how to prepare shrimp for sushi
March 6, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in how-to (all), how-to - fundamentals Tags: shrimp, sushi
4 comments
As I wrote in a previous post, I made sushi on Valentine’s day. I usually just use salmon and tuna for sushi, but since we were watching District 9, we decided to have shrimp (because they looks like “prawns” 
) as well.
Shrimp is probably easier to get than a good block of salmon and tuna sashimi, and it is also very easy to prepare it for sushi. I’m sure a lot of people cook shrimp at home, and the only difference between regular shrimp and shrimp for sushi is that shrimp for sushi is straight and flattened. I’m not even sure if you can call this a “recipe”, but I thought it’d be nice to know a little trick like this.
How to prepare shrimp for sushi
- raw shrimp with shell (not cleaned or cooked)
- salt
– toothpicks
– skewers
*If you’re interested in making sushi rice from scratch, check out “How to make sushi rice.”
1. First you have to de-vein the shrimp. I usually use a toothpick instead of a knife. Stick a toothpick on about 1/4 inch from the back of shrimp between the first and second shell from the tail, and pull it outward.
You probably don't get vein out here, but this is to cut the vein on the tail end to make it easier to pull the rest of it on the step 2.
2. Stick a toothpick on 1/4 inch from the back of shrimp, and slowly pull it outward.
Stick a toothpick around the middle of shrimp's back.
You can just do this without doing Step 1, and you'll be able to take the most vein out, but after doing Step 1 it feels like it's easier to remove more vein without getting cut off.
I love pulling veins out of shrimp. It's so satisfying.
3. Wash the shrimp after removing the vein.
4. Stick a skewer straight into the shrimp. Don’t stick it through the tail. I cut a regular skewer in half and use it because you’ll use fewer skewers and it’s easier to fit in a pot that way. (If you’re using metal skewers, make sure you use a pot deep enough for the whole shrimp to submerge in water.)
5. Put shrimp into boiling salted water, and cook it for a couple of minutes.
You don't have to cook them for too long. Shrimp cooks pretty quick.
6. Drain the shrimp and let it cool off.
7. Gently hold the shrimp in your hand and pull the skewer out as you twist it. Then remove the shell. You usually don’t remove the tail for shrimp sushi, but if you want to remove it, that’s fine too. The tail is just for a decoration.
8. Cut the shrimp along the belly side. Be careful not to cut it all the way to the back. Flatten it and pat it dry.
And you have shrimp for sushi!
I’m certainly not a sushi chef, and I don’t really care how finished should sushi look. 
Look how chunky my sushi is!
If you have problem shaping the sushi, you can make it into “temari-zushi.” Which means “hand ball sushi.” You can just put shrimp/fish on a piece of plastic wrap, and put a bit of rice on top and wrap it tightly to make it into a ball. Because they’re all same shape and tightly held together, temari-zushi is great for kids.
Not the best looking sushi, but who cares, I'm the one who's eating it!
Half a pound (about two dozen medium shrimp) was under $5 at the market by our place. I live in Brooklyn, and I’m sure it’s a lot cheaper if you buy them at a real fish market. So even with the cost of rice, 20~24 pieces of sushi shrimp for somewhere around $ 6~7. Not too bad for a small party, huh?
How to prepare shrimp for sushi on my flickr
For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.
If you have any questions about any of my how-to’s, please feel free to leave a comment or email me!
how to make sushi rice
March 6, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in how-to (all), how-to - fundamentals Tags: sushi
3 comments
When I posted about our “sushi night” on my blog before, I mentioned about “Sushi-noko” which was like powdered vinegar to make sushi rice. This time I decided to make sushi rice from scratch with ingredients you can easily get at a regular supermarket. Actually, it’s really not hard to make sushi rice, but the recipe requires you to work really fast. I don’t usually like cooking food that is “time-sensitive” due to my laziness, but freshly cooked sushi rice does taste better than the one made with vinegar powder.
Vinegar mix for 3 cups of sushi rice *( ) for 2 cup of sushi
- White vinegar 3 1/2 tbs (2 1/2 tbs)
- Sugar 2tbs (1tbs and 1ts)
- Salt 1 heaping ts (1ts)
*I use a regular mixing bowl, but a shallow bowl is ideal for making sushi rice because it’s easier to get the air between the rice and mix.
1. Mix the ingredients in a bowl and set it aside.
Don't worry if sugar doesn't fully dissolve right away. Most of it will dissolve while you cook rice.
2. Cook rice with a little less water (about a half of a cup less) than you usually use. In other words, cook rice “hard.” <- This is very important!
When the rice is done, take a deep breath. Because you have to move really fast from here. Step 3 – 4 have to be done in about a minute.
3. Put freshly cooked rice in a wet bowl, pour about 2/3 of the mixture of Step 2 on the rice, and start mixing rice immediately with a wet spatula with slicing motion, folding the rice over from the bottom, so the vinegar won’t stay at the bottom.
Tips: If you have an extra person and a hand fan, have the person fan the rice. I had my boyfriend as a "fan-boy." A fan-person isn't a part of this recipe, but fanning does help dry the rice a lot.
4. If the rice is not soggy, add the rest of the mixture little by little. If the rice starts to get soggy, stop adding the vinegar.
If you aren’t using the sushi rice right away, cover it with wet paper towel or wet cheese cloth until you use it.
Now you have sushi rice for sushi!
Simple but very important tips when you make sushi rice are…
* Cook rice with less water.
* Pour vinegar mixture in freshly cooked rice. (The water in vinegar will evaporate when mixed with hot rice, leaving the vinegary flavor on the rice without getting all soggy.)
* Mix the rice with a spatula with slicing motion. FAST.
I’m no definitely not a sushi chef, and whenever I make sushi, they all have different sizes and shapes. I think that’s the fun part of making sushi on your own. The only thing you want to remember is that make sure to wet your hands before you make each sushi, just like when you make rice balls. Otherwise most of the rice will just get stuck on your hands. Also, try using a little bit of rice first. The rice should be smaller than fish.
Gently hold the rice in your hand.
Put fish (shrimp in this case) on the top of the rice, and gently press it down with two fingers. Actually I think I used a little too much rice here.
If you’re interested in making shrimp sushi, check out “How to prepare shrimp for sushi.”
How to make sushi rice on my flickr
For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.
If you have any questions about any of my how-to’s, please feel free to leave a comment or email me!
Valentine’s day, prawns, and high-tech toilet
February 20, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in Everything else Tags: Japanese high-tech toilet, sushi
2 comments
I hope everyone had a great Valentine’s day and President day!
I realized I hadn’t blogged this week! O_O It feels like time flies even faster when you have a long weekend and a full-time job.
My boyfriend and I don’t really celebrate Valentine’s day. But it was Sunday so we decided to go to IKEA (romantic, isn’t it?). We failed to get the furniture we wanted, but succeeded to get Swedish meatballs and “prawn cheese spread.” We’ve been trying to get a certain piece of furniture from IKEA but it hasn’t been very successful… My boyfriend did a comic about it on his site, so check it out!
After we came home, we just played video games. He played Batman: Arkham Asylum and I played Okami for the Wii. At night, we made sushi and watched District 9 on Blu-ray. We had tuna, salmon and shrimp. How appropriate to watch District 9 while eating shrimp (prawn), right? =D
It’s so easy to prepare shrimp for sushi. Also, it’s easier and cheaper to get fresh shrimp in the U.S. than fresh salmon sashimi or tuna. So if you’re fan of shrimp sushi, you should try making it by yourself. I’ll do a quick how-to prepare shrimp for sushi soon. Probably this weekend.
I made two un-flattened shrimp to make a heart, so it was a very romantic Valentine's after all. =D
On Monday (President’s day), it was really nice out so we decided to go into the city to try out a Japanese restaurant called “Hasaki”. We picked the place because I’ve read that they have one of those super high-tech Japanese toilets. (Hasaki is located on 210 East 9th Street, between 2nd 3rd ave)
There’s a side story to this which is our quest to review restaurants with high-tech Japanese toilets. When we went to Curry-ya (a curry restaurant) in the East Village, they had a super high-tech Japanese toilet. (My boyfriend also did a review for Curry-ya, so check it out here.) I was so happy at this little surprise that I did research when I got home and made a list of restaurants in the city that have the high-tech Japanese toilet. Most locations are fancy up-scale Japanese restaurants, but Hasaki was affordable and had very good reviews for the food as well.
I ordered the Twilight Dinner, my boyfriend ordered grilled salmon. I was pleasantly surprised when they brought me my meal. It was a lot of food, and all for $20!
the Twilight Dinner - Salad
the Twilight Dinner - Main course, From top left (clockwise): Kinpira gobo with shiitake, vegetable & fish cake (real fish cake!) & shrimp tempura, grilled fish, Hijiki, Satoimo (Japanese sweet potato) O_O;
the Twilight Dinner - It also comes with either sashimi or sushi!
the Twilight Dinner - Dessert was assorted fresh fruit
It didn’t fit in the picture, but it comes with a bowl of rice and red miso soup. Did I mention all this is just for $20!!! Yes, salad, the whole plate, and desert. The only catch is that the Twilight Dinner is served only from 5:30 PM~6:30PM. Thus the name “Twilight.” Not a reference to the movie
I’m not good at reviewing restaurants, but my boyfriend did it on his blog. So you can read his detailed review of Hasaki here!
If you want to try different kinds of authentic Japanese cuisine, this is well worth it. The portions of each dish is pretty small but everything was very carefully prepared and seasoned just right. I ordered sashimi, so it came with a bowl of rice. But if you order sushi, you don’t get rice separately. The rice bowl is pretty small, but don’t feel embarrassed to order another bowl of rice if you want. Oh another thing, the miso soup here is pretty unique. They use fresh red miso and it’s very robust, so don’t be alarmed by the distinctive aroma.
Of course, we both went to the bathroom to check out the toilet. The lid opens when you get closer, washes & dries your bottom and flushes automatically afterward. Oh and the seat is heated!! Many people think that it’s just another wacky Japanese invention, but this high tech toilet is a lot more ecologically friendly than using paper.
The black part on the seat is a motion sensor, so it opens when you get closer to the toilet, and flushes when you move away from the seat.
The control panel on the wall. "Front" and "Back" on the right of the display screen is to change the angle of water. The one on the left is to change the pressure.
A simpler version is on the top of the control panel. The three buttons on the right is to close the lid, open the lid, and lift the seat.
Only one stall for each men and women's bathroom, but it is very roomy, clean and calming.
My parents house and my brother’s place in Japan have it. It’s very common thing in Japan now. Unfortunately only the women’s room has a super high tech toilet, the men’s room isn’t quite as high tech. (The seat is still heated, and you can control the pressure, and it washes your butt!) My boyfriend looked very sad when I showed him the pictures of women’s bathroom though. He thought it wasn’t fair.
Anyway, the amazing deal on the Twilight Dinner and the super high-tech toilet aren’t the only reasons to visit Hasaki. The interior was tasteful, the service was also very attentive, and they also have a sushi bar as well. We will definitely go back there again!
You can check out the restaurant reviews and see more pictures on my boyfriend’s blog!
Curry-ya in East Village
Hasaki in East Village
non-bento #6: “real” rice cake
February 28, 2009
Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all), bento blog - non bento Tags: rice cake, sushi
3 comments
This isn’t a bento, but I really liked how it turned out and it was easy, so I’m going to post it!
Like I mentioned, my bento caught up with my blog, and I didn’t make bento for Saturday… So I was thinking about doing a dinner blog. But I got up earlier than usual for a Saturday morning and went to the city to shop for a new game (“Tatsunoko VS Capcom for Wii ) today, so when I came home, I was pretty tired and decided to take a nap.
Not a good idea. orz
I wanted to cook salmon, but the fish market was already closed. So I got online and looked for an easy recipe for the dinner and found this!
non-bento #4: Real Rice Cake
Created and eaten on: 3/1/2009
Click to continue reading "non-bento #6: “real” rice cake"
Sushi night!
January 11, 2009
Posted by AnnaTheRed in Everything else Tags: sushi
6 comments
I have to apologize that there’s no “how-to” this week.
My boyfriend and I went to see about 12 apartments between Saturday and Sunday. We’d just wait for phone calls, go see an apartment, get a phone call and go see another apartment, and repeat… I don’t know if you can imagine what it’s like to find an apartment in NY (well, maybe you can) but it’s unbelievably stressful. I should know because I’ve moved 11 times in 14 years. It’s going okay so far, we just hope that we can find a good place soon!
Instead of a how-to, I’ll just post pictures of our sushi night!
My boyfriend and I sometimes have a sushi night. All you need is rice, rice vinegar, sugar, fresh fish and a sharp knife. You can find TONS of “how to make sushi online”, so I’m not gonna go into describing it. But if there’s an Asian supermarket nearby, pick up “Tamanoi Sushinoko.” (You can find it online too) This is a sushi rice mix powder, and if you’ve never made sushi before, it’s so much easier to make sushi-rice with this powder. Usually, you mix rice with rice vinegar+sugar+salt, but if you don’t dry rice well when you’re mixing it, the rice gets really watery and loose and it makes it harder to make sushi.
The package looks like this. It says "Tamanoi Sushinoko" in English.
Salmon and tuna blocks are about $6~7 each (for 2 X 5 X 1 1/2), and we only used half of each block or less. So for this whole plate, we spent about $7 + rice! We were so in mood for sushi when we made this, and we even made some California rolls.
Of course, we couldn’t finish the sushi.
Back in Japan, I used to have a sushi night when I was little. My grandma would cut the sashimi block, and I remember each sashimi piece was HUGE, but it was also so much fun! Well, sushi may not be for kids in the U.S., but it is really easy and fun and you can save a lot of money if you’re a sushi lover.
By the way, don’t buy shrink wrapped tuna… They aren’t good for sushi. They are dyed with food coloring to make them look redder. (shudder)
When you see sashimi block in a store, it may look really small, but you’ll only need 1/4 inch of it for each sushi. You’ll be surprised how many sushi you can make with one sashimi block.
Anyway, hopefully I’ll be done with our apartment hunt this week, so I can do a how-to next week!
bento #14: Katamari Damacy
December 6, 2008
Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all), bento blog - video game Tags: katamari damacy, sushi
15 comments
Most my bento have been Studio Ghibli themed since I started making bento, and I wanted to make something different.
My boyfriend and I love video games. We each own a PS2, an xbox360, an wii, and a DS lite. So I decided to make a video game themed kyaraben for a change.
I looked at his video game collection and found a game we both have and love. And it was Katamari Damacy!
Bento#14: Katamari Damacy
Created and eaten on: 10/17/2008
