Better maki rolls.

July 11, 2007 5:34 AM

When I make maki sushi at home the nori ends up being either too dry and chewy, or soggy and flimsy. What am I doing wrong?
posted by roofus to food & drink (8 comments total)

not sure what you're doing wrong (since you don't actuaklly say what you're doing, but IME, it's best to *just* toast the nori to the point where it gets that golden sheen, and no longer.
posted by wayward vagabond at 5:37 AM on July 11, 2007

eeep! typos!
posted by wayward vagabond at 5:38 AM on July 11, 2007

are you drying your rice when you mix the sugar and vinegar in? I found that using a fan helps the sugar coat the rice and makes it more sticky than moist. Make sure you fan the rice while you are mixing it until it gets to room temperature.
posted by any major dude at 5:56 AM on July 11, 2007

I think you just solved the mystery. I haven't been toasting my nori at all.
posted by roofus at 5:59 AM on July 11, 2007

Mmmm... toasty.. :P thats the answer.
posted by jmnugent at 9:20 AM on July 11, 2007

Nori usually comes pre toasted, in my experience. Are you cutting the sheets in half, though? And using only a small amount of rice?
posted by cotterpin at 12:32 PM on July 11, 2007

I find it always comes down to the amount of moisture in the rice. If the rice is too wet, it'll soak into the nori and make it all nasty and gummy; too dry, and you'll be sneezing nori powder.

Fanning the rice (as any major dude suggests) is the traditional solution, but lord what a pain. My technique is to be anal about how I cook my rice; here's my (current) technique:

Rinse the rice well in plenty of cold water until the water runs clear (i.e. get rid of some of the extra starch). Then soak it in cold water for at least an hour; two is better.

Rinse again before cooking (in a rice cooker), and make sure to be very precise about the water/rice ratio. It's 3 cups of rice to 4 cups of water, but the ratio doesn't scale linearly (1½ cups of rice takes 2¼ cups of water, e.g.) so you'll need to experiment if you need a different amount of rice.

As soon as the rice is done, gently turn it out into a bowl for it to cool. Wood is good; metal and plastics can collect a bunch of condensation feed it back into the rice.

Let the rice cool until it reaches body temperature (pop a bit in your mouth; it should feel neither hot nor cold). You'll want to stir it from time to time so that it cools evenly. Only once the rice is cool should you add the seasoning (and be skimpy with that vinegar).

Good luck!
posted by jacobian at 1:09 PM on July 11, 2007

I cheat on the fanning process by pointing an electric fan on low at the bowl while I mix in the seasoned vinegar. Seems to work okay.
posted by ga$money at 4:55 PM on July 11, 2007