Recipe Category: Rice
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Ingredients
Makes 6 rolls; serves 4 to 8
- 2 Japanese or Persian cucumbers or 1 English cucumber
- 2 firm-ripe medium avocados
- 1 recipe White or Brown Sushi Rice
- 6 sheets yaki sushi nori (roasted seaweed sheets)
- japanese sesame seeds.
- soy sauce, ready-to-eat wasabi (sold in a plastic tube or as a powder that you mix with water to make the paste), and slices of pickled ginger, for serving.
Method
- Stack the ovals and cut into thin matchsticks
- If using an English cucumber, you will only need about one-third to one-half of it
- Also, you may want to let the pieces wait for you on a double layer of paper towel so that any extra moisture is absorbed
- Cut each avocado in half the long way, working your knife around the pit
- Remove the pit and use a knife to score the avocado into slices about 1/3 inch thick
- Don’t cut all the way through the skin
- Use a large soup spoon to scoop the slices right out of the avocado shell
- If the avocado is large, you may wish to halve the slices lengthwise
- Arrange the rolling mat in front of you, with the pieces of bamboo running horizontally (parallel to the edge of the work surface)
- Place a piece of nori on the mat, with the smoother side down
- Uncover the rice and use the spatula to section the rice into 6 parts
- Scoop out one section and place it on the bottom half of the sheet of nori
- Re-cover the remaining rice to keep it from drying out
- Hold a fork in each hand, tines down, rounded side up
- Use the forks like garden rakes to spread out the rice as evenly as possible over the bottom two thirds of the nori
- Don’t leave any margins; spread the rice all the way to the edges
- Pick up a clump of cucumber slivers and arrange them in a line about 1 inch up from the edge of the nori closest to you
- You want the cucumber slivers to be about ½ inch thick and go all the way across the piece of nori (parallel to the edge)
- It is okay to mound the cucumber up a bit
- You will compress it as you complete the roll
- You will quickly learn how much filling to use to produce a roll that is neither skimpy nor bulging
- Add a row of avocado slices on top of or alongside the cucumber
- Sprinkle the cucumber and avocado with sesame seeds
- Slide the nori to the edge of the mat closest to you
- Lifting the mat, not the nori, begin the roll by bringing the strip of rice closest to you to meet the strip of rice on the other side of the filling
- Squeeze the mat gently but firmly, move your hands along the entire length of the mat, to create a nice, even log shape
- Now complete the roll, stopping every so often to gently squeeze the mat and shape the roll
- At the end, give a final squeeze, hard enough to firm and seal the roll but not so hard that the filling oozes out the ends
- If the nori doesn’t seal, dip your finger in vinegar and wet the edge of the nori
- Repeat with the remaining rice, nori, and fillings
- Moisten a sharp knife with water and cut each roll in half
- Cut each half in thirds, moistening the knife each time before cutting and using a back-and-forth sawing motion
- You should now have 6 equal size pieces of sushi
- Arrange the rolls cut side up, on the serving platter
- Serve with the soy sauce, wasabi, and slices of pickled ginger
Full List of Rice Recipes
Full List of Cucumber Recipes