Any sushi fanatic knows that the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo is the number one place in the world for top quality tuna, and is where the majority of the world’s supply comes from for restaurants. Actually, I didn’t know that until I went there, and I love sushi, especially tuna, so let’s just write that off as a fun fact and move along.
Anyway! As I said, the Tsukiji Fish Market is where all of the best tuna gets brought in, and where everyone (in the sushi industry) goes at the crack of dawn to aggressively bid on fish and prices. You can watch the chaos if you feel like waking up at 4am to get in line to be one of the 120 people allowed in when the bidding opens at 5am, but that’s up to you. I did not do that.
I did something that I thought was much more interesting. Instead of watching the giant fish get hauled away to be turned into sushi, or stopping at one of dozens of food stalls to the left of the wholesale area, I decided to learn how to make the sushi myself. What better place to do that than at the actual Tsukiji Cooking and sushi making class, right?
Located IN the actual Tsukiji Fish Market, just a short lovely walk from where I was staying at the Park Hotel Tokyo, is the chef-grade kitchen and classroom where Tsukiji Cooking holds their classes. I was greeted by an adorably cheerful professional sushi chef who has been making sushi for over 25 years! Her and her assistant who also doubled as a translator and awesome video-helper showed myself and the other “student”; a food writer from Denmark, to our seats, where we were equipped with the necessary tools and ingredients to make our sushi.
But I didn’t just learn how to make traditional sushi rolls and nigiri pieces; I also learned an amazingly easy and awesome way to make sushi balls! I hadn’t heard of them before, but they’re pretty much genius; instead of an oblong nigiri sushi that you have to either cut, bite, or shove in your mouth, they are bite sized sushi pieces, and they’re really easy to make! Here’s how:
Jump To:
1. Gather Your Sushi Ingredients
The first thing you of course need to decide, is what ingredients you want to put on your sushi balls. For your first attempt you can maybe start with the basics; shrimp, crab, salmon, tuna, just make sure it’s all sushi grade and Ok to eat raw! Then you get the accompanying ingredients like avocado or cucumber, and of course the sushi rice. Here are the ingredients for the sushi balls I made:
- 2 small slices of salmon
- 1 slice of octopus
- 1 small shrimp sliced in half long-ways
- 1 small piece of avocado
- Japanese or California rice
- rice vinegar
- wasabi
- toppings (egg, capers, caviar, etc)
2. Gather Your Sushi Making Supplies
Luckily these sushi balls don’t require the traditional bamboo mat that you need to master to make sushi rolls, now do they require any knife work aside from the slicing of your ingredients. In fact, all you really need are a couple of items that you probably already have!
- One medium sized bowl for your rice
- One spatula for stirring the rice
- One medium sized bowl for dipping your hands in
- Plastic saran wrap
- Wet napkins or paper towels
3. Make Your Sushi Rice
Sushi rice is a bit tricky to make. It’s not like regular rice that you can just steam and serve; sushi rice has to be somewhat sticky, in order for it to take shape and stay that way. You also need to use a certain type of rice, either Japanese or Californian, and special ingredients like rice vinegar, in order to make it.
Here’s the measurements for the ingredients:
2 cups of Japanese or Californian white rice
3 cups of water
1/2 cup of rice vinegar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1-2 teaspoons of soy sauce
Once you have those ingredients here’s what you do:
- Rinse the rice off with water, then put it in a little pan with the water and bring it to a boil. Once it starts to boil, reduce the heat to low, cover it, and let it cook for 20 minutes. Then let it stand to cool off on its own.
- In a small saucepan, combine the rice vinegar, oil, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Cool, then stir into the cooked rice using a spatula to fold the rice rather than stir it and make it mushy. Keep fold-stirring until all of the liquid seems spread out and the rice becomes sticky.
- This part isn’t in typical recipes, but my sushi instructor showed me how pouring a little bit of soy sauce in the rice helps make it more manageable, and also adds to the flavor!
4. Form Your Sushi Balls
So here’s where I learned the best trick quite possibly in the world…you can use plastic saran wrap to make cute little sushi balls!!! Well, you can technically also use them to make those oblong rice lumps for the nigiri sushi too, but let’s keep our focus on the balls. Ok so for starters, keep in mind that we want these to be bite-sized, so don’t go crazy with the amount of rice you use!
Here’s the steps:
1. Take a square of plastic Saran wrap and lay it over your left palm (do the opposite if you’re a lefty)
2. Use a spoon or spatula to scoop a bite sized amount of your sushi rice into the center of your palm, on top of the Saran wrap
3. Gently curl your hand up over the ball of rice so that the Saran wrap encloses it, then use both hands to twist the Saran wrap together at the top of the ball, and gently mold the rice into a ball.
4. Before unwrapping it, dip your right hand in your water/vinegar solution in case you need to touch the rice (this will prevent it from sticking to you).
5. Unwrap the Saran wrap and gently roll or place the ball onto your plate or work area.
6. Repeat steps 1-5 to make two more balls or however many you’d like to make.
5. Add Your Ingredients to Your Rice Balls
Once all of your rice balls are formed and ready, and you’ve cut all of your ingredients to sizes that will fit on the rice balls, here’s what you do:
Add the sushi ingredients:
1. Lay a new piece of Saran wrap over your palm.
2. Lay your ingredients down in your palm first.
3. Add a touch of wasabi (if you want) to the underside of the ingredients that will be placed on top of the rice.
4. Dip your other hand in the water/vinegar solution then use it to gently place a sushi rice ball on top of the ingredients.
5. Twist the saran shut closed again and gently mold the ingredients onto the top of the rice ball.
6. Unwrap the plastic wrap and voila! You have a sushi ball!
GARNISH: To add garnishes to your sushi balls, just think of what would typically be inside of a sushi roll or on the side of the plate; we used capers for the salmon sushi ball, and caviar for the squid one, then little pieces of cut cucumber and ginger to decorate the plate!
Want to learn how to make actual sushi rolls? Check out this quick video of my Tsukiji Sushi Class in Tokyo to see how they make those perfect rolls!
As one of Japanese people, I’m happy that you visited Japan a few month ago and enjoyed how to cook real shushi???