Easy Sushi Rolls — A Japanese Kitchen Still Here After Everything

Mid-August. Post-birthday. The thirty-ninth year stretches ahead like a runway, the approach to forty visible in the distance, the approach neither feared nor anticipated but simply there, the way September is there after August, the way kabocha is there after the last tomato, the way the next bowl of miso soup is there after the current bowl. The there-ness is the life. The there-ness does not require anxiety. The there-ness requires only the practice.

I made nasu no agebitashi — the deep-fried eggplant in cold dashi marinade, the late-summer dish, the annual goodbye to the season's most seductive vegetable. The eggplant was Japanese eggplant from the farmers market, slender and glossy, and I fried them and dropped them into the cold marinade and the hiss of hot meeting cold was the sound of summer and fall touching, the briefest contact between two seasons, the transition happening in a bowl.

Sarah confirmed the book deal — Two Kitchens will be published by a larger press, with a national publication date in approximately two years. The deal is bigger than the first: a larger advance, a wider distribution, the possibility of a book tour. The words "book tour" are foreign and thrilling and terrifying, the way all new territories are terrifying to a woman who has spent forty years (almost) being anxious about everything and who now adds "book tour" to the list of things to be anxious about, next to "airplane food" and "will anyone come to the reading."

I made miso soup at three AM to celebrate and also to calm the anxiety that the celebration ignited. The three AM soup is the oldest friend. The three AM soup was there when Miya was born and when Fumiko died and when Brian left and when the first book was published and when the parking lot happened and when the second book was sold. The three AM soup does not discriminate between celebrations and catastrophes. The three AM soup is the constant. The constant is the practice. The practice is the three AM soup. The circle. The bowl. The morning.

The nasu no agebitashi was the ceremony of the season, but it was the rolling — the quiet, repetitive act of spreading rice across nori and pressing and shaping and cutting — that I kept returning to after Sarah’s call. Easy sushi rolls are not fancy; they are not restaurant sushi. They are the kind of thing you make at the counter at midnight when your hands need to be doing something your brain cannot interrupt. The there-ness of the practice — the vinegared rice, the mat, the knife — is the same there-ness as the miso soup, the same circle, a different bowl.

Easy Sushi Rolls

Prep Time: 25 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 45 min | Servings: 4 (about 32 pieces)

Ingredients

• 2 cups short-grain Japanese sushi rice
• 2 1/4 cups water
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 8 sheets nori (roasted seaweed)
• 1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut into thin matchsticks
• 1 medium avocado, thinly sliced
• 4 ounces sushi-grade tuna or salmon, cut into thin strips (or imitation crab)
• Low-sodium soy sauce, for serving
• Pickled ginger, for serving
• Wasabi, for serving

Instructions

1. Rinse the rice. Place the sushi rice in a fine-mesh strainer and rinse under cold water, stirring gently, until the water runs nearly clear. Drain well.
2. Cook the rice. Combine the rinsed rice and water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to the lowest setting, cover tightly, and cook for 18 minutes. Remove from heat and let steam, covered, for 10 minutes.
3. Season the rice. In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the rice vinegar, sugar, and salt, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Transfer the cooked rice to a wide, shallow bowl and drizzle the vinegar mixture over it. Fold gently with a rice paddle or wide spatula, fanning the rice as you work, until it is glossy and cooled to room temperature. Do not mash.
4. Set up your rolling station. Place a bamboo sushi mat on a clean surface and cover it with a sheet of plastic wrap. Set your fillings, a small bowl of water, and a sharp knife nearby.
5. Assemble each roll. Lay one nori sheet, shiny side down, on the mat. With wet fingertips, spread a thin, even layer of sushi rice (about 3/4 cup) across the nori, leaving a 1-inch border at the far edge. Arrange a thin line of cucumber, avocado, and fish along the near edge of the rice.
6. Roll. Using the mat, lift the near edge of the nori up and over the filling, pressing firmly and evenly as you roll away from you. Seal the roll by pressing gently along the seam. Repeat with remaining nori and fillings.
7. Slice and serve. Using a sharp knife dipped in water between cuts, slice each roll into 8 even pieces. Arrange on a platter and serve immediately with soy sauce, pickled ginger, and wasabi.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 380 | Protein: 14g | Fat: 8g | Carbs: 62g | Fiber: 4g | Sodium: 540mg