoning together in a small pot and heat until all solids are dissolved (see picture 2).

After cooking has finished, we should add the seasoning mixture into the rice and stir together well. After the above process, the rice should look fairly shiny. You can see the last picture (picture 3) as an example.

Step 2: Preparing the Filling Food

The crab bought from the supermarket cannot be eaten directly, we need to cook it first. In order to do that, we should place the crab into a small pot and then fill in some water. Make sure the water level is over the crab. Then heat the pot with the water and crab until the water is boiling.(See picture 1) After that, the crab can be added into the sushi.

The next step is to wash the carrots and cucumbers, cut them into skinny strips using a cutting board and a knife. The skinny strips should be as long as the width of the seaweed layer. For the salmon and crab, we do not need to wash them, but to just cut them into strips.(See picture 2)

Step 3: Place the Food on the Seaweed Layer

After the filling food has been prepared, we should place the seaweed layer on a bamboo mat. While doing so, make sure to keep the seaweed layer dry. When wet, the seaweed layer will become smaller and easy to break.

The next step is to spread rice onto the seaweed layer. Before doing that, wet your hand with water first. Because sushi rice is very sticky, wetter hands can help you spread rice easily. For one piece of seaweed layer, use a half cup of rice. At the end, the rice should cover the seaweed layer and it should be around a 1/2 cm high. Be careful not to overwork the rice or it will get mushy (see picture 1).

Then we should place the filling food on the rice. The amount of filling food used is really depends on your hobby. If you like vegetables, than place more vegetables. Usually for one roll of sushi, you should use one strip of carrot, one strip of cucumber, one strip of salmon and one strip of crab. After you chose the filling foods, put those food together and place them on one side of the rice (see picture 2).

Step 4: Use the Bamboo Mat to Form a Long Sushi Roll

The next step is to roll the bamboo into a long column.

By doing that, first you should hook your thumbs below the bamboo mat and roll the edge up and over the filling.(See picture 1 & 2)

Be careful not to roll the mat along with the sushi. When you've reached the end, it should look like a column.(See picture 3)

Step 5: Create Smaller Sushi Rolls

The final step is to cut the sushi into smaller parts.

First, cut the roll at the midpoint (see picture 1).

Then cut the roll in the center of each half(See picture 2). If your roll is long enough, you can cut the roll in the midpoint of each quarter. But normally, you will cut four sushi(See picture 3).