Delicious California Roll Simple Recipes

 I’ll admit it, I love California rolls–tasty crab-infused kani, crunchy cucumbers, and fatty avocado wrapped in a rice and seaweed roll. Even though I mostly eat traditional nigiri these days, I loved eating California rolls as a kid, and it’s where my love of sushi started. This recipe has some tips and tricks to get you started on your sushi obsession!

Where did California rolls originate?

Just like spicy tuna rolls and temaki (hand rolls), the origin of California rolls is somewhat messy, but recently the Japanese government has honored Hidekazu Tojo from Toronto, as a cultural ambassador for his creation of the popular roll.

Tojo states that he created the California roll to appease his Western customers and introduce them to a more accessible sushi. He added ingredients that weren’t raw (cooked crab, cucumbers, and avocado) and inverted the seaweed and sushi rice in order to prevent customers from peeling the seaweed. Tojo had many visitors from outside of Toronto visit, specifically from Los Angeles, who loved the roll so he named it the California Roll. These days California roll is available at many restaurants and grocery stores, and comes with variations.

Sushi rolling tips

One of the most important parts of this roll is not the insides, but the sushi rice. My sushi rice recipe uses a balanced flavor of rice vinegar, sugar, and salt to amplify the other ingredients. There’s nothing worse than eating sushi with rice that’s too mushy, too sweet, or unflavorful.

To help spread the rice onto the seaweed, use your hands and dip them into a bowl of water to prevent them from sticking. I also like to add sesame seeds onto the rice just to have a bit more crunch. You can also add tobiko for extra saltiness. 

The most daunting part of this recipe is rolling, but I more or less used the same rolling technique as my spicy tuna roll post. One big tip that I have seen at restaurants is that they use cling wrap as a final outer layer to tighten the California roll. This also helps with making clean cuts of sushi afterwards, as well as a very sharp knife too.

Serving

I like to eat California rolls with wasabi and ginger on the side. Pink ginger has kind of become a standard at many restaurants and even though this can occur naturally when you pickle young ginger, many companies use dye or beets to color more mature ginger–either way, I try to veer towards naturally colored ginger.

Along with California rolls, there’s also a lot of different types of sushi rolls and hand rolls. To learn more about sushi rolls vs. hand rolls, you can also visit this informative post.

Ingredients

Preparation

·                    2 cups sushi rice(460 g), cooked ·         ¼ cup seasoned rice vinegar(60 mL) ·         4 half sheets sushi grade nori ·         1 teaspoon sesame seed, optional ·         8 pieces imitation crab ·         1 small cucumber, cut into matchsticks ·         1 avocado, thinly sliced

Season the sushi rice with the rice vinegar, fanning and stirring until room temperature. On a rolling mat, place one sheet of nori with the rough side facing upwards. Wet your hands and grab a handful of rice and place it on the nori. Spread the rice evenly throughout the nori without mashing the rice down. Season rice with a pinch of sesame seeds, if using, then flip it over so the nori is facing upwards. Arrange, in a horizontal row 1 inch (2.5 cm) from the bottom, the crab followed by a row of avocado and a row of cucumber. Grabbing both nori and the mat, roll the mat over the filling so the extra space at the bottom touches the other side, squeezing down to make a nice tight roll. Squeeze down along the way to keep the roll from holding its shape. Transfer the roll onto a cutting board. Rub a knife on a damp paper towel before slicing the roll into six equal portions. Enjoy!