Make nigri sushi at home!

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nigri sushi

standard roll | inside-out roll | nigri | oshi (box) sushi | sashimi

Nigri sushi is literally hand-pressed sushi. It's a small oval of pressed rice with a topping firmly placed on top. Usual toppings are thin slices of fish, omelet, or stalky vegetables. Take extra care in pressing the pad of rice. The majority of the skill that can go into this type of sushi centers around how you press your rice and how you press your fish onto the rice

Start by dipping your hands in your tezu. Pull out a small handful of rice like in the picture.
Press the rice into a rounded-off oval about 3/4 of an inch thick. Make it flatter than the finished piece should be. When you press the fish on, it will thicken up in size.
Run the desired amount of wasabi across the rice or the fish. I find it's easier to put it on the rice.
Place the fish on top of the rice, covering the wasabi side.
Place the fish and rice in your palm, and squeeze the fish so that the sides of the fish cover the sides of the rice. Squeeze 5 or more times so the fish is firmly attached to the rice.
For unagi (broiled eel, the brown nigri on the square plate), cut a belt of nori with your scissors (once again I find this to be the easiest way to get uniform pieces) and wrap it around the whole finished nigri to hold it together. Do the same with omelet, the nigri in the center dish.