Make sushi at home with simple hand rolled sushi called Temaki Sushi. Everyone in the family (or at the party) will have fun rolling the nori sheets around sushi rice and their favorite fillings!
“How do you make sushi?” “What is sushi rice?” “Where do you buy your ingredients for sushi?” “Do you make sushi a lot at home?”
Let’s just say I receive a lot of questions about sushi! That really speaks to how popular sushi has become in the US and around the world.
When I do get asked about sushi, I first think of the most traditional form of sushi called Nigiri. Imagine a sushi restaurant in Tokyo where a chef quickly, but carefully packs a small rectangle of rice and tops it with a freshly sliced piece of raw fish, placing it in front of you to eat. That’s nigiri sushi, and it takes a sushi chef years and years of practice to perfect.
What is Temaki Sushi?
Temaki Sushi is sometimes called a “hand roll” because it is made of a rolled cone of seaweed, wrapped around rice and fillings. The best part (for me as a cook) is that this is a meal where everyone helps themselves. You just need to prepare a platter of sushi rice, nori (seaweed sheet) and fillings such as sashimi-grade fish and sliced veggies/mango. Then at the table, each person makes a hand rolled sushi based on their favorite mix of ingredients.
If you are vegetarian or do not eat raw fish, you can still make Temaki Sushi with vegetables of your choice or use cooked ingredients such as Shrimp Tempura, grilled unagi, or even Chicken Teriyaki and Chicken Kaarage! It’s fun to make your own fillings, so get creative!
Clockwise from salmon: salmon, hamachi (yellowtail), shredded daikon, radish sprouts, amaebi (sweet shrimp), cucumber, takuan (pickled daikon), tobiko, kanpachi (amberjack), toro (fatty tuna), shredded daikon, radish sprouts, hotate (scallops,) uni (sea urchin), tai (red snapper), and ikura (salmon roe) in the middle.
What makes “sushi rice” different from regular Japanese rice?
To make temaki sushi, you need to make the rice sticky (and extra flavorful), so it forms together well when you wrap the seaweed cone around it. Sushi Rice is simply steamed rice seasoned with rice vinegar, sugar and salt. Japanese only make this rice when making sushi, so for all other Japanese meals, we eat regular steamed rice. To learn how to make sushi rice, see How To Make Sushi Rice.
Once you master temaki sushi and are ready for more sushi making, you wouldn’t want to miss this Complete Guide on How to Host a Sushi Party.
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- ½ cup sushi rice (cooked and seasoned)
- 1 sheet nori (seaweed)
- ½ cup fillings
- Sashimi grade fish of your choice (salmon, tuna, salmon roe, spicy tuna etc)
- Persian/Japanese cucumbers
- Shiso leaves (Ooba) (perilla)
- Kaiware radish sprouts
- Takuan (pickled daikon radish)
- avocado
- carrot
- toasted white sesame seeds
-
Gather all the ingredients.
- If your raw fish comes as a block, slice the raw fish into long sticks. Or you can ask a fish monger at a Japanese grocery store to cut the raw fish for Temaki Sushi. They will cut fish into long sticks, instead of sashimi-style cut.
- Cut nori in half.
- Before you start, make sure your hands are dry in order to keep nori dry and crispy. Place the seaweed on the palm of your hand (shiny side down) and put a thin layer of rice on left third of nori.
- Place fillings (shiso leaf, cucumber, raw fish and daikon radish sprouts) vertically across middle of middle of the rice.
- Fold the bottom left corner of nori over and begin folding into cone shape.
- Keep rolling until cone is formed. Put a piece of rice at the bottom right corner to use as glue and close tightly. Continue with the other half of the nori.
- Serve with pickled ginger, wasabi, and soy sauce as condiments.
Cook Time/Prep Time: This does not include the time to prepare sushi rice.
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe in your own words and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
Our Recommendations for Buying Sashimi Online
When we have a sudden craving for sashimi we usually buy from our local Japanese supermarkets. If you don't have a reliable shop to purchase quality sashimi nearby, we would recommend buying from Catalina Offshore online.
They've been in business for over forty years and all the sashimi products we've tried from them are outstanding. The products we love are the saku cut tuna, hamachi loin, and all types of salmon. Disclosure: We earn a small percentage commission from your purchase of products linked to Catalina Offshore.
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I love the gold bowl you used in your photograph for the fish eggs. Do you remember where you bought it?
Hi Phillipa! It’s from my mom’s collection, and I’m not sure where she got it. Happy to hear you like it. 🙂
Do you have favorite brand of nori sheet for temaki? I like the ones that has the crunch/pop kind of bite to it and can’t tell just based on price.
Hi Jaspw! It’s really hard to find good quality nori here… To be honest, I haven’t found a good one. I buy the most expensive nori possible (thinking that’s the only option I have), but I try to bring some nori back. Some of my friends bring back as a souvenir too. If you can find, nori from Ariakekai 有明海 (Kyushu) is very delicious. 🙂
Thanks for the tips! I will keep them in mind.
I had a temaki sushi party yesterday for my birthday and it was a blast! Everybody enjoyed filling the rolls to their liking and having so many options.. thank you for the great recipe and the inspiration to get creative with the ingredients! I prepared the vegetables from your recipe (plus mango as a add on), but since it was ridiculously hot and we were eating outside, I replaced the raw fish with surimi, teriyaki salmon and pan-seared shrimps – can definitely recommend that combination! As side dishes, we kept it classic – wakame salad, ginger and gyoza, which was more than enough. This won’t be the last time we made temaki sushi this summer! And the best thing: My boyfriend, who is not a fan of classic sushi rolls, liked it much better than expected. 🙂
Happy Birthday, Julie! I’m so so happy to hear your birthday party was a success! Thank you so much for your kind feedback and your tips. Temaki Sushi can be very creative with ingredients/filling, and I hope you enjoy it all year around! 🙂