Get Hooked on Sushi: Tips and Recipes

Go ahead, dive into that sushi platter - and stay safe doing it.

6 min read

As an advocate of all foods rich in omega-3s, I see sushi as a wonderful opportunity to eat fish and get a good dose of these healthy fatty acids. Of course, I'm also a food safety fanatic, so I only order sushi made with cooked fish -- but more on that later.

Ordering sushi is a visual treat as well as a taste experience. At a good sushi bar or restaurant, attention is paid not only to the combination of flavors, but to the presentation of each dish. The sushi itself is beautiful to behold, and so is the speed and mastery of the chef behind the sushi bar.

There are several different types of sushi: nigiri sushi (in which mounds of sticky rice are wrapped or layered with seafood and other ingredients); maki sushi (in which sticky rice and other ingredients are rolled into a cylinder, using thin sheets of dried seaweed); and then there is sashimi (sliced raw fish, served with a variety of condiments).

Speaking of condiments, there are three no sushi platter is complete without: soy sauce, wasabi, and pickled ginger. Pickled ginger, you ask? Hey, don't knock it till you've tried it! These mild-tasting, pretty pink slices have a purpose -- they help to cleanse the palate and offer relief from the spicy wasabi. Wasabi is basically Japanese horseradish, and it's HOT, HOT, HOT! It comes as a powder that you make into a thick, bright green paste by adding liquid.

Many people blend some of the wasabi with soy sauce to make a tasty dipping sauce for their sushi. I'm a purist though (and a hot-spicy wimp), so I top each slice of sushi with a slice of the pickled ginger that I've dipped into the soy sauce.

How risky is the raw fish in sushi? California Health Services researchers recently studied seven risky foods that can carry infections, and what should appear on their list? You guessed it: raw fresh fish.

Properly prepared and handled sushi fish is safer than other raw fish, but it's obviously not as safe as cooked fish, says Erica Weis, a research scientist with the California Department of Health Services.

The good news: According to Phillip Spiller, former director of the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Seafood, generally, seafood is very safe to eat. He says that on a pound-for-pound basis, seafood is at least as safe as other meat sources. But he adds that no food is completely safe.

The bad: If you do encounter raw fish parasites, the effects can range from mild discomfort to severe illness, depending on the type of worm you ingest, according to the Environmental Nutrition newsletter. If the culprit is a tapeworm, fluke, or flatworm, you may not even know it until it passes out in your stool. Or you might experience nausea, cramps, and diarrhea.

And the ugly: If the worm you swallow is the roundworm (Anisakis simplex), it may tickle your throat as it is swallowed, causing you to cough or vomit it up. Or it can bore into your stomach or gut lining, causing severe abdominal inflammation and pain that mimics appendicitis or an ulcer, often within an hour of eating. Getting the worm out at this point is no simple matter - it requires an endoscope or surgery.

The cure: Commercial freezing for at least 72 hours at 4 degrees Fahrenheit kills the parasitic worms and their larvae. Please note, though, that home freezers usually can't reach temperatures this low.

So what's a sushi lover to do?

  • Order sushi from reputable restaurants, where the restaurant and fish provider follow food safety standards. You can ask if the fish has been previously frozen.
  • Completely cooked is always the safest way to eat fish
  • The FDA recommends that you don't risk eating raw fish if you're pregnant or have a compromised immune system.
  • Don't make your own sushi with raw fish unless you can freeze the fish for more than 72 hours at 4 degrees Fahrenheit. Instead, use cooked fish or vegetables. For example, California roll (see recipe below) is made with avocado and cooked crabmeat.

Here's a recipe for "sticky rice" that you can use in any sushi dish, along with a recipe for the popular California roll sushi.

Journal as "1/2 cup of "starchy foods without added fat"

Although sushi purists will probably prefer a white rice version, brown rice works, too.

1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons Splenda sweetener (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups hot cooked medium white rice (or medium brown rice)

  • Add vinegar, sugar, Splenda (if desired), and salt to a 2-cup measure and stir to blend. Heat in a microwave for 20 seconds or so and then let cool.
  • Drizzle vinegar mixture slowly over hot, cooked rice in an 8-cup measure or medium bowl, stirring and blending in as you go. After incorporating the last bit of vinegar, the rice should stick together and take a shape more easily.

Yield: About 4 cups of sticky rice (1/2 cup per serving)

Per serving (with white rice): 135 calories, 2.5 g protein, 30 g carbohydrate, 0.2 g fat, 0.05 g saturated fat, 0.5 g fiber, 135 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 2%. (with brown rice): 114 calories, 2.5 g protein, 24 g carbohydrate, 0.8 g fat, .1 g saturated fat, 1.7 g fiber, 135 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 6%.

Journal as: 1 1/2 cups "hearty stew, chili or bean soup" + 1/4 cup "starchy food without added fat" OR 1 cup "entrée salad with meat" + 3/4 cup "starchy foods and legumes without added fat"

I live in California and have tasted my share of California rolls over the years, and this crab, avocado, and cream cheese variation is my favorite.

1 1/4 cups crabmeat (about 1/4 pound)
4 tablespoons light cream cheese
1 tablespoon light mayonnaise
1 green onion (the white and part of the green), optional
4 sheets dried seaweed (Musubi Nori), found in the Asian food section of many supermarkets
4 cups "sticky rice" (one recipe of Simple Sushi Rice)
About 3/4 of an avocado, pitted and sliced
Wasabi paste
Light soy sauce

  • Add crabmeat, light cream cheese, light mayonnaise, and green onion (if desired) to small food processor (or small mixing bowl) and pulse or beat until nicely blended.
  • Turn a burner of your stove to low flame or low heat. Wave a sheet of nori over the heat (both sides) to soften slightly. Lay the sheet of nori on a bamboo sushi roller (available at import stores and Asian markets).
  • Dip your hands in warm water, and use them to spread a cup of hot, sticky rice on the nori, leaving a 1-inch border on each long side. Spread about 1/4 teaspoon wasabi paste in a horizontal strip down the middle of the rectangle of rice. Arrange a heaping 1/4 cup of the crab mixture (one-fourth of the total mixture) down the center of the rice rectangle. Arrange avocado slices down the center as well.
  • Roll up the bamboo mat, pressing forward, to shape the sushi into a cylinder so that the two long edges of the nori meet and overlap slightly. Press the roll firmly inside the bamboo roller. Remove roll from the bamboo mat and wrap it with foil or plastic wrap and keep in refrigerator until needed. Repeat with remaining nori, rice, crab, and avocado. When ready to serve, cut each roll into about 8 pieces using a serrated knife. Serve with light soy sauce.

Yield: 4 California rolls (about one roll per serving)

Per serving (with white rice): 410 calories, 16 g protein, 66 g carbohydrates, 8.8 g fat, 2.2 g saturated fat, 43 mg cholesterol, 3 g fiber, 440 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 19%.

Recipes provided by Elaine Magee; © 2006 Elaine Magee