Things You Need

• Sushi Rice (tutorial)
• Toasted Seaweed (Nori)
• Other roll ingredients (whatever you like, perhaps tuna, or sriracha hot sauce)
• Wasabi

Utensils, equipments:

• Sushi rolling-mat covered in plastic wrap (maki-su)
• Diluted vinegar solution (tezu)  (tutorial)
• Sharp kitchen knife
• Scissors
• Wet clean dish cloth/soaked in tezu if you prefer

Other (sauce, garnish, drink):

• Soy sauce
• Pickled sliced ginger (gari)

Hoso-Maki or Thin Roll

(Hoso-maki — Thin roll — 2.5 cm, 1 inch diameter)

1. Lay your rolling mat down with the threads of the mat facing away from you. have the flat side of the roller facing up.
2. Place the glossy side of the seaweed down on the roller. Make sure the nori is in the position shown in the second illustration below.
3. Moisten your hands with the tezu (diluted venegar solution).
4. Take a palm full or 1 cup of sushi rice, and form it into the shape you see below in the third illustration.
5. Place the rice on one side of the nori sheet, centered as you can see in the third illustration.

1. Start by spreading the rice down the center of the nori like the first illustration below. Then spread the rice up and down, but make sure you leave some space at the top of the nori. See the second illustration below.
   
2. Smear a small amount of wasabi in a line across  the center of the rice (this step is totally option and I rarely add wasabi inside my roll. I just want to give you ideas of ingredients you can place inside your rolls).

1. Now is the time to add you ingredients down the center of the rice like the first illustration below shows.
2. Once your ingredients are placed, Lift up the edge of the roller that is closest to you with your thumbs, and roll it over. use your free fingers at the ends of the roll to keep your ingredients from falling out. Roll until you reach the part of the nori that we didn’t cover with rice. See illustrations below.
   

1. At this point follow the first illustration below and note the arrows. make sure the end of the roller that was facing you when we started tucks the edge of the nori seamlessly under the riceless part of the nori.
2. Once your nori is tucked finish rolling. You can proceed to shape the roll if you need to my gently pressing and rolling the roll back and forth in the roller. Make sure you don’t roll too tight or you roll will break under the pressure.
3. Unravel the roller and place the roll seam side down on your cutting board.
4. Use your knife by wetting it with a rag soaked in the tezu (diluted vinegar solution). This will prevent the rice from sticking to the blade. When rice does get on your blade, make sure to clean it off thouroughly with the rag. Be sure to do this between every 1-2 cuts to ensure a nice clean cut everytime.

1. Cut the roll in half then place the two halves side by sideas shown in the first two diagrams. Then make two or three cuts into both halves simeataeneously. If you have more ingrdients I suggest the six piece cut. If you have few ingredients you can try of 8 pieces.
2. Place the cut sushi rice side facing up on your serving dish. Add wasabi and ginger on the plate. I would suggest adding some sort of garnish or decoration to the plate. Perhaps molding your wasabi into a shape would be a nice touch.

Futo-Maki or Thick Roll

(Futo-maki — Thick roll — 6 cm, 2.3 inches diameter)

1. Rolling futomaki instead of hosomaki is very similar. A whole sheet of nori is used, the amount of sushi rice will be doubled.
2. Use the same amount of rice just as in the hosomaki tutorial but do the exact same thing twice in different regions of the nori as illustrated below.
3. Place ingredients evenly one by one, and roll as the same as above.

1. Use the same proceedure above to slice the roll. This time I would strongly suggest 8 pieces due to the size of the roll.
   

Ura-Maki or Inside-Out Roll

1. The ingredients of California roll are usually avocado, crab meat, cucumber, and roasted sesame seeds.
2. Place nori seaweed sheet on the mat.
3. You spread the rice out the same way as you did for the futomaki roll, but leave no space at the top this time.
4. Sprinkle toasted sesame seeds over the sushi rice unless you prefer not to. Its up to you.
   

1. Now we need to add plastic wrap unless your roller is covered in plastic wrap already, which I would recommend. Place the sheet of plastic wrap over the rice, then flip the plastic along with the start of your roll over on the mat. So your nori should be facing up.
2. The ingredients are placed on the nori sheet in the center.

1. Use the same rolling procedure above. if you are using loose plastic wrap, be sure not to get the plastic rolled into your roll.
2. Remove the plastic wrap. Follow the same cutting procedure as above to slice your roll.
3. Masago or tobiko: If you used sesame seeds on your roll, then it will be hard to get your eggs to stay on the roll, but that depends on the amount of sesame used. Some tend to use the eggs as a topping, but I prefer to roll my finished roll in masago(smelt egg) so I get full coverage.

Hand Roll or Cone Roll

Ura-Maki or Inside Out Roll

Thin Roll or Hoso-Maki

Image Gallery