I am Hilah, and today on Hilah Cooking I am going to show you how to make a vegetarian

sushi roll.

I've gotten a request for how to do sushi rolls several times over the last three years

or so, so I figured might as well do it now.

It's about time, right?

So I am gonna do a vegetarian one, but you can do whatever you want.

I'll give you a bunch of ideas at the end for different stuff to stuff inside and roll

it up like a big ole burrito.

Okay, first thing we need to do is make some rice, derrrr.

So typically, sushi rice, okay, well sushi rice is a very short-grain rice that cooks

up really soft and slightly sticky.

It's different from like glutenous rice.

Calrose is an American variety that's pretty easy to find.

I just got this at like the, I don't know, the Asian market, but anyway, see that.

Okay, so typically it is rinsed like three times before you cook it or until the water

is clear to remove any starch, but this particular brand says, "Washing Not Necessary," so I

am gonna trust them on that.

I mean I do trust them on that because they are a company and why would they lie?

So I am gonna not wash it.

I am just gonna cook it because I also like to save water because I live in a desert climate.

Okay, anyways, so we want one cup of rice in the pot, and then one and a quarter cups

of water goes in, and then we're just going to cook it like regular old rice.

I am gonna bring it to a boil with the lid on it, and then turn it down, simmer it for

about 20 minutes while we prep the rest of our sushi guts.

While our rice is cooking we're gonna make some seasoned vinegar, and that's what we're

gonna mix into the cooked rice, and that's what makes it sushi rice.

I've got some rice vinegar here.

This is plain, unseasoned rice vinegar.

You can buy it already seasoned, and it's got the salt and sugar already mixed into

it, and then you could just add this, but I don't know.

I've got both on hand for some dumb reason.

Okay, anyway, then we're going to add some sugar and some salt and to stir this up until

it's dissolved.

Okay, once it's dissolved we'll set that aside, and we can prep our vegetables.

So I've got red bell pepper.

You just want to cut it into nice, pretty, as straight as you can get them little slices,

so the thing about sushi rolls is a lot of it has to do with presentation.

I am really not that big on presentation.

I am kind of a sloppy girl, but for this it does make a difference.

So just like that.

Carrots are nice, like, any kind of vegetable really that you like could go in here; mushrooms,

asparagus.

Great, so those are done, and do a little avocado.

Sometimes cream cheese is also added to these, whatever.

So I am just very gently scoring this.

Use a smallish knife and don't press very hard, and you'll be able to feel when the

knife, the tip of the knife hits the leathery skin so you don't like cut all the way through

and cut your fingers off.

Bad move, that would ruin dinner, and I am actually not gonna to scoop this out yet.

I am just gonna leave it like that so it doesn't turn all brown.

As long as it's not exposed to air it won't turn brown, right?

So just kind of sandwich it back together like that, and then for the cucumber so our

nori squares, I should have that out now but I don't.

They are about six inches square, so just try to get your cucumber to be about that

long.

When you're done it makes it a little bit easier to roll it.

You don't have to put multiple pieces of cucumber in there.

There, and again, we just want to about the same width as the red bell pepper.

I will discard this seed part.

Great!

That's pretty much all the prep we need to do, so I am just gonna wait for the rice to

finish cooking, and then we'll roll them up, here!

That's what you can do with that.

Okay, so once the timer's gone off for your rice after 20 minutes, turn the heat off,

and then just let it sit in front of there five minutes covered.

That's just gonna make sure that all of that liquid is absorbed and the rice has, you know,

fully plumped and also let it cool off a little bit so you don't burn your little fingers,

see.

I am at that point now.

I have got a big platter here.

Just use a wooden spoon to scoop it out onto the platter.

Then I am gonna start drizzling it with spoonfuls of this vinegar mixture.

It's important to add the vinegar while the rice is still warm, so it absorbs it, and

it kind of moistens the rice and keeps it from getting crusty or dried out, and just

gently toss it around, and we're also in the process of cooling the rice off so that we

can make the rolls, and it seems like this is a lot of liquid but it will go in.

So that's enough.

About half of the little bowl that we made will do good for this amount of rice which

is about two cups.

See the rice looks really nice and glossy now, and we'll spread it out.

Let it cool a little bit more, and rice I will be back with you in a moment.

Please wait over there.

Okay, so now, so this is my sushi rolling station, so I've got all my toppins, and then

this is the norishi.

I opened the wrong end like a dildo, but there you go, so there's a brand, but it's just

seaweed that's been sort of pressed out into a really thin, paper thin sheet and then toasted

or roasted, so here we go, and you can tell, it's kind of hard to tell maybe in a picture,

but once you get it in your hands you can see that one side is a little bit rougher

looking and one side is a little bit smoother and shinier.

You want to put that smoother, shinier side down, and you want to put it on your bamboo

rolling mat which this is not necessary.

It helps it make a tighter roll (ha! ha!), but you can do it without one of these, so

don't stress out if you don't have one, and then like that, and then you want to put it

sort of lengthwise, so we'll put down about a half a cup of the rice and I've got a little

bowl of water here.

If you get your hands wet, it just sort of helps the rice not stick to your hands, so

we're just pressing it out, almost cover the whole sheet.

You want to leave an inch at the top to seal it.

You want to leave that uncovered.

Okay, so once you've got it covered about like this we can start putting our stuff inside,

perfect.

Some little bell peppers, and then our avocado, so you can just use a spoon to kind of scoop

out a couple of slices like that, and just try to keep everything across in an even layer

as possible so your roll doesn't end up all lumpy and weird, so then as you roll this

thing up and get to the end, you can add just a little bit of water to moisten that and

it will seal up really nicely.

Wrap this around and give it a little squeeze to just kind of compress it.

Awesome!

Ta da!

Sushi roll!

Done!

Now we just have to cut it.

Okay, so you've got a sharp, little knife.

The blades a little bit wet and that will keep it from sticking.

Cut it in half first, like that.

Pretty.

And kind of wipe the blade off in between and then we'll do half again.

The goal is to get eight equal pieces.

Okay!

There we go.

All right, and then I've got some wasabi paste here which I just mixed up from powder.

I am probably going to regret this later.

Give it a little dip in some soy sauce, and I've heard also that it's totally acceptable

to eat sushi with your hands.

I don't know if that's true.

Is that true guys?

Let me know.

Okay, here we go.

Mmmmm.

Mmmmmmm.

That was a lot of wasabi.

Yep.

That was a lot that I just put on there, that I just ate into my body.

Mmmmmm.

Good though, pretty good.

Cool it off with a little bit of pickled ginger.

Mmmmmm.

Oh, man, I think I have wasabi like travelling up my nose and coming out of my eyeballs.

Okay, there you go.

Yay!

I hope this maybe made an intimidating food seem a little bit easier and accessible for

you to make at home.

It's a lot cheaper if you make it home.

It might not look as pretty, but it's still tasty, it's really healthy, and yeah, you

can like mix up with all kinds of stuff, any kind of seafood, any kind of vegetables.

You could add wasabi paste in there.

Sometimes they use a little bit of mayonnaise.

You could do a fake crab.

You could do smoked salmon if you don't want to do like raw fish.

You could do smoked eel.

You can buy smoked eel frozen in Asian markets, and that is really, really good sliced up

and put in there, so there you go.

Have fun with this.

If you have any questions, leave them below.

If you would like to gently correct me on my poor sushi rice and rolling methods, then

you may also do that, but please be polite, okay guys because I am trying to be nice here.

[laughs] That was weird.

I sound like crazy person.

All right, anyway, thanks for watching.

Check out hilahcooking.com for more sushi roll ideas, and I will see you guys later!

Bye bye!

It's a Japanese burrito.