Mastering the art of nori rolls just takes a little practice and yields tremendous satisfaction. Your guests will be impressed. These pretty little round bites make a delicious lunch or appetizer. Serve with the traditional little bowls of creamy wasabi and soy sauce for dipping, and pickled ginger for refreshing your palate. Nori rolls are best eaten soon after assembling.
Wasabi is a condiment made from a plant of the Brassica family, which also includes cabbages, horseradish, and mustard. It is also called Japanese horseradish. If you’re new to wasabi, it is hot. For starters, a little dab might do you.
Yields about 32 pieces
Serves 4 to 8 as an appetizer; 3 or 4 as lunch
Time: 45 minutes
1 cup sushi rice
1¼ cups plus 2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1½ tablespoons rice vinegar
3 tablespoons wasabi powder
4 medium kale leaves
4 scallions
½ medium cucumber
1 avocado
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon soy sauce
4 sheets toasted nori seaweed, about 7½ inches square
Pickled ginger (optional)
First, prepare all the ingredients for assembling the rolls, and have everything near at hand when you begin to roll.
Rinse the rice in a sieve until the water runs clear. Shake and set aside to drain. Place the drained rice and 1¼ cups of the water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat, cover, and simmer gently for about 15 minutes, or until all the water has been absorbed.
Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of water to a boil for blanching the kale leaves. In a small pan on low heat, dissolve the sugar and salt in the rice vinegar, and set aside.
Make the wasabi cream in a small bowl by mixing the wasabi powder and water until it’s the consistency of heavy cream, and set aside.
Strip the kale leaves from their stems and immerse them in the pan of boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain in a colander and rinse under cold running water. Squeeze out the water and lay out the leaves between layers of paper towels.
When the rice is cooked, turn off the heat, place a towel under the lid, and set aside to rest for 10 minutes.
Trim the scallions to 6 inches long and slice them in half lengthwise, or, if they’re big scallions, into fourths. Peel the cucumber, cut in half lengthwise, remove the seeds, and cut into narrow strips. Pit, peel, and thinly slice the avocado.
Once the rice has cooled for 10 minutes, gently stir the vinegar-sugar mixture into the rice with a spatula. Set aside, covered with a towel.
Heat the oil in an 8-inch skillet. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs with the soy sauce and pour into the skillet. Carefully tilt the pan and lift the edges of the eggs as they cook allowing the liquid to flow onto the bottom of the skillet. When the thin crepe-like omelet has set, lift it onto a cutting board to cool. Cut into 4 strips.
Now you’re ready to assemble the nori rolls. If you’re inexperienced at this, we recommend that you watch a few YouTube videos to learn the technique for rolling. You can roll the nori rolls with your hands or with a sushi rolling mat.
To assemble, place a sheet of nori on the countertop or a cutting board with a small bowl of water nearby. Dip your fingers in the water and spread one-quarter of the rice on the nori sheet, leaving ½ inch of the sheet exposed at one end. Lay a kale leaf across the center of the rice, and then about one-quarter of the egg, cucumber, and scallion strips, and finally, a row of avocado slices. With your fingers, spread a little water on the exposed end of the nori. Start by tucking in the filling tightly with your hands or a sushi rolling mat and roll toward the exposed side. When you reach the opposite side, press and roll the nori roll firmly to seal. Set aside on a platter while you prepare three more rolls.
Wrap the rolls separately in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.
To serve, cut each roll into 8 pieces with a wet knife. Arrange the pieces on a plate. Serve with little bowls of wasabi cream and soy sauce and a small dish of pickled ginger, if desired.
• For more color, add a few thinly sliced carrots or radishes instead of or along with the cucumber and avocado. Do chua, the pickled vegetables for Banh Mi Chay are also really good.
• If you’d like to serve nori rolls as appetizers without setting out dishes of wasabi and soy sauce, and utensils for dipping, and the messiness that might result, put some wasabi cream right in the rolls: Mix ¼ cup soy sauce with 1 tablespoon wasabi cream, and when you assemble the rolls, drizzle some on the rice before you add the kale leaf.
For a complete meal, serve with Hot-and-Sour Mushroom Soup.