If you’re looking for an exciting, interactive dish for a holiday party or an intimate dinner at home with your loved ones, I recommend making temaki sushi, also known as sushi hand rolls!
Sushi can seem like a very daunting dish. From fancy cutting techniques to preparing perfectly rolled rolls, it can seem like it can only be enjoyed at fancy sushi restaurants. That doesn’t have to be the case, though! Temaki sushi, or simple hand rolls, is some of the easiest sushi to make – and best of all, it’s fun!
It’s a great party meal and a wonderful way to get involved with your food. Just put all the ingredients on the table and people can assemble their hand rolls with their favorites. Lots of happy tummies and hearts at the end of these meals.
What you need for Temaki Sushi
Temaki sushi is comprised of 3 parts:
Sushi Rice
You will need to make seasoned rice, also known as sushi rice. This is made with short grain or medium grain Japanese rice and seasoned rice vinegar. You can learn more about sushi rice as well as how to make it at my Sushi Rice post.
Gu (Interior Ingredients)
The best thing about hand rolls is that you can literally put anything you like inside! From raw fish to veggies to fried chicken, the options are endless. Here are some popular options:
- Salmon
- Tuna
- Ikura (salmon roe)
- Uni (sea urchin)
- Scallop
- Kanikama or Crab
- Spicy Tuna
- Cucumber
- Avocado
- Radish sprout
- Shiso
- Kewpie Mayo
- Spicy Mayo
- Eel Sauce
Nori (Dried Seaweed)
Good nori has a nice crunch and fragrance. When making hand rolls, the nori can get soggy quickly so the higher the quality of the nori, the longer it’ll stay crispy. Soggy nori can make temaki hard to eat so you want to eat the hand roll immediately after making it.
How to assemble your Temaki Sushi
- Cut a nori sheet in half
- Place the nori shiny side down in the palm of one hand.
- Put a small amount of rice at a 45 degree angle at the top left corner of the nori sheet in a thin layer
- Add some ingredients on the rice.
- Roll the bottom left corner up to the middle of the top edge of the nori and continue to roll until it makes a cone
- Use a piece of rice as “glue” at the end of the nori to hold it closed
Another option if you don’t want to do the cone style roll, is to do a hand roll where it’s basically folded in half and smaller. To do this:
- Cut a nori sheet into quarters
- Place the nori shiny side down in the palm of one hand
- Put a small amount of rice onto one half of the nori in a thin layer
- Add some ingredients on the rice
- Fold/roll the nori so it looks sort of like a taco
One last tip
The nori can get soggy and hard to break/chew if it gets soggy so make each hand roll as you consume them, rather than making a lot at once and then eating them. So prepare one hand roll, eat immediately, and then make another to enjoy.
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Temaki Sushi (Sushi Hand Rolls) / 手巻き寿司
Ingredients
- 4 cups sushi rice (find the link to my recipe in the notes section) cooked & seasoned
- 10 sheets nori
- soy sauce for serving/dipping
- wasabi for serving
Filling Ideas
- sashimi grade fish salmon, tuna
- cucumber
- ikura (salmon roe)
- radish sprouts
Instructions
- Prepare your ingredients (slice raw fish, slice cucumber, etc).
- Cut all the nori in half.
- Place sushi rice, platter of ingredients, nori, soy sauce, and wasabi on the table.
- Assemble your hand roll. (See blog post for 2 different ways to assemble the hand rolls)
- Enjoy immediately after rolling.
Notes
Shop this post:
Musubi Kiln, one of my favorite places to shop for Japanese tableware online has some really stunning serving plates as well as some sushi table setting ideas like this and this. If any of the items below link to a Musubi Kiln product (or if you would like to shop anything else on their site), you can use my discount code “SW” for a discount on your order!
Lapis Hasami Large Plate
Chrysanthemum Large Serving Plate
Kutani Large Serving Plate
Soy Sauce Plate Set
Soy Sauce Plates
Cat Soy Sauce Plate
Sushi Plate Set 2
Sushi Plate Set 1
Sushi Plate (Blue Waves)
Gari (Pickled Ginger for Sushi) / 寿司ガリ
Japanese Short Grain Rice (Tamanishiki)
Japanese Short Grain Koshihikari Rice (Shirakiku)
Nori (Dry Seaweed) / のり
Hon Wasabi (Real Wasabi) / 本わさび
Soy Sauce / 醬油
More items can be shopped in my Pantry, my Tools, or my Amazon shop.
*Links and products on this page may be affiliate links. There is no extra cost for you and it allows me to keep creating free content for you!
