SCENE 1
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Sushi rice is usually cooked with an equal portion of water by volume, so this two cups of rice will go into the pot along with two cups of fresh water. |
2 Cups Sushi or Short Grain Rice 2 Cups Water |
[the kosher salt container
opens]
No, no, no. Sushi rice does not get salt at this point of cooking. Now we'll bring
this to a boil over high heat, uncovered, and we'll cover as soon as we achieve bubblage.
[camera pans over to the rice cooker]
Yes, rice cookers are very popular, and they are capable of producing sushi
rice. If your household goes through a lot of rice, then you might want to
consider a machine, especially one that includes a warming function and "fuzzy
logic" that keeps the rice from burning. The problem is, this is a unitasker,
and we've got rules about that kind of thing around here. [throws the rice
cooker out the window]
When the time is up on the rice, just kill the heat, and leave everything right
where it is for another ten minutes.
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In the meantime, combine 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 tablespoon of kosher salt, and 2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar in a microwave-safe container. Mix up, best as you can, and stash in said box for 30 to 45 seconds on high heat, of course. Now the point here is to dissolve most of the sugar and salt. There is not, however, enough liquid to dissolve it all, but there will be, once we have a little extra liquid from the rice. |
2 Tbs. Sugar 1 Tbs. Kosher Salt 2 Tbs. Rice Wine Vinegar |
When the meshi is done, dump it into a large bowl, preferably a wooden bowl, and
unvarnished would be nice. Wood will wick away excess moisture, but it won't
suck the heat out of the rice too quickly the way a big metal bowl would. If
you don't have a big wooden bowl—, you know, like a salad bowl—just use the
biggest glass bowl that you can get your hands on. It'll be okay.
Slow cooling is really crucial if the rice is going to absorb the next hit of
flavor and develop a sticky, but not gummy consistency. Now once the rice is
spread out a bit, drizzle on the vinegar mixture, and cut it into the rice with
a spatula. Don't stir, okay. That would just rile up the starch coat. Think
slashing motions here.
Now traditionally, at this point, an assistant would come in with a fan. Not to
cool you down, but to cool the rice and dry the vinegar/sugar syrup onto the
outside of the grains. That is what is going to ensure the stickiness needed to
create stable three-dimensional forms without having to squeeze the rice into
dense little dumplings. Now if you don't have a fan, a paper plate will do the
job very nicely.
Now once the rice is completely cool—and yes, you'll have to fan it until it is at
room temperature, it'll just take a couple of minutes—place a moist towel over
it and stash it in a relatively cool place in your kitchen, until you're ready
to make your sushi shapes. Whatever you do, do not put it in the refrigerator.
The grains will get hard, and lose their subtle adhesive qualities.
GUEST: John Stewart, fishmonger
It is a sad and simple fact of life that food can make you sick. And if meat is
on the menu, the chances of this goes up. And if raw fish is on the menu, well,
let's just say that the most important question a beginning sushimon [tran:
sushi maker] can ask is
not, "What fish will I prepare?", but, "Where will I get the fish that I
prepare?
Now this is John, my fishmonger. Fish is what he does. Fish is all he
does.
AB: Good afternoon, John.
JOHN: Hey, Alton. You come here to pay your bill today?
AB: [laughing] Pay my bill ...
JOHN: My man.
AB: No. Really, I was coming in because I'm thinking about sushi tonight. What
do you think?
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JOHN: Sushi ... hmmmm ... AB: [to the camera] He's got a lot to think about. JOHN: [thinks for a few minutes] |
Freshness Texture Flavor |
JOHN: Well, I'll tell you what. I've got ... Today we've got some great red snapper that just came in, some wonderful mahi-mahi, we have pompano, but I tell you what. Today, I'd have to say, for sushi, go with the tuna, which is yellowfin, and the Spanish mackerel.
AB: Tuna and Spanish mackerel. I will have one Spanish mackerel, and half a pound of your best tuna.
JOHN: You got it, sir.
AB: Excellent.
Now since temperature and quality have a direct correlation, whenever I shop for fresh fish, I always bring a wee cooler of ice to portal my catch home.
AB: [gives the cooler to John] There you go.
Now ... [to the camera] come here, come here. The United States government happens to believe that fish that has been flash-frozen to about 20 below zero is actually safer than fresh fish and there are several mail-order organizations here in The United States that will ship you vacuum-packed, flash-frozen fish. So if you don't have a fishmonger like this, you can certainly consider that an option. Just don't tell him I said that, okay?
JOHN: Hey, man, that hurts.
AB: Just cut the fish.
If I've said it once, I've said it at least, oh, I don't know, five times:
organization will set you free. This has never been more true than it is in the
making of sushi.
I like to work on a large wooden board. I'll be cutting raw fish on it. Yes, I
am okay with that. I have some attractive service pieces. I have some pickled
ginger, or gari. I have nori sheets which I have cut in half. I always roll
with half-sheet sizes. I have two rolling mats, a large bamboo mat, and a
smaller one, wrapped in cellophane for California rolls. We'll see that shortly.
I've got about a pint of water spiked with two tablespoons of rice wine
vinegar. I have the rice that we made earlier. I have some wasabi for garnish. I
have one large sushi knife, very big, very sharp. You don't have to use that,
'cause you might take your finger off. So, feel free to use any slicing knife
with a narrow blade.
In Japan it's not uncommon for a sushi knife to cost over $5,000.
Although it might be tempting to have your fishmonger cut the fish into strips for you, don't do that. It will just age and oxidize very quickly. So, leave it whole and cut off what you need as you need it. Now always cut very thin, and always cut against the grain. Now on a tuna steak like this, which was cross-cut to begin with, that means laying your knife over, and cutting on the bias. That will ensure that the meat will fall apart in your mouth, instead of being chewy. Now for a round fish or flat fish filet like this, cutting against the grain is a little bit different. That means angling this way because you can see the grain runs this way.
When ordering sushi, always start with leaner, white
fish and progress to
fattier (usually darker) fish.
[a box, bearing the inscription "Sushi v1.0", ascends.]
[now in the restaurant] In 1809, a sushi maker named Yohei came up with an idea
that changed the world, fast food. Now this was Edo—Tokyo, but before it was
Tokyo—and it was about the size of London back then and its population was
known to have a lot of taste, but not a lot of patience.
Yohei wanted to satisfy both of these urges. So, he took a little slice of fish,
grated on some fresh wasabi, and then flipped it over and pressed it into a
hand-pressed oval of rice. He named the form nigiri, sold them by the piece, and
they have been popular ever since. Let's watch how they get made.
CK: [demonstrates] So now what? You trying to steal my technique?
AB: No. I'm just watching.
CK: Yeah, I know. You're always watching. But how about paying your bill sometime?
AB: Ha ha ha ha.
A good itamae is known to be able to keep like 10 to 20 customers at one time, without ever writing anything down. Of course, I can't help but notice, the place is practically empty.
CK: That's it. You got to get out of here now.
AB: [to off camera] Freeze program. I've got to work on this.
[the box descends and now says "Sushi v1.5"]
AB: [emerges from the box, signs a clipboard, and gives the lab technician a nasty look]
LAB TECH: [hangs his head and walks off]
And now, we nigiri. The most important thing to note about sushi manufacturing is that you do not want to squeeze. You do not want to squish the rice. You want there to be plenty of air in between the granules so when it hits your mouth, it basically just kind of falls apart. But it does have to be shaped. And I go through the same little ritual, or the same series of movements each time I do this so that the fish is just adhered on top. And there we have it, nigiri maguro, the oldest and perhaps purest form of sushi. The second most popular form, or maki, has rather dark origins.
Legend has it that tuna maki, tekka-maki, was invented in an Edo gambling house some night in the eighteen something or others. A gambler, desperate to keep his hand on the dice, demanded that the cook concoct for him a snack that he could munch with one hand. Well, the cook went into the kitchen, grabbed some little tuna scraps, and some rice, and wrapped it up in a piece of nori, thus creating something that looked like a big green burrito. Now, faithful fans of this show will find irony in this tale, because on the other side of the world, perhaps, on the very same night ...
... I, John Montague, Lord of the Dance, and Earl of Sandwich the fourth, the third, I don't know which one I am. But, I'm a notorious gambler and I have just beckoned my servant to bring forth a slab of roast beef packed between two pieces of bread so that I might take nourishment without having to give up my cards. And thus was born, the sandwich. Take your sticky dice.
In Japan, the word sushi refers to the rice not the fish.
Tekka-maki, of course, requires tuna,
just a little bit. I like to slice a
couple of pieces off of a larger filet, thusly. Again, against the grain, and
then I split those down the middle into narrow fingers. Be careful. There you
go. That's certainly enough for one. And lay out your mat—flat side needs to
be up—and bring the edge all the way to the end of your board. Then grab
yourself a piece of nori. Now nori has two sides, shiny and rough, and you want
the rough side placed up.
Get some water on your fingers. You want them wet, but not dripping, so just
have a towel nearby, and then grab some rice. Now, it's always easier to take
some rice off the roll than to add some later. So, use enough rice, and bring it
right up to about a quarter inch away from the edge of the nori. Rub on a little
wasabi, however much you want—it's completely up to you—and then the fingers
of tuna go right down the middle, overlapping ever so gently.
Hold the tuna in place with your fingers, and then roll the mat over, and
squeeze just enough to seal the roll. You don't want to squish it. And grab your
knife, and dip it in water—that'll help the blade from catching on the
seaweed—split that roll in half, double it over, and split into six pieces.
Remember, use full sawing motions. Don't push down.
A little gari on one side, maybe a little wasabi on the other, and you're good
to go.
In 2001 a 444 lb. tuna sold in Tokyo's main fish market for $173,600.
Once upon a time, a Sushi Chef in California got a crazy idea. He thought he would take the rice out of the inside of the roll, and put it on the outside of the roll, and thus was born a roll that has no raw fish in it at all, America's favorite sushi, the California roll. Let's make one.
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You will need avocados, some crab, and some cucumber sticks. You will need your plastic-covered mat. You will place one sheet of nori on that mat. You will get your hands wet. You will get hold of some rice, and you will build just as before. Only this time, you're going to add some sesame seeds, and then you're going to flip the whole thing over onto the mat. |
For 4 servings you will need 1 medium avocado, 4 crab sticks, 1 small cucumber , 1/3 cup sesame seeds and 4 sheets of nori. |
Take one quarter of avocado, sliced very thin—I usually get four, sometimes
five slices out of this—and the avocado goes down on the nori first. This will
give you a nice foundation that won't slide around when you start adding other
ingredients. Three or four pieces interlocking will do. Ordinarily, crab (real
crab) is used here, but you can use krab with a "k", which is usually made from
pollock, believe it or not, but it still tastes pretty good. Just split a piece
of that, or the real crab leg into several pieces, and then top that with,
maybe, eight of the long pieces of cucumber. Roll using even pressure.
Although the fillings, or gu, are completely up to you, resist the urge to add
more than about three different items in the middle here. Any more than that,
and your palate is just going to get confused. Besides, they'll be really hard
to roll.
Once you've got it rolled, apply a little even pressure, just to set the rice,
and then continue as before, dipping your knife in water, splitting in half, and
then doubling up, and cutting into six pieces. Some of rice is going to fall off.
That's okay.
Thank you very much. Now, at most sushi-ya, you will be served three
accompaniments with your sushi. You will have some soy sauce, or shoyu, some
gari, or pickled ginger, and a wee little wad of wasabi, or if not real
wasabi, mixed wasabi paste. Now as for the gari, as mentioned before, it is
usually used as a palate cleanser, but you can also just treat it as a side
dish. Just munch away. It is said to be very very good for the digestion.
As for
the little wad of wasabi, sitting so sinisterly on the plate, I'd say to leave
it be. Do not go mixing this up with your shoyu unless it is for dipping
sashimi, which, of course, is fish—raw fish—without the rice. The way I
figure it is, if the itamae wanted there to be wasabi inside the piece of sushi,
he or she would have put it there, okay?
Now, when it comes to the shoyu, it's very important that you remember that it
is there to underline flavors, not cover them up. So you want to go very very
sparing. And you do not, under any condition, want to go dumping the entire ball
of shari—the rice ball—inside of the sauce. So here's how you do it. Oh, and remember, sushi was invented as finger food, so fingers are always
permissible. And the dip [turns the sushi over, lightly coats one end]. And yes, you eat it all in one bite.
AB: [with his mouth full of sushi]. You know, ummghj, fgg fgfhh ...
CK: What did you say?
AB: No omff gio gfhgd ...
CK: What did you say about my sister? I heard you say something about my sister.
AB: [with his mouth still full of sushi] feef pogam, feef pogam! [the program doesn't freeze]
[AB exits the box that now says "Sushi v6.0"]
Well, as I was mumbling, I hope that we have given you the courage to
jump, feet first, into the culinary pool that is sushi. If you're already a fan,
maybe it's time to try a little rice and roll of your own. If you've always
shied away, well, trust me, exotic though it may seem, sushi is certainly Good
Eats.
See you next time.
AB: [signing the clipboard for the technician] Make it disappear.
CK: [emerges from the box, and looks around, the music is ominous]
Transcribed by Michael Roberts
Proofread by Michael Menninger
Last Edited on 08/27/2010