Hosomaki sushi (Thin rolls of smoked salmon, cucumber and tuna mayonnaise, スモークサーモン細巻き・かっぱ巻き・ツナマヨ細巻き）

Hosomaki means a thin roll in Japanese. This dish is one of the varieties of sushi in Japan. The common ingredients for inside the rolls in Japan are salmon, cucumber, fresh tuna, pickled Japanese radish, and tuna mayonnaise. But you can put inside the roll anything you like. I will introduce the smoked salmon, cucumber and tuna mayonnaise Hosomaki to cook at home. I made some mistakes such as putting too much rice and ingredients inside. But hopefully we can learn something from my mistakes!

Ingredients (2 plates):

• A half package of smoked salmon (57g, 2oz)
• 1/8 of USA size cucumber
• 1/4 can of tuna chunks (35.5g, 1.25oz)
• 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon of salt and pepper
• 3 big sheets of *sushi Nori (seaweed)
• 2 tablespoons of *sushi vinegar (Picture A)
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 170g (6oz) of rice
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• a half teaspoon of *wasabi (spicy green paste)

**Cooking equipment you need: **Sudare (Bamboo rolling mat, picture B)

Here is how to make it at home. Cooking time is about 45 - 55 minutes.

1. Cook rice, in the meantime, cut smoked salmon and cucumber into 10cm (4 inches) length, 1.2cm (a half inch) wide, about 1 - 1.2cm (a half inch or less) thickness. Cut each *sushi Nori into a half size sheet.
2. Drain water from inside the can of tuna. Put tuna chunks into a small bowl, add salt & pepper, and mayonnaise. Mix it up very well.
3. After the rice is fully cooked, add the *sushi vinegar into the rice and mix it up. Then, cooling it down for about 5 minutes. Add salt into it.
4. Put **Sudare on top of the cutting board. Put *sushi Nori on top of the **Sudare. Prepare the water in a bowl to wet your hands in order to prevent from sticking the rice on your hands.
5. Put the small amount of rice on the sushi Nori except about 1.2cm (a half inch) apart from the top and the bottom side of the sushi Nori. Make little walls on the top and the bottom side of the rice. Put the smoked salmon or the cucumber or the tuna on the center of the rice. -> See the picture C, D and E.

6. Lift up the bottom side of the Sudare, fold it as the bottom side of sushi Nori is on the top edge of the rice. Then, shape the sushi roll by hands and Sudare.-> See the picture F.
   After that, slide the Sudare , roll the sushi and shape the sushi roll by hands again. -> See the picture G.

7. Remove the **Sudare, put the roll on a plate, leave for about 5 minutes or until the roll is little hard.
8. Cut the roll into small pieces with a knife. After cut once, clean the knife with a wet paper towel. In this way, the rice will not stick with the knife and cut the roll beautifully.
9. Place the roll on a plate, add a small plate with soy sauce and *Wasabi. When you eat, mix the soy sauce and *Wasabi, and dip the roll into it.