Thought I’d share my first attempt. Slicing was tricky even with a relatively sharp knife. Salmon carpaccio with manzanilla olives and smoked sea salt, salmon nilgiri with jalapeño and salmon sashimi all with freshly ground wasabi. Used high quality fish from local market sashimi grade. Sushi rice came out pretty good a touch wet but wasn’t using Moro this time around, I’m actually surprised how good it came out (outside of the uneven slicing and the lumpy rice). Better then all but the top in town sushi places, but of course I had to prep and make everything.
11 comments
I’ve never been game enough to put jalapeños in my rolls. I’m afraid it would kill the taste of the salmon (which in my view should remain the main flavor)
I think for a 1st timer those look great!
I put jalapeño on any of my rolls that have salmon. I love the taste together!
I am completely neutral on putting jalapeños on salmon rolls.
Looks delicious!
A couple points:
– Apparently there is such thing as too much rice in nigiri, and this is it? I’d eat it myself, so make of that what you will.
– Knife skills. I can see the effort, though! Keep at it. Practice practice practice.
– The jalapeño *on* the nigiri is a little weird to me; I’m more of an *in* guy myself. Jalapeño, dab of wasabi or ginger puree, whatever, just sandwich it between the fish and the rice. That’s just me, though — I know with salmon at least, you don’t have too much of a problem with it sliding off the top, unless I think if it’s cut too thick, which, see point two.
Not bad for your first time, yo! I’d eat it up. Good work. 🙂
Damn fine job! Keep it up!
Jalapeño pairs really well with Hamachi if you want to try that next
Regarding jalapenos on salmon- in Vancouver BC area there are a lot of places that do “aburi” style sushi, often oshi style (pressed) where they’ll make a salmon oshi and then torch the top of it. A lot of them will put some Japanese mayo and a slice of Jalapeno and torch it. It’s an indescribably delicious combination
As a sushi chef I see nothing wrong with putting whatever flavors together that you please when making yourself food. When I make myself rolls at work I toss a bit of everything and even add some pickled ginger inside. Many would frown upon that. Jalapeños on salmon works.
The thickness you have of the jalapeños I’d use that inside a roll as opposed to nigiri, that’s just from a presentation aspect, it’s too thick.
The only thing I can really critique is how thick your cuts of salmon are. For sashimi it’s ok, some people do it thick, for nigiri not so much, and yes also too much rice. You want about a ping pong ball worth of rice and go from there. I’d need to know more about the knife used to give you tips on your cuts. But I’f you knife is sharp, I’d ask you to try this. Hold the salmon on the cutting board, hold your knife horizontal half a centimeter from the bottom and cut straight across. It’ll give you a nice thin section you can cut into multiple pieces. This is good for beginners to use on rolls to have salmon on top if you struggle with traditional techniques
When I was learning to make sushi I found it helpful to practice making the right sized rice ball (15 gram to start, consistently is most important, then speed, then vary the amount depending on fish species, size). If you have a kitchen scale, put a plastic lid container on it, and work on grabbing/ knowing weight of rice. It’s easier to practice with cold, few hours old rice. Wet just finger tips, pinch and roll rice into loose ball with fingers tips, back of hand to ceiling, use thumb tip to break off extra if you think it’s too big, compact ever so slightly, then check on the kitchen scale. Repeat. You can also make a guide to cut the fish the same size. Generally looking for 8cm * 3cm.
Looks great, hope you stick with it!