DIY maki rolls & sashimi

D_I_Y, do it yourself, I learned that recently, forgive me if you already know what it means. I just had to clarify for those that doesn't know it, so my title makes sense to all.

Sushi is luxury food, usually pricey too and most people don't try to make it themselves, but its so simple and so much fun! You can use various fishes, sometimes to make it cheaper I use smoked salmon instead of fresh, tinned tuna instead of fresh. The key here is that if you do decide to go for fresh fish you need to go to a proper fish store/counter, not off the pre-packages supermarket shelf. Ask the clerk to assure you that the fish you want is suitably fresh to use for sushi.

For my sushi & sashimi I used fresh salmon & tuna. Top quality, sustainably fished for, and for that I paid dearly. Let me say, it was worth it. If you can get hold of wakame salad and some pickled ginger (nope I didn't attempt to make that myself) do it.

Ingredients- enough for 3-4 people:
3 dl round brown rice
fish of your choice (fresh raw salmon, fresh raw tuna, on a tight budget: tinned tuna, smoked salmon, tinned crab, surimi/crab sticks)
Japanese wasabi mayonese (found in a Japanese toko, worst cake it cam be made from regular mayo mixed with wasabi)
soy sauce
pack of seaweed paper
1 tbsp Japanese sushi vinegar (this is not regular rice vinegar, its sweetened and thicker)
roasted sesame seeds
1 avocado, sliced lengthwise into 5 parts
1/2 a cucumber, sliced lengthwise into 5/6 parts
1 or 2 sushi rolling mats (found in a Japanese toko)

1. Cook the rice according to the package directions, add about 2 tbsp more water (this ti ensure that the rice comes out moist and slightly mushier/wetter. The rice I have takes about 40min.
2. Chop your vegetables into long strips. The trick is not to have too thick strips of veg as this will take space from the fish, which in my opinion, should play the main role.
3. Tip out the rice into a bowl and add the rice vinegar and stir. Allow the rice to cool off, which could take any where between 1-2 hours (sometimes more). It must not even be luke warm.
4. Slice your fish into lengths with the diameter of approx 1cm. If you're using tinned tuna I suggest you drain it and mix it with wasabi mayonnaise and sesame seeds, perhaps a little furikaki seasoning for spice. If your using smoked salmon, use it just the same way as raw salmon.

5. Set up a little sushi making station, with your chopped veg, seaweed paper, rolling mat, rice and fish, wasabi, Japanese wasabi mayonnaise.
6. Take your rolling mat, spread the seaweed paper on top of it (the paper should just about cover the rolling mat), make sure you have shinny side laying directly on the mat, the bumpy-ish side facing up.
7. Take about 3tbsp rice, and spread it from the middle of the paper towards the edges, leaving about 2cm empty at the bottom and top of the sheet. This will allow you to seal the roll properly so its important to leave this area free of rice. if you want less rice, i.e, smaller rolls, you only need fill up half the sheet, still leaving the top/bottom free.
8. Begin to place your toppings on the bottom half of the sheet. The filling ingredients need to stay within a 3cm strip lengthwise.

9. Grab the bottom of the rolling mat along with the seaweed paper, so that you cover the ingredients with the bottom half and then tuck this under the ingredients, so that you have started to make half a roll. Simply continue rolling adding a little pressure to ensure that the roll is compact. If this makes no sense to you I suggest you go onto google and search for 'how to roll sushi', and then look at Images.  For some reason I didn't remember to photograph this crucial part of rolling the sushi...
10. As for the sashimi, just slice it into rectangles, as simple as that!

For spicy tuna maki rolls simply add wasabi mayo and dried flaked chili or furikaki seasoning. This works perfectly with tinned as well as fresh raw tuna. You can also sear your fresh tuna rolling it first in sesame and perhaps marinating it for a few minutes in rice vinegar (NOT sushi vinegar) and soy sauce.