Temaki — Japanese hand rolls — are the easiest, most fun sushi to make at home. There’s no bamboo mat and no precise cutting: you simply wrap a cone of nori around seasoned rice and your favourite fillings. It’s perfect for a relaxed “build your own” dinner where everyone rolls their own. As always, it starts with good sushi rice from your Japanese rice cooker.
Ingredients
- 1 batch prepared sushi rice
- 8 sheets nori, halved into rectangles
- Sushi-grade salmon or tuna, sliced into strips
- Cooked prawns or crab sticks
- Avocado, sliced
- Cucumber and carrot, cut into thin batons
- Optional: Japanese mayonnaise, cream cheese, shiso leaves, spring onion
- To serve: soy sauce, pickled ginger, wasabi
Method
- Arrange all the fillings on a platter and put the rice in a bowl with a rice paddle, so everyone can build their own.
- Take a half-sheet of nori, shiny side down, on your palm. With damp hands, spread a small spoonful of rice over the left third.
- Lay a little of each filling diagonally across the rice, pointing to the top-left corner.
- Fold the bottom-left corner of the nori up and over the filling, then roll the sheet into a cone shape.
- Dab a few grains of rice on the end to seal. Eat straight away, while the nori is still crisp, with soy sauce, ginger and wasabi.
Tip: Temaki must be eaten the moment it’s rolled — nori softens quickly once it meets the rice. If using raw fish, choose sushi-grade fish that has been previously frozen, and keep it well chilled until serving.
