When we started out on this blog, one of my first posts, ‘Thank Sushi It’s Friday’ showed our readers that beautiful tasty sushi could be made at home and one could save a small fortune (on Sushi Meals in Japanese restaurants) in the process

Various Nigiri Sushi ready to eat

Yesterday, when preparing Sushi for my family’s evening meal,I found myself looking back at that post and I realized that although I’d showed how to make Maki (rolls) and Nigiri (hand formed sushi), I had omitted a few important hints and tips about the tools of the trade, that would really help a budding home sushi chef produce this mainstay of Japanese fishy cuisine.

There are 3 items that I think make life easy for anyone who wants to create sushi at home. Further, given the whole idea home sushi is about saving the hundreds of dollars one often sees on one’s bill at the end of a sushi meal in a restaurant, you don’t need to bust the budget!

The Yanagiba / Yanagi Knife

Yoshihiro Shiroko High Carbon Steel Kasumi Yanagi Sushi Chef Knife 10.5inch

This is a special very sharp single-edged 8.5″ to 10.5″+ Japanese knife which is exclusively designed for cutting fish. I started out with a cheap one for $30 / £20 (from H-Mart Asian Store). Since then, I’ve acquired a more expensive one hand crafted by Yoshihiro Shiroko of Japan which is made of carbon steel. This has a razor-sharp

Maki sliced using a Yanagiba Knife

blade that cuts both fish and sushi rolls like a hot knife goes through butter but beware! It can also seriously damage your fingers

Using the right knife speeds up sushi making significantly and enables one to cut even the trickiest, thinnest pieces of fish for Nigiri

A programmable Rice Cooker with fuzzy logic

This will simply cook sushi rice perfectly every time. These counter top machines can be acquired for as little as $30 / £20, such as those made by Aroma which is exactly what I used when I began to make sushi just 5 years ago.

Zojirushi Rice Cooker

I now use one made by Zojirushi of Japan.  FYI, Cuckoo manufactures the Rolls Royce of rice cookers if you have $500 / £300, or so, to spare!

You can buy these on Amazon or in H-Mart with ease. Once you have one, you’ll never look back! Rice is the key to Maki and Nigiri.

Over, or under cooked rice = sushi disaster

Bamboo Sushi Roll Mat

To enable one to roll and shape Maki (the sushi rolls) correctly you will need this simple item

Bamboo Rice Mat and wrapped in Saran

These are available for as little as $5 from Amazon or in H-Mart. My tip is to wrap the mat in cellophane / Saran wrap before rolling. This prevents the rice sticking to the mat and makes it a lot easier to clean!

So check out: https://taste2taste.com/2015/06/12/thank-sushi-its-friday/ again, get your tools and make that Sushi. You won’t regret it!