Master Recipe for Prawn Nigiri-zushi
In this master recipe, I am using only prawns, but try to include one or two more seafood varieties, such as tuna or salmon, to make your nigiri-zushi
meal more colorful and flavorful. Although it might be fun to emulate the graceful ballet that the sushi chef performs to make each nigiri-zushi
, it is undoubtedly simpler for the home cook, who is not yet practiced in this art, simply to prepare, up to 1 hour before serving, as many rice balls as will be needed.Ingredients 3 cups (lightly packed) prepared sushi rice (see recipe below)
28 pieces prepared prawns (see recipe below)
Wasabi paste
Set up the working counter with sushi rice, prawns (and fish), wasabi, and a bowl of vinegar water.
Dip the tips of the fingers of your right hand in the vinegar water and rub both your hands together to distribute the water over your palms. Remember that too much water makes the sushi rice watery and too little makes it stick to your hands.
Following the illustrations, 1. reach into the sushi rice container with your right hand and pick up a small Ping-Pong-ball-size portion of rice (1/2 to 3/4 ounce). If you are a beginner, I recommend that you weigh the rice on a scale until you can eyeball the right amount to pick up. Without squeezing, quickly roll the rice over several times in the tips of your fingers, palm facing down. Transfer the rice to your left hand, placing it along the base of your four fingers. 2. Hold the rice in place with the thumb and index finger of your right hand as you make a depression on the top of the rice with your left thumb. 3. When you lift your thumb, the small depression remains in the center; it will not be visible when the sushi is completed, but it keeps the rice ball light and airy.
Place the index and middle finger of your right hand on top of the sushi rice ball and 4. roll the rice toward the tips of your fingers (the depression is down). 5. Slide it back to the original space at the base of the fingers of your left hand. Now you will make two motions simultaneously: 6. Grab the rice ball between the thumb and index finger of your right hand and move your left thumb back and forth across the top of the rice ball, exerting gentle pressure to smooth and flatten it. Do not squeeze the rice or press it down. 7. Continue to shape with the index and middle fingers of your right hand.
8. Pick up the sushi rice ball, rotate it 180 degrees clockwise, and return it to the base of the four fingers of your left hand. Repeat the process of grabbing the sides of the rice ball between the thumb and index finger while smoothing the top with the thumb as in step 6. Continue to shape as in step 7. 9. Now you have made a perfect rice ball. Repeat until you have used up all the rice. You should have about 28 rice balls.
Now smear a dab of wasabi on top of each rice ball, if called for, and 10. then place the prawn on top pressing it into the rice just enough so that it will adhere. There is nothing difficult about the technique. It just takes a little practice to do it as swiftly and efficiently as your sushi chef does.
NOTE: Making Rice Balls Ahead of Time
Line the rice balls up in a clean plastic container, then cover them with a clean damp towel plus a lid to keep them from drying out. Float the container in a bowl of warm water, changing the water as it cools down. Also, up to half an hour before serving, slice the raw, cooked, or cured seafood you will be using as toppings into the right size. At the last moment, all you have to do is smear a small dab of wasabi, if called for, on top of the rice ball and then put the topping on, pressing down slightly to hold it in place. That's it.
The History of Sushi Ancient Sushi The tale of sushi begins centuries ago. Sushi originated not from a desire for novelty but from economic need—the need to preserve fish, an important source of protein. The first sushi—freshwater fish salted and pickled in fermenting rice—originated not in Japan but in the rice-growing region of northern Southeast Asia, where the method is still used. That primordial sushi making soon spread to China but disappeared there during the thirteenth century, when the Mongolian nomads who subjugated the country introduced a very different food culture. Before the Chinese abandoned this method of fish pickling, though, their frequent contact with the Japanese brought the practice to my country. No one can say with certainty when sushi crossed the Sea of Japan, but the earliest written references to it appeared in the eighth century AD. Over subsequent centuries, this ancient form of sushi evolved into today’s world-famous sushi cuisine.
In ancient times, the most common way to preserve fish was to salt it, and this method is still used throughout much of the world. But fish that is salted and dried gets hard as a board, such as bacalao, the salt cod of Europe and America. Using rice as well as salt in hot, humid areas of Asia created a product markedly different in flavor, aroma, and texture. The cooked rice fermented, producing lactic acid, which both aided preservation and imparted a pleasant sharp, tart flavor. (Some scholars believe that the word
sushi comes from an older Japanese word meaning “tart” or “acid.”) At the same time, the plump, moist rice grains kept the fish tender and moist.
But there were drawbacks to this early preservation method. The pickling took at least a year, and when the process was through, the rice was too pasty to eat. It was wiped off the fish and thrown away. This wasted the always valuable rice crop.
Primitive sushi making is still practiced in some rural areas of Japan. In Shiga Prefecture,
funa-zushi is made from local
funa, freshwater carp, which is pickled in rice and salt for a year. Proud locals enjoy watching the reactions of outsiders who taste this delicacy for the first time. Most tourists—and I mean Japanese tourists, not foreigners—are so repelled by the smell of
funa-zushi that they shun it without taking a bite.
I find that owners of
funa-zushi souvenir shops, who sell gift-wrapped boxes of the delicacy to curious out-of-towners, like to exchange stories about their experiences. Some have received angry phone calls from customers: “The sushi was spoiled when I opened it; I had to throw it away! Send me back my money.”
Locals lament that the world doesn’t appreciate the strong smell and distinctive taste of
funa-zushi, which they compare to mature Roquefort cheese. One 8-inch
funa-zushi, however, can cost eighty dollars, much more than a generous slice of Roquefort cheese. Alas, these die-hard traditionalists are unlikely to succeed in bringing
funa-zushi to the world.
The Evolution of Sushi By the fourteenth century, sushi began to change. Although agricultural improvements had greatly increased Japanese rice production, rice was still an expensive food, and the Japanese had come to believe that it shouldn’t be wasted in preserving fish. So a new sushi evolved,
nama nare-zushi, or short-pickled sushi. With the shorter fermentation time, the fish grew only mildly tart, and because the rice didn’t disintegrate, it was good to eat along with the fish.
By the seventeenth century, the Japanese were producing rice vinegar, and this new product inspired the development of an even faster sushi. Rice vinegar and
sake, rice wine, now served as preserving agents in place of lactic-acid fermentation. By the nineteenth century,
haya-zushi, quick sushi, had nearly replaced the ancient, slow method of preserving fish in fermenting rice.
But soon even
haya-zushi was found too slow. It was the beginning of the mercantile age in Japan, and busy artisans and merchants needed a fast lunch; travelers wanted a tasty snack. Inevitably a quickly produced item such as
oshi-zushi, pressed sushi, would become the vogue. It was called
hako-zushi, boxed sushi, because of the way it was made. Vinegar-flavored rice was laid in a round or square wooden mold about one foot across. Sliced fish was laid over the rice, and a lid that fit inside the mold was pressed on top of the fish and rice. The mold was removed, the sushi was cut into bite-sized pieces, and presto—there was the world’s first fast food. As boxed sushi became popular, eggs and vegetables joined fish as toppings for the rice. In the Kansai region around Osaka and Kyoto, this sushi is still popular today.
But in Edo—the city now known as Tokyo—even boxed sushi was soon considered too slow. With more than a million residents, Edo was Japan’s political and business center and the capital of the powerful Tokugawa shogunate, whose regimes spanned the interval from 1600 to 1868. During this feudal era, when Japan was closed to nearly all foreign trade and influence, the domestic economy flourished, peace reigned, and Japanese culture and arts, including the culinary arts, reached their zenith.
Imagine that you had a sushi stand in Edo, then the largest city in the world. You would have served
nigiri-zushi or even invented it. You would have cooked the rice, tossed it with salt and sake lee vinegar (page 25), and waited for a customer to approach. Upon receiving his order, you would have formed a small rice ball in your hand, carefully laid a slice of fish on top, and immediately handed the ball to the impatient customer...
