1. Bamboo mats - You will need a bamboo mat for rolling any maki rolls. You can find those in any Asian store, or even some grocery stores, and they cost only 1 or 2 bucks. When you get a sushi mat, make sure that you also have cling wrap. It is necessary to wrap your sushi mat in order to prevent it from rice sticking to it.
2. Santoku knife - Those are much better than regular knives for cutting sushi, because they stick less.
3. Rice cooker or a heavy cast iron pot - You can do a great job using each. Rice cooker or a cast iron pot can have many other application in your kitchen as well, and they are inexpensive. Whatever method you choose to cook your rice, you have to make sure that you have a measuring cup. The correct proportion of water and rice are very important when preparing sushi rice.
4. Solid cutting board - Your kitchen cutting board can be either wooden or plastic. The only requirement is to be solid, and of course very clean and sanitary.
5. A shaker that you can fill with sesame seeds - Usually you can find a suitable shaker in any dollar store.
6. The usual sushi condiments - pickled ginger, wasabi and soy sauce. You can find these condiments in any Asian store.
7. Rice vinegar - the rice vinegar is also available in any Asian food store. I prefer to buy the one that is just rice vinegar, not the seasoned rice vinegar. Rice vinegar is needed for any sushi rice recipe, along with sugar, but you probably already have sugar at home.
8. Nori (roasted seaweed sheets) - I recommend buying nori from an Asian store as well, as grocery stores tend to sell it for a lot more.
9. Calrose rice - The large 8 kg bags of calrose rice in the grocery stores are very inexpensive and work very well for making sushi at home.
10. Fresh tuna and salmon - For making sushi it is very important to use only the freshest fish available. Usually any good grocery store has a fish section that sells fresh tuna and salmon. When buying fresh fish for sushi you have to be careful and always check the dates on the package. Fish packaged today is good for sushi. If it was from yesterday, it may be good only for cooking. All the raw fish in sushi restaurants menus, except for tuna, is previously frozen for at least 7 hours. This is a requirement by the public health regulations. That means, if you are buying fresh salmon and are planning to use it raw, you must first freeze the salmon for at least 7 hours in order to destroy any potential parasites, then thaw the fish under controlled conditions inside of your fridge, and only then slice it and use it for sushi.
11. Cooked sushi ingredients - bbq eel, crab meat, crab sticks, shrimp. The best place to look for those is again an Asian food store, in the frozen section.
12. I also recommend a nice knife sharpener. It is very difficult to cut sushi rolls and/or fish slices with a blunt knife.
Now, when you know the basic tools and ingredients needed to make sushi at home, you can find my sushi recipes on this page. Good luck.
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