Does anyone have any advice for making sushi at home? I would love to try, but I don't really know where to start. I'm having a serious craving for a salmon avocado roll. Also, where do you buy sushi grade fish?
My husband is the one to make sushi in our house, so I don't have much advice, but he's said the one thing he absolutely couldn't make it without is a very sharp, thin knife. If the blade is dull at all, it just mashes the roll rather than cutting it and creates a huge mess. And thinness is an important factor too, since our chef's knives don't work nearly as well as a thinner blade.
As for where you get fish...that depends on your location. Are you inland? I wouldn't really trust any raw fish if you're not in a coastal area. We aren't anywhere near an ocean, so we do smoked salmon (both caught and smoked by my in-laws) rather than raw salmon.
We used to make sushi all the time. I don't really care for it that much, so our pace has slowed. Mrs. RootofGood loves it though. I'll usually buy her the salmon from the display case at the freshest grocery store I visit (it's $6-7 lb). Apparently the wild caught salmon isn't as good as the farm raised says Mrs RootofGood. I think the farm raised has a higher fat content because they don't work as hard to survive (fat = creamy goodness??).
We shop at the asian grocery frequently, and buy the 50 lb sacks of New Crop Jasmine rice ($0.90/lb). That's all we use for rice, but you can also buy shorter grain "sushi" rice that is more sticky or glutinous for 2-3x the cost of Jasmine rice.
We also buy the seaweed wrappers ($5 for 100 wrappers) and sesame seeds ($3 for a ~11 oz jar) at the asian grocery. Rice wine vinegar is sometimes sprinkled on the rice, but not required.
For meat, we use salmon (raw), teriyaki chicken, shrimp, imitation krab/lobster meat. Fried egg is good too. We have used raw tuna when it's on sale. Mrs. RootofGood doesn't care for it, and I don't do the raw fish thing.
Veggies - cucumber and avocado are typical.
We skip the roe - can't really taste it.
Spread the rice thinly on the seaweed wrapper. Put in filling. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Roll. Let it sit and cool a little before cutting. Cut when rolls are room temp or cool. They should be somewhat firm when slicing. Don't overstuff the sushi rolls or they will catastrophically fall apart.
Serve with wasabi ($2 at asian grocery for a 2 oz?? tube) and soy sauce. Pickled ginger if you are into that (we aren't).
We use a $4 super sharp, super thin ~7" stainless steel knife, also bought at asian grocery. I've never used the $100 fancy pants knives, but these $4 bad boys are awesome for chef knives and we have never sharpened them.