Of the many different types of sushi from Japan, the maki sushi is the best known. Because of its simplicity and pure taste, this strain is loved by many sushi lovers. It is therefore nice that the maki sushi is actually very easy to make yourself at home. With the right ingredients, a good working method, a tasty recipe and a little imagination, you can put a delicious sushi meal on the table.
Maki
Maki sushi is a thin roll in which rice and another ingredient are rolled into a nori. Maki therefore means rolled. The roll is cut into six to eight slices before serving. The thickness of the roll depends on the type of maki sushi. There is, for example, a thicker futomaki variant and a thinner hosomaki variant. With the uramaki, the roll is rolled inside out, so that the rice is on the outside and the nori on the inside. Maki sushi is one of the best-known types of sushi here in the Netherlands.
Ingredients Maki sushi
In maki sushi you can use different ingredients, but there are a number of ingredients that always come back in a real maki roll:
Rice
For maki sushi, just like with almost all other types of sushi, you use meshi, or sushi rice. Good meshi can be recognized by the round and polished grains. When the rice is cooked, it becomes sticky so that the sushi becomes firm. After the rice has been cooked, mirin, or rice vinegar, is added. In addition, salt and sugar can be added to taste.
Nori
Maki sushi is rolled in a nori, or seaweed. This type of seaweed is grown, dried and sold in thin slices in Japan. Although nori is used for the real maki, there are also recipes where, for example, lettuce or cucumber is used to roll the rice.
Others
Vegetables or fish are often used for the filling of maki sushi. As a vegetable you often see cucumber, carrot or avocado. The fish species can consist of raw fish such as salmon, tuna or mackerel. But boiled or grilled fish is also often used. Well-known examples are surimi or crab. Finally, fish roe is also used in Maki sushi. These are the ripe eggs of fish.
Wasabi
Wasabi is a sharp paste that is served with Maki sushi. This paste can be added to taste. The wasabi is made from the rare Japanese green carrot Wasabia japonica, which is similar in taste to horseradish. Because real wasabi is expensive and perishable, imitation wasabi is often used based on horseradish, radish, mustard and food coloring.
Maki sushi method
- Wash the rice and soak it in water for half an hour. The rice should be a finger joint under the water. For a roll of Maki sushi you need about 25 grams of cooked sushi rice.
- Boil the rice for 10 minutes and let the rice stand for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Dissolve sugar and salt in mirin and mix it with the rice. Let the rice cool down further.
- Place half a nori sheet on a bamboo mat. Lay the sheet with the shiny side down.
- Spread a thin layer of rice over the nori, leaving the top centimeter empty.
- Place one ingredient in a horizontal line on the rice, about an inch from the bottom edge.
- Roll up the maki sushi using the bamboo mat. Do this by starting rolling from the bottom. Wrap the nori sheet around the ingredient and press it down. Now roll further and make sure that the sushi is rolled nice and tight.
- Cut the maki sushi into six or eight pieces.
Maki recipes
You can make the original maki sushi very easily by following the above method and doing this with a few different types of ingredients. You could also make futomaki by filling the rolls with two ingredients instead of just one ingredient. If you want to be original, you can deviate from the standard maki by, for example, replacing nori with cucumber, or by making a uramaki. Here are a few recipes.
Classic maki sushi
Main course for four people or snack or starter for 12 people.
Ingredients
- 400 grams of meshi
- 8 nori sheets
- 4 tablespoons of mirin
- sugar, salt
- 100 grams of fresh salmon from the fishmonger
- 100 grams of fresh tuna from the fishmonger
- 1 avocado
- 1/2 cucumber
Preparation method
- Cut the fish into four long strips. Preferably, the bars should be the same length as a nori. If this is not possible, you can also place a number of thin strips of equal thickness against each other to achieve the correct length.
- Cut the avocado in half, remove the stone and remove the flesh from the skin with a spoon.
- Cut the halves each into six equal pieces.
- Cut the cucumber lengthwise into four quarters. These should be about the length of a nori.
- Follow the preparation method for maki sushi. In step six you always add one of the above ingredients. Make 4 rolls with each ingredient.
- Serve the sushi with wasabi, Japanese soy sauce and pickled ginger.
Futomaki sushi
Main course for four people or snack or starter for 12 people.
Ingredients
- 400 grams of meshi
- 8 nori sheets
- 4 tablespoons of mirin
- sugar, salt
- 2 eggs
- spring onion
- pepper and salt
- 125 grams of surimi
- 100 fish roe
- 1 avocado
- 1/2 cucumber
- mayonnaise
Preparation method
- Remove the surimi from the packaging.
- Cut the spring onion into thin strips.
- Break the eggs and add the spring onion, salt and pepper.
- Fry the omelette in a non-stick frying pan. Flip the omelet halfway through.
- Cut the omelette into 8 long strips. The sides can also form a long strip together.
- Cut the avocado in half, remove the stone and remove the flesh from the skin with a spoon.
- Cut the halves each into eight equal strips.
- Cut the cucumber lengthwise into four quarters. Cut these quarters in half once and make sure they are as long as a nori.
- Follow the preparation method for maki sushi. In step four you use a whole nori instead of half a nori.
- At step six you add all the above ingredients. First divide the fish roe over the rice. Top with two surimi sticks, two avocado strips, an omelet bar, a cucumber bar and a little mayonnaise.
- Serve the sushi with wasabi, Japanese soy sauce and pickled ginger.
Cucumber maki special
Snack or starter for 12 people.
Ingredients
- 400 grams of meshi
- 8 nori sheets
- 4 tablespoons of mirin
- sugar, salt
- 1 can of tuna in water
- 1 spring onion
- 1 cucumber
- 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
Preparation method
- Drain the tuna.
- Cut the spring onion into thin strips.
- Mix the tuna with the spring onion, salt, pepper and mayonnaise.
- slice the cucumber lengthways into long strips.
- Follow the preparation method for maki sushi. In step four, you use the cucumber strings instead of half a nori.
- In step six you add the tuna mixture.
- Serve the sushi with horseradish, soy sauce and fried onion.
