I have made sushi at home today, I didn’t have the first idea about it, my ex tried a few years back and was pretty good at it so I never got my hands dirty with it. You can make your own sushi for as little as $4 per person.

I was talking last week about keeping your budget while being social, and this is a very good example. I had a lunch planned with my sister and my brother. We rarely get together, just the three of us, so I wanted to have a nice meal. And since I am the older sibling, I consider it my duty to treat them to said meal. I thought about ordering sushi, which would have cost about $15 per person, or $45.

Instead, I went to an Asian supermarket, and bought all the staples to try and make sushi from scratch. If you would like to make your own sushi, you will need

some sushi rice

some fish, as fresh as possible since you will eat it raw.

Sushi vinegar

salt and sugar

wasabi

pickled ginger Cooking the rice: rinse it well before you cook it, then bring to boil 2 cups of rice and 1 cup of lightly salted water, then slow down the fire, cover it to keep cooking for about 20 minutes, until all the water has evaporated.

Wait until the rice is cold enough to touch, and pour over it a quarter cup of sushi vinegar, with two spoons of sugar and a little salt. Mix your rice and leave it for now.

Prepare the slices of fish, I used salmon only, because my siblings liked mainly salmon. I love tuna too, though it is harder to find and more expensive.

Now wet your hand with a little water, you can put water on a bowl for ease of use, and grab in the palm of your hand a little bit of rice. Form a sushi by pressing gently the rice in your palm. Then grab a piece of fish that is roughly the size of your rice, put a drop of wasabi on it and press both rice and fish in your palm to stick them together. That’s it, you have a sushi!! Eat with wasabi and pickled ginger.

I did some maki too, the ones rolled in seaweed, but I will explain another time!

Now let’s look at my costs. I spent about $25 for a huge 3lbs piece of salmon, that was way too much, but I always want to make sure I have enough. We used half and I froze the other half. The rest of the staples were $15, and I also used half or less.

So for what we ate:

Fish: $12.50

Rice, vinegar, wasabi, ginger: $7.50

Total: $20

I prepared my rice the night before and couldn’t wait, so I had a sushi dinner. I left a plate for my mum to try too. So I fed 5 people on $20! Pretty good for what is usually a $15 a pop meal right? My siblings were delighted and we had a great time.

On a related topic, find out how to make an easy spanish tortilla.

Have you tried to make your own sushi? How did that turn out?