How to Make a Maki Roll

Male: I am now going to show how to make a maki roll. Maki roll is one of the basic forms of sushi. It is a perfect roll for you to practice on; you get that rolling motion of yours just right and make bite size pieces of sushi that you are able to put in tuna, salmon, avocado and cucumber. You name it. This is how you do it.

So, first things first, let us grab a hold of the seaweed. So I take out a Maori over here like so. Look at how these lines go down, okay and that is an indicator of whether it is the right way around or not and never ever, ever, ever go with the lines like this. I always go against them, also, one other thing, you see how rough the side is over here like so and then if I turn it around, you see how smooth it is? I always put rice on the rough side, okay?

So, I take it, you see the lines going down, rough-side-up and I fold it in half, just like that, okay, and because this Maori is so nice and fresh. Do you see how crisp it is? It just breaks, okay and that is great. Because I do not want to be using --.

Once you have opened up your bag of Maori, it oxidizes really quickly and it becomes really soggy and difficult to use so I am going it when it is nice and fresh and once I finish making sushi, if there is any left inside that packet? I am afraid it has to go out, because otherwise, you are not going to be able to use it again.

So, I have now broken my seaweed in half, I take a half that I am not using, remember, it oxidizes, I t gets gooey really, really quickly. I put it into the bag like so, and I now place it on my bamboo mat, okay? Just over here.

I wet my fingers. I wet my hands and I am going to grab a ball or rice about the size of a golf ball, just over here like so. Okay, I take this rice, I put it on my piece of seaweed and I spread it out. Just like that.

Now watch what happens. I creat and invisible line okay, where no rice is going to go, okay. So I am just gently, gently, gently maneuvering this rice. I am gently maneuvering this rice and look, I have created a line now where the rice comes to and no further rice is going to go beyond that.

From here now, I can dip my fingers again. We are going to use cucumber and I am going to take a piece of cucumber like so, I put it inside my roll just over here and then, watch carefully, my thumbs come just underneath. Do you see how the seaweed is aligned? Just above the loop of the bamboo wrap. My thumbs come underneath, I put my fingers on the actual ingredient itself, I am going to go over, watch, I keep pressing down, not too hard, not to hard but firmly. I keep pressing down to here like so, okay and then from here, I am just going to lift this up and complete the roll, okay?

From here now, I am going to pinch in, push down. There are two schools of thought when it comes to sushi. One is the circular school and one is the square school. I am from the square school, which means that you are from the square school. See? Just like that. Then I can toughen it up a little bit, just over here and hat I do now, is I take my knife, I put it in the water just like so, I tap it just in the bottom just to make sure that the water runs down the blade and then this is how e cut it. I cut it in half and then I cut it into thirds. The reason why I wet the blade is so that the rice do not stick to the blade. So the I just cut into thirds, just over here like so, one and two and you have got a sushi.