Temaki Time

Making sushi at home is a breeze with these crowdpleasing hand rolls.

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I WAS INTRODUCED to temaki as a young sushi chef, and I fell in love at first bite. The contrasting temperatures and textures of crispy nori, warm rice, and cool seafood and vegetables still make it one of my favorite ways to eat sushi. Temaki (te means “hand” and maki means “roll” in Japanese) are handheld sushi rolls, aka hand rolls, with endlessly customizable fillings. Hand rolls can be made in three shapes: barrel, cone, or taco. At my restaurant Edoboy in Orlando, Florida, we serve barrel-shaped temaki, the traditional form you often see in Japan. While this shape is ideal for even end-to-end distribution of the filling, the folding process is somewhat involved. At home, I prefer to make taco-shaped temaki—its ease of assembly and small, two-bite nature is great for any occasion.

Temaki has three key components: nori, rice, and seafood filling. When making temaki at home with my kids, I often lean on seaweed snacks. Besides being the perfect size for taco-shaped temaki, seaweed snack sheets are crispy right out of the package, as opposed to full sheets of nori, which require toasting. For rice, you'll need short-grain sushi rice. It's important to wash the rice well before cooking—this removes excess surface starch and ensures the grains don’t clump together. When it comes to the filling, your options are infinite. I like to have a variety of seafood fillings on hand—they’re surprisingly simple to prepare and can be made a day in advance. Preparing them is as easy as chopping up the fish or shellfish, seasoning it with a ponzu-inspired dressing (like in the Salmon Crunch filling, recipe p. 38) or creamy Kewpie mayonnaise (like in the Crab Salad filling, recipe p. 38), and topping it with an array of crunchy fresh vegetables.