Salmon Nigiri

A lot cheaper, and I bet a lot easier to make yourself than you think. You don’t need any special tools, just the three components of rice, seasoning, and fish. I’m gonna’ break down the basics here, as well as give some options to level up if you so desire.

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Rice

What kind of rice should I use?

Short answer – Japanese short grain rice. Different rices have different textures and, though subtle, different flavors. When cooked, short grain rice has a firmer, kinda’ bouncy bite to it, and a sticky texture that is especially crucial for making any kind of sushi. Long grain rices (e.g., Jasmine, Basmati), are dryer and wouldn’t keep its form well.

Ideally look for the Koshihikari label, which is a “first grade” strain of Japanese short grain rice.

My Choice

(yes this was a branded post but I was not commissioned to include it here. so this is straight from the heart. and taste buds.)–

Everyone talks about how much better fresh pasta is, but I think rice deserves a moment here. Quality and taste, along with nutritional benefits, start to deteriorate after rice is milled (just like any harvested produce). And since rice is half of this dish (+ half my diet), I was v happy to use The Rice Factory NY Koshihikari rice – their rice is milled per receiving the order, to ensure freshness, and I <3 their transparency with sourcing and overall ingredient processing. Good stuff all around. 🍚🤍

Cooking Rice

First step is rinsing your rice under cool water. This removes the excess starch coating that can make your rice gummy, and makes the grains more separate when cooked.

A rice cooker (linked the one I own, pricey b/c has some fancy shamncy buttons. but here’s another option that works just as well) is obviously simpler with just the press of a button.

But, it takes less time and is also easy to cook stove top:

1. Add water in a 1:1 rice to water ratio.
2. Bring to a boil, then put on a tight-fitting lid and reduce to a visible simmer for 10-12 min.
3. Remove from heat, and let the rice rest with lid on for 10 minutes – allows steam to redistribute and evenly cook rice.
4. Wet a rice paddle or wooden spoon (keeps rice from sticking to it), and scoop rice from the bottom and edges of the pot to fluff it up.

Rice Seasoning

You can find ready-made Sushizu (sushi vinegar) at most Asian grocery stores, but you can also easily make it yourself. For 1 c uncooked rice (1.75 c cooked): 1 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp rice vinegar, 1/2 tsp kosher salt.

Additional measurements for larger batches:

• 2 c uncooked rice: 2 tbsp sugar, 1/4 c rice vinegar, 1 tsp kosher salt
• 3 c uncooked rice: 3 tbsp sugar, 1/4 + 2 tbsp rice vinegar. 1.5 tbsp kosher salt

1. Heat combined ingredients over the stove or in the microwave, and mix to dissolve.

2. Add freshly cooked rice to a bowl, immediately pour in rice seasoning, and mix to combine. If rice appears wet, leave it uncovered to ventilate and cool, occasionally mixing, until it appears more sticky. Then, cover with a towel to prevent over-drying.

Fish

What kind of fish do I buy for sushi?

Now, I know the concept of raw fish can be intimidating, but all you’re looking for when buying are sashimi or sushi grade labels – which a lot of Asian grocery stores have a whole section for.

This just means that right after the fish was caught, it was flash frozen, effectively killing any parasites that are the main food safety concern for raw fish consumption. Though you won’t for certain get sick from eating fresh-(like, very fresh-)caught fish without freezing, wild fish almost certainly have parasites just from the ocean environment – so like, I wouldn’t.. but you do you.

Flash freezing immediately also preserves the quality/freshness and texture of the fish (vs. if you were to place store-bought fish in the freezer, water would slowly expand, break down muscle fibers, and make for a sad lookin’ cut of fish).

How do I cut it for nigiri?

First, thoroughly clean hands with soap and water. Remove fish from packaging, rinse under cool water, and pat dry with a clean paper towel.

Now, a few tips for cutting (from someone who has half-decent knife skills, but a decent understanding of the concept):

• Positioning: place fish on cutting board to cut across the grain (perpendicular to white lines), so that the pieces don’t fall apart and so the bites aren’t stringy – knife should be positioned diagonally along a rectangular piece of fish.

• Knife motion: cut in a slicing motion, starting from the heel of the knife and bringing it towards you to the tip. Repeat this motion to cut all the way through if necessary. *Don’t saw at it!* Raw fish is delicate so a back and forth cutting motion will shred the tissue.

• Tip: trim the first corner piece (~chef’s snack~), so that the next “first” piece will have a flat surface on both sides.

• Somewhat knit-picky but helpful: hold knife at a 30-45˚F to the cutting board (rather than straight up and down). The thinner the piece of fish, the greater the angle – to get you wider, more evenly sized pieces even from a thin cut.

Assembly

Sushi is best served with cold fish and room temp rice, so cover and refrigerate fish while shaping rice.

Shaping the Rice

Set up a bowl of water to keep your hands moist while shaping, so rice doesn’t stick. Using your right (or dominant) hand take ~2 tbsp of rice, and press it between your fingers and palm, to make a compacted ovular rice ‘ball’.

For that final adjustment, have pointer and thumb fingers of other hand (left/non-dominant) on each end of rice ball, and “pinch” to shape/compact the ends. Repeat for remaining rice.

Remove sliced fish from fridge. Cradle a piece along your left fingers, and press rice ‘ball’ over it. Repeat for remaining pieces.

Serving

Plate and serve fresh with whatever your lil <3 desires. I kept it simple with soy sauce and a bit of lemon juice. Some pickled ginger as a palate cleanser + a smidge of of wasabi on the underside of the fish would’ve been ideal too though.

Bonus points

If you wanna’ get particular about it, here are a few more tips and general info to level up (none of which I followed when making this recipe tho) :

• After rinsing, soak rice for ~30 minutes at room temp before cooking – rehydrates rice to get a better texture and bring out its flavor.

• Cook rice with a palm-sized piece of kombu (dried kelp), to add a subtle fragrance and delicious umami flavor.

• When mixing rice + seasoning, a wooden bowl and paddle are traditionally used – wood will absorb excess moisture from the rice, giving a better texture. Wipe with a wet towel to moisten the surface, so rice doesn’t stick.

• Other than “sushi-grade” – farm raised, dry-aged fish are safe to consume raw, much more sustainable(!!), and actually taste better than fresh (cleaner and kinda’ deeper umami flavor). In short, “dry-aging” is a controlled process naturally removes liquid impurities from around the bones (e.g., blood, fat, moisture). Not an expert here though, just an admirer, so for more info I’d recommend checking out @dry_aged_fish_guy, visiting The Joint (his marketplace) if you’re in LA – very cool learning experience with the whole set up there + a cute lil’ coffee shop in there – or reading this article on what he does.

• When cutting raw fish, it’s best practice to use a very sharp, sushi/sashimi knife (yanagiba). Yanagiba’s have a single bevel which allows them to hold a sharper edge, making for cleaner slices through raw fish. Additionally, they are longer and thinner compared to a regular chef’s knife, which makes it easier to cut through in one single motion (versus using a chef’s knife like I did).

• When shaping the rice, add vinegar to water bowl used to keep hands moist. This helps brighten the flavor by keeping keeps the fresh vinegar taste, as well as continually sterilizes your hands while working with rice.

• Proper way of eating nigiri is to dip it fish-side-down in soy sauce. I feel like I knew that. But didn’t do that. Oh well.

Ingredient Substitutions

• Sub soy sauce with tamari (gluten-free) or coconut aminos (soy-free).

• Someone commented that they ‘hate the concept of raw fish so could they use smoked salmon instead?‘, to which I say – it’s your food, your tastebuds, your life, so you do you. I will say though, that since smoked salmon is pretty salty on it’s own, you might wanna’ stick to just lemon, or use low-sodium soy sauce, or just a very light dip of it. Just feel it out.