A hand roll party is a call to creativity. You can use whatever fillings you like. Sashimi-grade fish is traditional, but ingredients such as market vegetables and herbs or even leftover potato salad and carne asada are as delicious. Tinned and/or smoked fish is great with sushi rice.
Sashimi-grade seafood is available at Japanese markets already cut into blocks (called saku) that are easy to slice. Here you also will find high-quality short-grain rice, rice vinegar and sheets of nori (dried seaweed).
Sushi rice should be cooked a little less than regular Japanese rice so that it’s less soft and sticky. Shari — the seasoned rice for sushi — is slightly chewy, or even al dente. Measure the weight of the rice so that the ratio of rice to water is accurate. The seasoning is all about the balance of sour (vinegar) and sweet (cane sugar), and I prefer less sweet. Once the rice is cooked, most of the work is done.
Set out plates of fillings and bowls of condiments family style for everyone to make their own hand rolls.
