Japanese cuisine has firmly entered the life of our compatriots. Some of us love
sushi, rolls, sashimi, soups, kebabs and other
exotic dishes. Others are wary of them - at least out of fear there is raw fish. Be that as it may, there are simply no indifferent to Japanese rolls. And today we will try to cook the most popular of them - the California roll - at home.
It doesn’t matter if you decided to organize a theme party in the Japanese style, to surprise the household with something new or simply do not trust the quality of the products from the cafe, most importantly - you set out to make an exotic dish with your own hands. Using the recommendations in this article, you will make the California roll no worse at home than in a Japanese restaurant! Or maybe even better.
A bit of history
Before making California rolls, let's talk about how this dish appeared. It was invented by a cook in one of Tokyo's restaurants, named Itiro Masita. Rolls were very popular in his establishment, but once the chef noticed that not all visitors, especially tourists from America, like nori seaweed, in which the filling is wrapped. And then Ichiro began to cook rolls of rice outward, thus hiding the strips of algae inward. This "Americanized" version was called sushi-maki, and its popularity has stepped far beyond Japan.
What's inside?
The classic recipe involves the use of avocados as one of the main ingredients. But if this is not the first time you have prepared the California roll at home, you can experiment and add other ingredients: cucumber, carrots, salad or even mango - some gourmets especially note the taste of this product.
In general, the traditional ingredients of California are the following: glutinous rice, nori (sheets of dark green algae ), crab meat (ideally it is better to use it rather than crab sticks), avocado, special Japanese mayonnaise and flying fish caviar (more it is found under the name "tobiko caviar"). To accurately wrap the rolls, you will need a special mat, and pour it in a bowl of water in advance to wet your hands during the formation of the dish.
Cooking rolls at home
"California" is prepared very simply, and having a little stuffed hand, you will handle the mat no worse than a real sushi. So, put all the ingredients in front of you on the table and start the cooking process.
- Dip your fingers in a bowl of water.
- Take a serving of prepared rice and squeeze it a little in the palm of your hand until condensed.
- Put the croup on a sheet of nori (it should lie with the shiny side down, and the matte side facing you) and evenly distribute it over the entire surface. A layer of rice should go a little beyond one long edge of the sheet and not reach about a centimeter to the other edge - to make it easier to roll the roll.
- Carefully turn the sheet with rice down - in front of us is a ready-made "platform" for laying the rest of the ingredients.
- In the middle we make a “path” from Japanese mayonnaise.
- Lay on top slices of crab meat.
- Top - peeled and sliced thin slices of avocado.
- Using the mat, carefully roll the roll, ironing it and trimming the sides.
- We unfold and admire the snow-white surface of the rice roll - the California roll is almost ready at home!
- Sprinkle it with tobiko caviar and cut it into slices with a sharp knife.
This is how easy it is to prepare a beautiful and mouth-watering California roll!