Passion for Japanese cuisine is becoming almost ubiquitous. Many types of sushi and rolls are offered to old and new converts to exotic dishes. It is not so easy for a beginner to understand this variety, but it is simply necessary if he is going to an oriental restaurant or plans to become a home sushi master.
Such different sushi
Temarizushi is a small sushi for children. These are the same nigiri, only the rice pad is not a parallelepiped, but a small ball.
The most common sushi, nigiri, is a block of rice topped with a slice of fish, crab meat, shrimp, or Japanese omelette. If the coating is unstable and may fall apart, such as a strip of grilled eel, the simple structure is tied with a thin ribbon of nori (dried seaweed) or a green onion feather.
The second most popular type of sushi is guancanmaki or "boat". Its basis is also a rice block, but the filling is more crumbly, so it is completely wrapped in a wide nori ribbon, rising 1-2 cm above the rice pad, forming a small boat. It is there that they put granular tobiko caviar, chopped fish fillets with spices or in sauce, assorted vegetables, crab shavings, etc.
Temaki is the simplest and most voluminous type of sushi. It is a triangular bundle of a whole sheet of nori with wrapped
slices of fish, seafood, vegetables, herbs and, of course, rice.
Variety of rolls
Rolls in Japanese cuisine are even more diverse than sushi. They are thin and thick, closed and inside out, simple and complex. And the options for fillers for these mini-rolls, which have become widespread far beyond the land of the rising sun, thanks to the imagination of gourmets, are counted not even in tens, but in hundreds. However, the original types and techniques for making the rolls are still preserved.
So, the simplest and easiest rolls to perform are Hosomaki. They are thin and prepared with just one or two filling ingredients. Typically, these are fish, vegetables, or both. There are classic combinations of ingredients for hosomaki, these are salmon and avocado, eel and cucumber, shrimp and cucumber.
Despite the fact that such rolls are rarely served in Japan, in other countries they have received a special love of gourmets. This is probably why the most popular saimaki are not at all oriental names, for example, "California" or "Philadelphia".
Saimaki is perhaps the most beautiful rolls with voluminous fillings of 2-5 ingredients. Unlike the previous type, they are wrapped inside out, i.e. rice side out. They are garnished with thin salmon slices, sesame seeds, red or yellow tobiko caviar.
Futomaki, thick rolls, are filled with five ingredients, which must be in a variety of bright colors. At the same time, fish, shrimp or crab, omelet, vegetables or herbs, shiitake mushrooms or caviar are easily coexisting in one roll.
Sushi types of non-Japanese origin
Some Japanese food lovers have figured out how to cook their favorite dish, making this process as easy as possible. Thanks to them, the so-called western pressed sushi or yufu oshizushi ("yufu" - western, "oshidzushi" - press) appeared. Rice and filler are alternately placed in layers in a special device of two parts, which, when squeezed, tamp and cut the contents into even beautiful sushi.
In Russia, even smarter gourmets were found who use a small-diameter metal ring for cooking sushi, usually used for assembling portioned puffed salads. It is enough to put it on a plate, fill it halfway with the rice, half with the filling, and then gently pull it out.
