Vegetarian sushi

My grandmother Somekawa had very specific sushi-making rules. It was very important to fan the hot rice so that it would have a nice sheen. She would know if I didn't vigorously fan the rice and if I shirked my responsibility by just letting the rice cool on its own.


For makizushi (see photo) colorful ingredients are necessary to set off the white/sheened rice and black seaweed (nori): green (spinach or green beans); dark brown (shitake mushrooms); light brown (kampyo or gourd shavings); yellow (egg -- do not let them get brown -- or takuwan/pickled daikon radish); red (benishoga -- pickled ginger, but not gari -- the pickled ginger served with sushi).

Flavoring was just as important as visual presentation. But, I make my sushi a little more vinegary than she did. There's a lot of sugar in the other ingredients and I like to have the contrast.

Makizushi
Nori -- toasted over flame
Rice -- fanned vigorously until cook
Vinegar mixture -- heat with sugar and a touch of salt until blended
Dashi -- soup stock with soy sauce and a little sugar
Leaf spinach -- steam, squeeze dry
Shitake mushroom -- hydrate, if using dried mushrooms, cook in dashi
Kampyo -- hydrate and cook very slightly in dashi
Egg omelet -- beat eggs with a little salt and cook slowly in pan; turn gently without disturbing shape; do not brown
Beni shoga

Lay out nori on mat; put thin layer of rice on nori; lay out other ingredients; roll.

Inarizushi
Inarizushi skins (if using fresh skins, cut in half, boil in water and then in dashi; otherwise use canned (if using canned, drain and then soak briefly in prepared dashi (see above)

Fill with vinegared rice
Tie with kampyo to make festive packets