The Complete Idiot's Guide to Sushi and Sashimi

by James O. Fraioli and Kaz Sato

Book Overview

Restaurant quality sushi at home. Sushi is one of America s favorite specialty foods, yet it can be intimidating to prepare at home. This guide shows how easy it can be to prepare restaurant- quality... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1592577822
• ISBN13: 9781592577828
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Alpha Books
• Length: 177 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Review: Complete Idiot's Guide to Sushi & Sashimi

The year was 1992 and sushi's status as a fad was just beginning to ebb when a co-worker invited me to join her for dinner at Samurai in Nashville's trendy Elliston Place neighborhood. My date had worked with Samurai's chef/proprietor, Yun Choo at the Japanese steak house just off Music Row. His sashimi creations were part of the appeal there and soon he was taking his stardom to his own digs on the street nicknamed the Rock Block because of the preponderance of rock clubs found there. I recall well the excitement of that night as I tasted my first sip of sake, my first palate singeing sting of wasabi, and to this day I will remember that first taste of unagi (eel). Nearly two decades have passed and even if sushi is no longer considered cutting edge it has not lost its exoticism. Even though sashimi related illnesses are rare there is still an air of danger when eating raw fish, after all that is what separates from other animals, our ability to control fire. I have 20+ years in the restaurant industry and have tackled a number of international cuisines but I have never wielded a bamboo mat in the pursuit of the perfect roll. When it comes to sushi, I'm a complete idiot. Luckily Alpha Books (A Penguin Group member) has an entire series of books for complete idiots. In my case they have employed award-winning food and travel writer James O. Fraioli (The Best Recipes from America's Food Festivals) and Kaz Sato (owner and executive chef of Kai Sushi in Santa Barbara, CA) to take me from sashimi simpleton to sushi specialist in just 177 pages. The aptly named Complete Idiot's Guide to Sushi & Sashimi is packed with how-to information and beautiful color images. There is a lot of information on the vast array of ingredients in blocks called Food Corner and helpful pointers in cells called From the Kitchen. But mostly there are step-by-step instructions on how to prepare everything from abalone to zucchini including five recipes with my beloved unagi like . . . The Tokyo Roll: ½ sheet (pink) Mamenori, Soybean Paper, approximately 4 X 7 inches. ¼ cup prepared sushi rice Sesame seeds, as needed 1 piece tempura banana, approximately 1 inch wide and 4 inches long 1 or 2 thin slices of avocado 2 pieces roasted fresh water eel (unagi) Eel sauce, to taste 1.Place soybean paper in front of you in a vertical position. 2.Spoon rice onto paper. Using your fingers, spread rice across sheet, covering edges and removing clumps. Leave a 1-inch space with no rice on top of sheet. 3.Sprinkle rice with sesame seeds. 4.Make tempura banana by dusting banana with flour and shaking off excess. Roll banana in tempura batter (prepare according to package directions), and deep fry in hot oil until golden brown. Remove banana from oil. 5.Place banana on lower half of rice (side closer to you). Add avocado slices. 6.Roast eel by placing prepackaged unagi approximately 1-inch wide by 3-inches long on a baking sheet lined with foil. Do not remove skin. Roast in a to

Good book

The book was great. The recipes and instructions were very helpful. I love sushi and have wanted to try to make it myself. This book was a great help in doing so.

I could live on this stuff...

Ummmm.... Sushi.... I haven't met too many pieces of sushi I haven't liked, so I could resist picking up a copy of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Sushi and Sashimi by James O. Fraioli and Chef Kaz Sato at the library when it became available. If you are capable of following a recipe, you shouldn't have too many problems creating most of the items contained here. I *will* say I wish there had been more pictures of the finished pieces, however. Contents: Part 1 - The Basics: The Key Ingredients; Additional Ingredients; The Sushi Kitchen; Tips and Techniques Part 2 - The Recipes: Sashimi a la Carte; Sushi; Sushi Rolls; Cooked Rolls and Tempura Rolls; Vegetarian Recipes; Appetizers and Salads Index For a relatively short book, Fraioli covers most of the essential knowledge in a concise manner. You learn about the different types of fish often used, other ingredients such as vegetables and fruit, as as well as the equipment you'll need to get started. He also covers the best ways to cut and slice the meat so that you get the best sections of the fish without dealing with bones and other undesirable fishy pieces. The majority of the book is then devoted to different recipes that you can follow to create your own delicacies. He goes everywhere from tuna sashimi to tuna rolls, scallops to shrimp heads, California rolls to Dragon rolls. The instructions are pretty easy to follow, and once you've done a few you should be well on your way to making tasty sushi that doesn't look all too bad once you set it on a plate. The only nit for me in the book was the lack of pictures. There are eight full color pages in the middle that each show a couple of different dishes. But in many cookbooks, I'm used to seeing both the dish and the recipe side by side so you know what you're working towards. Granted, doing that format would have made the book much larger and more expensive. Still, sometimes it's hard to conjure up an idea of what you should be looking at once you finish. Now, after all that reading, I need to find me a sushi bar... I'm hungry!

Hmmmm....sashimi

I ordered this book months ago when on a quest to find a definitive book on sashimi. My husband as I are sashimi addicts. It's so good. It's fresh. It's also expensive. A meal out can run anywhere from $65 to $150. And with dining out 6-8 times a month, that expense needed to be curbed. I wasn't willing to give up sashimi. At the same time, I feared shopping and handling my own fish. This is where the quest for the book comes. After discovering a fantastic place to buy sashimi (Catalina Offshore Products), my focus then shifted to how preserve, prepare, and know what to look for with sashimi grade fish. I bought two other books, Sashimi: The Essential Kitchen Series by Dekura, Hideo and The Great Sushi and Sashimi Cookbook (Great Seafood Series). Neither of these were complete. This book isn't complete either, but I like it better than the others. Here are a few of my issues with the book: This book does not mention giant clam (geoduck or mirugai), which I believe is sacrilege. This book doesn't explain cleaning techniques. For toro, I get specific instructions on how to care for toro (warm salt bath) prior to consuming. It's kinda disappointing that's not mentioned in the book. There are many ways to make spicy tuna/salmon that don't include chili sauce. It mentions there are various ways "using various spices", but then only gives a recipe for one. My favorite is combining the fish, wasabi (to taste), soy sauce, scallion, sesame seed, and roe - mix with hand and either put it in a roll or eat on slices of cucumber....yummy. The book implicitly says that mayo is the same as Japanese mayo. Yuk. Japanese mayo is lighter. I'd never use Helmmans in place of Kewpie. I really, really wish it had included a recipe for ginger dressing, as I've been trying for months to no avail. Anyway, it's worth the [...]for the recipes. There are a few I hadn't seen before (Hawaiian Poke) and the pictures are delicious looking.