Easy romantic date night or a fun dinner party with friends. This comprehensive how-to guide will show you all the steps, ingredients, and recipes needed for a fun home sushi night.
Making sushi at home is a lot more fun and less intimidating than you might expect. It’s the best way to make your dinner at home a memorable experience with your loved ones. We love making sushi at home for Valentine’s Day or our anniversaries because it’s a special way for us to spend time together, making a meal that is as satisfying as it is rewarding.
Plus, having sushi night in the comfort of your home means you can be creative with your ingredients and portion sizing and adjust based on your dietary preferences–ie, gluten-free,dairy-free, etc. This is an excellent option because you can control the freshness of the ingredients, and it is cost-effective, considering how expensive eating out is these days.
Sushi is a Japanese dish consisting of rice vinegar-seasoned rice paired with raw or cooked seafood. It is often accompanied by soy sauce for dipping, wasabi as a flavor enhancer, and pickled ginger as a palate cleanser between each bite.
There are multiple types of sushi, such as sashimi, nigiri, maki, uramaki, or temaki. Sashimi is sliced raw fish that is plated without rice. Nigiri are hand-pressed rice balls topped with a slice of raw fish or seafood. Maki is rolled in a nori seaweed sheet with rice and fillings inside. Uramaki are inside-out rolls where the rice is on the outside of the roll, and the fish and sometimes vegetables are on the inside. Lastly, temaki are hand rolls with smaller cut sheets of nori seaweed wrapped in a cone filled with rice, seafood, and vegetables.
For this how to make sushi at home guide, we will focus mainly on the main types of sushi found in restaurants such as nigiri, maki and uramaki.
Where to Find Ingredients
The best place to find all the ingredients for your sushi at home is at your local Japanese grocery market. My favorite chain stores are Mitsuwa and Tokyo Central. I recommend going grocery shopping the day you plan on preparing your sushi at home. For any item containing fish, freshness is key for making quality sushi at home.
Sushi Rice
Sushi Rice: medium grain or short grain sushi rice. Sushi rice has a higher starch content, which gives it a sticky texture that allows the roll to stay together and not fall apart.
Unseasoned Rice Vinegar: provides a delicate, mild, and slightly sweet flavor that is less acidic than white vinegar.
Sugar: sweetens the rice vinegar and sushi rice.
Salt: balances out the sour flavor of the rice vinegar.
Proteins
Sushi-grade Fish: fish that has been handled, frozen, and processed to ensure it is safe to eat raw. I recommend buying fish at trusted Japanese grocery stores for your sushi at home.
Shrimp: typically pre-cooked and thinly sliced and readily available where the sushi-grade sushi is.
Tamago: or seasoned cooked egg that is wrapped with a strip of nori seaweed.
Unagi (eel): It is a normally pre-cooked and can be found in the freezer section.
Sauces
Soy Sauce: used for dipping the sushi.
Unagi Sauce: for dipping or glazing your sushi. You can use our homemade unagi sauce (eel sauce) recipe here.
Extra Add Ons
Wasabi: is known as Japanese horseradish that acts as a flavor enhancer for the sushi. Opt for the wasabi paste for the most potent flavor.
Pickled Ginger: is a palette cleanser in between bites of sushi.
How to Make Sushi at Home
Making sushi at home is a choose your own adventure process. You can select from appetizers such as spicy tuna crispy rice to mains like sashimi, nigiri, and rolls. I recommend having at least one appetizer, a side, and one main. Sushi is delicious yet delicate. The last you thing you want after all your effort is to be starving. Here are the steps to get started.
Appetizers
There are many ways to start off your sushi night from hot to cold options, or soft to crunchy. These are some of my favorite options to start our sushi night:
Cook the rice. Thoroughly the rice 4-8 times until the water turns clear. Add the water and cook the rice in a rice cooker. Alternatively, you can bring the water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Then stir in the rice and lower the heat, cover, and lower the heat to a simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the rice is cooked through.
Add in seasoning. In a small bowl, mix the rice vinegar, sugar, and salt until everything has dissolved. Once the rice is cooked, toss the mixture with the cooked rice in a large bowl and toss until combined.
Nigiri
Assemble your space. In a small bowl, add water and a splash of rice vinegar. Use this to wet your hands to prevent the rice from sticking.
Slice the sushi-grade fish. Using a sushi knife or sharp knife, slice the fish about 1/4 inch thick at a 45-degree angle. Start slicing with the blade’s edge closest to the handle and pull the knife toward you in one swift stroke. Do not saw back and forth if possible.
Make the ball of rice. Dip your hands in the bowl of water and then grab about 1 1/2 tablespoons of sushi rice. Form an oval-shaped ball by squeezing the rice with one hand. Place a small dab of wasabi on top of the rice.
Assemble nigiri. Place the fish on top of the wasabi and rice. Lightly press down on the fish to make it stick to the rice.
For a quick and easy option that’s cooked, I recommend opting for Unagi (eel sushi).
Rolls
Two popular options for rolls are maki or uramaki. Maki will have the seaweed on the outside while, uramaki is considered inside out with the rice on the exterior. Rolls can be intimidating, but they’re easier than you’d think. Two of my favorite easy rolls to make are:
Prep your station before hand. Have your bowl of water to keep your hands wet, bamboo mat, sushi knife, and cutting board all prepped and ready to go before you start assembling.
Use fresh sushi grade fish. Use the freshest seafood as possible from a trusted source. I recommend shopping the day you plan on making sushi at home.
Keep everything refrigerated as you go. Make sure to keep your sushi grade fish in the refrigerator while you work on each step. The fish can only sit out at room temperature for a max of 2 hours before it goes bad.
Use a sharp sushi knife to slice the fish. A sharp sushi knife is necessary for clean cuts of fish and for the rolls.
Don’t use too much rice! The biggest mistake is using too much sushi rice in your nigiri and rolls. Use a small amount of rice for both and it will ensure success.
Storage Instructions
Sushi at home is best when consumed immediately. However, it can be kept in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 48 hours. The sushi quality will decline rapidly after 24 hours and may be unsafe to eat by the end of the 48 hours.
Pairing Suggestions
You can laso pair sushi at home with other various Japanese mains and desserts.
Find a local Japanese grocery market nearest you or Asian grocery store. Mitsuwa and Tokyo Central are two popular chains that we always trust. Sushi grade fish will always be labeled sushi grade. If you are not sure, ask if the fish is safe to eat raw.
How long can the sushi grade fish last outside of the refrigerator?
Sushi grade fish can last up to 2 hours outside of the refrigerator. Make sure to keep the fish refrigerated when you are not working on it.
Can you make sushi at home without raw fish?
Yes of course! You can use cooked shrimp, imitation crab, tamago rolled egg, or even tofu.
Easy romantic date night or a fun dinner party with friends. This comprehensive how-to guide will show you all the steps, ingredients, and recipes needed for a fun home sushi night.
Cook the rice. Thoroughly the rice 4-8 times until the water turns clear. Add the water and cook the rice in a rice cooker. Alternatively, you can bring the water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Then, stir in the rice and lower the heat, cover, and lower the heat to a simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the rice is cooked.
Add in seasoning. In a small bowl, mix the rice vinegar, sugar, and salt until everything has dissolved. Once the rice is cooked, toss the mixture with the cooked rice in a large bowl and toss until combined.
Nigiri
Assemble your space. In a small bowl, add water and a splash of rice vinegar. Use this to wet your hands to prevent the rice from sticking.
Slice the sushi-grade fish. Using a sushi knife or sharp knife, slice the fish about 1/4 inch thick at a 45-degree angle. Start at the edge of the blade closest to the handle and pull the knife toward you in one swift stroke. Do not saw back and forth if possible.
Make the ball of rice. Dip your hands in the bowl of water and then grab about 1 1/2 tablespoons of sushi rice. Form an oval-shaped ball by squeezing the rice with one hand. Place a small dab of wasabi on top of the rice.
Assemble nigiri. Place the fish on top of the wasabi and rice. Lightly press down on the fish to make it stick to the rice.
Serve
Serve your sushi immediately with soy sauce, wasabi, and pickled ginger. Enjoy!
Notes
See the Expert Tips section above for more guidance.
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