In the center of the rice... Hold the topping and rice together. To be a sushi chef... SUSHI
- HOW TO CUT TOPPINGS
- HOW TO SHAPE SUSHI
- SUSHI SHAPES In this video I'm going to show you how to shape sushi. WATCH THE LAST VIDEO FOR HOW TO CUT TOPPINGS
I shared how to cut sushi toppings in the last video, WATCH THE LAST VIDEO FOR HOW TO CUT TOPPINGS
including angle of a knife, WATCH THE LAST VIDEO FOR HOW TO CUT TOPPINGS
length and width. WATCH THE LAST VIDEO FOR HOW TO CUT TOPPINGS
So, please watch it as well if you're interested. I'm going to share 3 techniques to shape sushi today, which are 'kote-gaeshi,' 'honte-gaeshi' and 'tate-gaeshi.' First, I'll give you the very basic tips for shaping sushi. If you're right-handed, hold a topping in your left hand. I talked about this in the last video, but this angled surface should face upward when sushi is shaped. So, hold it with the surface facing down. When you hold sushi rice in your right hand, shape it into a small ball to some extent like this. This is the first step. Next, while holding the rice in your right hand, take wasabi onto your right index finger. Put the wasabi on the topping. Then, put the rice. Next, make a hole in the center of the rice. Like this. I just did that with my left thumb, but some people do it with right index finger. This is to put air in the rice making a cavity so that it nicely loosens up once you put it in your mouth. Next, let's start shaping sushi. When shaping sushi, we basically press these 4 side with fingers: top, bottom, right and left. You need to turn it over and shape it. I just turned it over from the long edge. But there are 2 other ways to turn it over: one is to turn it over from the short edge, and the other is to put it on your right hand once and then turn it over. So, there're 3 ways in total which are the techniques I mentioned earlier, kote-gaeshi, honte-gaeshi and tate-gaeshi. These are the basics of shaping sushi. Now, I'm going to talk about them step by step. They say you need to get trained for at least 10 years to be a sushi chef. But it actually depends on what level you want to achieve. It's the same as baseball, whether you want to be a pro baseball player or you just want to enjoy it as an amateur with friends. It's not that you can't make sushi without taking 10 years for training. So, take it easy and give it a try if you're interested. First, I'm going to show you how to do kote-gaeshi. After making a hole in the rice with your thumb, turn it over from the long edge like this. This is the first step. Then, using your middle finger and thumb, press the both right and left sides. So, you're pressing it like this looking from the other side. Next, lightly press the top while holding the right and left sides with your left hand. Like this. Looking from the other side, while lightly holding the both sides with left hand, press this top side with thumb like this. This top side. Like this. Now, you have shaped these 3 sides. This bottom side is not done yet. Half-turn it around and repeat the same steps. So, press the right and left sides and then the top. When pressing the top here, obviously the right and left sides break like so. So, you then need to turn it around and lightly press the both sides again. Finally, press the last side here with thumb to finish off shaping it. This is kote-gaeshi shaping technique. I'm going to do it once more. Hold a topping in your left hand. Make a hole in the rice to put air in it. Turn it over from the long edge. Press the right and left sides and then the top side. Then, half-turn it around, and press the right and left sides and then the top side. By doing that, you're combining the topping and rice into a sushi. This is kote-gaeshi shaping technique. Combining topping and rice while shaping them is the basic of shaping sushi. Next one is honte-gaeshi technique. The first step is the same as kote-gaeshi. Make a hole in the rice. Take it in your right hand. Then, take it back in your left hand while turning it over like this to start shaping it. What I'm doing when taking it in my right hand is, after making a hole here I just turned it over from the long edge for kote-gaeshi, but for honte-gaeshi press this top side first. Shape this top side first. Then, take it in your right hand. This top side is already pressed. Cover it with your left hand like this, and take it. So, the pressed side has come to the bottom here. And this top side is not pressed yet. So, press it now. Now, you have pressed the both top and bottom sides. Kote-gaeshi technique is to press the right and left sides first and then the top and bottom sides. Honte-gaeshi is to press the top and bottom sides first. The rest of the steps are the same as kote-gaeshi. Turn it over from the long edge, and press the right and left sides. Press the right and left sides. This is honte-gaeshi shaping technique. I'm going to do it again. First, press the top side. Next, take it in your right hand, and cover it with your left hand in this way to take it while turning over it. Now the pressed side has come to the bottom. Next, press the top and bottom sides. Now, you have shaped the top and bottom sides. Turn it over from the long edge. Press the right and left sides. For kote-gaeshi, when doing this, you put thumb in here to press the top side. Whereas for honte-gaeshi, after turning it over shape it without using thumb. This is honte-gaeshi shaping technique. Last but not least, I'm going to show you tate-gaeshi technique. This one is almost the same as kote-gaeshi. The only difference is how you turn the sushi over. You turned it over from the long edge for kote-gaeshi. But for tate-gaeshi, you turn it over from the short edge. With your right hand like this, put the sushi on here while turning it over. Then, shape it in the same way as kote-gaeshi. I'm going to do it again. Put rice on a topping and make a hole in it. Turn it over from the short edge onto your right hand. And then shape it. The advantage of tate-gaeshi compared to kote-gaeshi is that the topping doesn't move while turning it over because you hold it down when you turn it over. When you use toppings that doesn't stick to rice easily like omelet or green onion shoots, if you turn it over from the long edge, the topping doesn't often get turned over with the rice. Tuna is pretty easy to turn over. So, you can do this by using only left hand. Whereas toppings like omelet easily come off of rice like this. So, tate-gaeshi technique is used in such cases because you hold the topping and rice together when turning them over. In this way, you can turn them over without letting the topping move. So, tate-gaeshi technique makes it easier to shape sushi when you use toppings that contain lots of moisture and don't easily stick to rice. These are the 3 techniques we use when shaping sushi, kote-gaeshi, honte-gaeshi and tate-gaeshi. Same as the techniques we use when we cut toppings, it's not like one is better than others, or there're set rules to use a specific technique for a specific topping. It's just depending on the topping you use one can make it easier to shape it into sushi than others. Different sushi chefs or sushi restaurants have different preferences or policies. As you practice it over and over again, you will find which is the best for which toppings in terms of the look or the taste. So, please give it a try first. I showed you how to shape sushi in this video, and in the next one I'm going to show you different shapes of sushi. So, please stay tuned for that one, too. STAY TUNED FOR NEXT VIDEO (SUSHI SHAPES)! LIKE THIS VIDEO & SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE VIDEOS
