Ultimate Guide To Redneck Sushi: Roll Your Own At Home

Chef Cosmo Goss here provides everything you need to know to make redneck sushi. From the ingredients and techniques and most importantly the confidence on how to make sushi at home, it is all right here.

Any fisherman who likes raw fish will tell you how much they love to eat sushi. These days, that seems to be just about everyone in the world!

Ask them about it and your fisherman buddy is likely to tell you that, “Sushi is one of their favorite ways to eat fresh fish.”

While just about the whole world is obsessed with eating sushi, asking most people what they know about making sushi is another story. For your average fisherman, you might as well ask them if they can speak Japanese.

Your average fisherman is perhaps intimidated to try their hand at making sushi at home with their catch. Thinking about all of the colors, flavors and “exotic” ingredients can make you think that that sushi making is best left to professionals.

The result? A good percentage of fisherman decide to sear or grill their pile of fresh tuna fillets… only buy sushi from the airport or your local 7-11.   

About the Author

Chef Cosmo Goss is a hell of a guy. An experienced fisherman, Goss catches bluefin and swordfish on his boat in Southern California.

He has run restaurants around the United States and in Mexico and consults on menu development and restaurant management for a variety of clients. Goss is sponsored by Bubba Blade and works with the Zancudo Lodge in Golfito, Costa Rica.

Cosmo is the food editor for FishTravelEat and his wonderful wife Julia takes incredible food images. For more of Chef Cosmo’s food insights, check out: The Perfect Grilled Fish , The Perfect Fried Fish, Chef Cosmo Goss’ Fish Tricks.

Breaking Down the Sushi Mystique

First and foremost, we must make something known. To become an expert sushi maker, chefs in Japan are known to undertake years of training and apprenticeship.

These masters know everything there is to know about sushi. I am not such a sushi expert and this article makes no claim to prepare you to open your own sushi shop in Osaka or Tokyo.

What we can do, however, is provide the basics (and confidence) needed to transform your fresh tuna, wahoo, yellowtail or other fresh-caught delicacy into a great, at home sushi experience.

We call this the Redneck Guide to at Home Sushi, but we’ve got some ground rules to ensure that you’re at home sushi is not toooo redneck.

Redneck Sushi: What to and What Not to Use.

Please don’t, under any circumstances, make any catfish, crappie, carp or smallmouth bass sushi. In fact, have you ever heard of any sushi (or other raw preparations) made from freshwater fish?

Interestingly, most all sushi and other raw dishes are prepared using saltwater fish. Why is this?

The answer relates to…
1. Texture ….

You want the texture to be firm and clean with good inter muscular fat. Great sushi fish all meet these criteria– tuna, salmon, halibut, mackerel. 

Interestingly, you want to avoid using fish that turn white and flaky when you cook them. While these are often the fish you prefer to sauté or fry, this characteristic can make the sushi tough and chewy. 

This eliminates as number of fish that are great to eat when prepared in other ways. Among the commonly caught and widely eaten saltwater fish that are not good for sushi are: snook, corvina, redfish, bluefish, striped bass, cobia (the farm raised cobia from Ocean Blue are great for sushi, the wild ones… not so much), swordfish and black sea bass.

2. Flavor….

Your fish should be clean and taste like the sea… and not some retention pond. Great sushi should almost melt in your mouth.

3. No “Surprises”… 

Choose fish that won’t be parasitic. Maybe bypass your 80-pound amberjack or that nice 45 pound black drum you just caught. 

4. Diet…

The way a fish tastes can also depend on what it eats. If you try making sushi out of a blue catfish that’s been eating god knows what, your sushi experience might not be the greatest.

Beyond the standard tuna, salmon, wahoo and yellowtail on the menu at your favorite Japanese restaurant, here are some other great at-home sushi candidates..

Snapper, Spanish or sierra mackerel, scallops, clams, squid, and flounder. Interestingly, most domestic farm raised fish are good to use too as the US has great practices and most fish will be parasite free. 

At Home Sushi Fish Care and Prep

Now that you’ve selected the right fish for your redneck sushi adventure, lets look at fish care and prep.

Care

Once you’ve chosen the right fish, there are surprising few special processes that you need to follow. Avoid using sinewy areas of the fish—near the collar or by the tail—as these will be stringy and chewy.

For fish such as mackerel (soft tissue with high oil content), you probably want to lightly cure the fish with vinegar, sake or wine first. To cure the fish, you can dip it into the vinegar/sake/ wine and let it sit for a few minutes before slicing the fillet into portions. This can brighten the flavor of the fish.

When to Use Frozen Fish

I would recommend avoiding frozen fish for at home sushi with the exception of two scenarios: if I have caught and vacuum sealed the fish myself or if I buy packed, frozen sushi quality fish from the store.

Selecting the Right Parts of Your Fish

Are there particular parts of fish that you’d recommend using for sushi?  Yes.

The belly on bigger fish– especially tuna– is a delicacy. Besides that, top loin will be amazing. The top loin is usually leaner but less contains less stringy tissue and sinew to deal with.

So now, that we have navigated the fish selection and handling process, here’s the fundamentals of Redneck sushi prep.

Redneck Sushi: The Basics

For many people, the prospect of making sushi seems overly complicated. After all, you not only need to cook (a special kind of) rice correctly, toast the seaweed paper properly… and heck, you even finding all the correct ingredients can be a task. 

All of this unfamiliarity can seem daunting and not worth the risk. After all, no one wants to spend hours in the kitchen only to end up with soggy, sub-par sushi.

As we mentioned previously, there are sushi masters out there (that we will never match up against nor are we trying to), who might scoff at the idea of redneck sushi. That’s ok… they can laugh all they want, but following these few, simple steps you can consistently prepare tasty, convenient redneck sushi in the comfort of your own home.

Our methods aren’t traditional and some might even say they defy the rules, but we can promise you the end result will be tasty enough to share with friends and family. They might even ask you to make it more often!

These steps– with a little help from whatever fish you catch– provide the basics you need to make sushi rolls of any type.

Tools you will need

• rice cooker
• bamboo rolling mat
• plastic wrap

Cooking the Rice

Rice is the toughest part of the whole process. Here at Redneck Sushi Camp we cheat just a little bit and use a rice cooker. It comes out consistent and great every time.

The one mistake we see is when people don’t rinse the rice enough before placing it in the rice cooker. We like to say once you think you’ve rinsed the rice enough… rinse it for another 5 minutes.

You don’t need the top of the line rice cooker, the fifteen dollar one off the internet will work just fine. If you want to cook like a pro by all means try it in a pot, however below is our recipe for sushi rice in the rice cooker.

Redneck Sushi Rice Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 3 cups uncooked sushi rice (short grain Japanese rice)
• 3.5cups water
• 2-inch chuck dried kombu – rinsed (optional)
• 1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
• 2.5 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt

Process:

Cooking the Rice

1. Take the rice and rinse it under cold water in a bowl. You will want to agitate the rice with your hands while you do this.
2. Drain the bowl and repeat the process 4 or 5 times until the water is mostly clear. Important: Don’t let the rice sit in the cloudy water too long as the rice will start to absorb the water and can result in over cooked rice.
3. Once the rice is rinsed, place it in the rice cooker bowl. Add the water and the kombu.
4. Cover with the lid and turn the rice cooker on, it should take about 15 minutes.
5. Once the rice cooker is done, remove the bowl from the cooker and stir the rice. The rice should be tender and shouldn’t clump up too much.

If the rice is a little under cooked, place it covered back in the rice cooker on warm for a few minutes until you reach the desired texture.

Preparing the Treatment

1. While the rice is cooking, place the vinegar, sugar and salt in a small sauce pan over medium heat on the stove. Stir vigorously until the salt and sugar are dissolved completely.
2. Transfer the liquid to a small bowl and pop it in the fridge to cool.
3. Once the rice is finished cooking, stir in the vinegar mixture until it is fully incorporated.
4. Transfer the rice to a lined baking pan or sheet and cover with a damp towel to let cool.

Once the rice has cooled to being just warm its ready to use. This should be enough rice to make about ten sushi rolls.

Redneck Sushi Rolling Paper (Sushi Nori)

You can find seaweed paper (sushi nori) at most grocery stores now-a-days so it shouldn’t be too hard to source. If you’re having trouble, Whole Foods will definitely have it.

Process:

Pre heat your oven to 300 degrees. Once the oven comes to temp, place the sushi nori on the oven racks for 5 minutes.

Remove the sushi nori from the oven and let cool. The seaweed paper should slightly toasted but not so toasted it cracks when bent.

Toast enough sushi nori for the number of rolls you want to make plus one or two more…. just incase you make a mistake or your kids want to snack on one. 

How to Build Redneck Sushi Rolls

Like when doing most any redneck project, your first step is creating your work station. You will want a small bowl of water next to where you are rolling the sushi for your fingers, as the rice can get pretty sticky. 

Next, wrap the bamboo rolling mat in plastic and place on a cutting board where you will roll the sushi. The nori should have two sides place the smoother side face down on the mat with the bottom of nori lined up with the bottom of the mat.

Next wet your fingers and begin to spread the still warm sushi rice on the bottom three quarters of the sushi nori. 

Be sure not to smash the rice into the paper and don’t worry about every inch of the sushi nori being covered with rice, its perfect to see a little bit to the nori peeking through the rice.

The thin layer of rice should be about a 1/4 inch thick on top of the paper. Once you get to this point you are ready to roll some sushi!

You can put whatever fish and ingredients into the rolls, but below are a couple of our favorite sushi rolls. Also, for those of you who want to skip the whole nori toasting and sushi rolling we have our Redneck Sushi Board 

Redneck Tuna Avocado Roll

Ingredients:

• 2, three ounce portions of tuna cut into square strips 1/3 to ½ inches in diameter.
• 1/8 avocado cut into thin slices
• 3-4 cucumber strips cut into 1/8-1/4-inch square strips
• 2 teaspoons sesame seeds (toasted)
• 1/2-2/3 cup cooked sushi rice
• 1 sheet toasted sushi nori

Process:

1. Lay the rice on the sushi nori as described above.
2. Next spread the sesame seeds over the top of the rice.
3. Place the tuna in a single line across the bottom of the rice leaving about 1 inch of room between the tuna and the end of the nori.
4. Next place the avocado on top of the tuna, followed by the cucumber.
5. Now it’s time to get rolling. Lifting from the bottom– using the bamboo rolling mat– fold the bottom of the sushi nori over the top of the fish and cucumber until the rice is touching the rice on the other side.
   
   Next, pull the bamboo mat back making the “roll” with the fish inside even tighter. Continue rolling the nori until the end of the rice is reached and pull back on the rolled bamboo mat again making it tighter.
   
   Roll the nori the rest of the way until the nori paper with no rice connects with the rest of the roll.

6. Let sit for about a minute before cutting the roll into 8 even pieces.

Enjoy on its own or with a little soy sauce. 

Redneck Spicy Tuna Roll

Ingredients:

• 2, three ounce portions of tuna cut into 1/3-1/2 inch square strips
• 3 or 4 cucumber strips cut into 1/8-1/4 inch square strips
• 2 teaspoons sesame seeds (toasted)
• 1 teaspoon siracha
• 1 tablespoon kewpie mayonnaise (you can sub regular mayonnaise)
• 1/2-2/3 cup cooked sushi rice
• 1 sheet toasted sushi nori

Process:

1. Lay the rice on the sushi nori as described above.
2. Spread the sesame seeds over the top of the rice.
3. Place the tuna in a single line across the bottom of the rice leaving about 1 inch of room between the tuna and the end of the nori.
4. Place the cucumber open top of the tuna.
5. Then drizzle the mayonnaise followed by the siracha.
6. Now it’s time to get rolling. Lifting from the bottom– using the bamboo rolling mat– fold the bottom of the sushi nori over the top of the fish and cucumber until the rice is touching the rice on the other side.
   
   Next, pull the bamboo mat back making the “roll” with the fish inside even tighter. Continue rolling the nori until the end of the rice is reached and pull back on the rolled bamboo mat again making it tighter.
   
   Roll the nori the rest of the way until the nori paper with no rice connects with the rest of the roll.
7. Let sit for about a minute before cutting the roll into 8 even pieces.

Enjoy on its own or with a little soy sauce. 

Chef Valentine Thomas’ Spicy Sushi Board

I wish we could take credit for this but we need to recognize Valentine Thomas. We took this brilliant idea from the amazing chef and spearfisher.

Ingredients:

• 2, one half ounce tuna portions cut into sashimi slices
• 2 , one half ounce salmon portions cut into sashimi slices
• 1/3 cucumber cut into thin half moons
• 2 , one half ounce Hamachi portions cut into sashimi slices
• 2 tablespoons red onion slivered
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds (toasted)
• 1/2 serrano chile cut into very thin rings (you can use more if desired)
• 1/2 avocado cut into the slices
• 3 sheet toasted sushi nori cut into 6 squares each
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 cups cooked sushi rice

Process:

1. Take a serving platter and spread the rice evenly over the plate.
2. Next spread the different sliced fish over the top of the rice.
3. Spread the cucumbers, red onion, serano chile, avocado and sesame seeds over the top of the mixed fish.
4. Squeeze half the lemon over the fish followed by evenly spreading the soy sauce and olive oil over the top.
5. Serve with the toasted sushi sheets.