Home Cooked Rolled Sushi Doesn't Need Raw Fish/Seafood? A Recipe of Futo-Maki Roll Sushi

Since I wrote about a custom of eating rolled sushi on Setsubun Day (February 3rd), I'd like to introduce a recipe for a very plain rolled sushi today. Nowadays "Sushi" is well known internationally, but somehow it is associated with raw fish or seafood.

Actually fish or seafood is not required for sushi, especially for rolled sushi. Most of common ingredients of thin type of rolled sushi called "Hoso-Maki" does not contain fish or seafood, and the most plain thick type of rolled sushi called "Futo-Maki" usually doesn't contain any raw fish or seafood. In fact regarding thick type of rolled sushi it is called "Seafood Rolled Sushi" when it contains row seafood and it gives an impression of "gorgeous sushi".

The photos are showing a typical homemade thick type of rolled sushi called "Futo-Maki". Since it is a common home cooking, people just use ingredients which are easily available at home. For this Futo-Maki the ingredients are eggs, cucumbers, shiitake mushrooms, and spinach. A the detailed recipe is below.

[Recipe of a traditional rolled sushi, Futo-Maki] For 2 rolls
The recipe is following the numbers on the photos above, and "TBS" means Table Spoon and "ts" means Tea Spoon in the recipe.

For contents of a rolled sushi
①Cucumbers: Cut into long strips.
②Shiitake mushrooms: Soak dry shiitake mushrooms in 1cup of water for several hours.
After slicing the mushrooms, boil them with shredded dry bonito (photo③), 3TBS soy sauce and 1 and 1/2 TBS of sugar until the mushrooms absorb the taste.
④Japanese sweet omelette: Mix 3 eggs, 2TBS sugar, a pinch of salt, and 2 TBS of water.
Then, after put a little oil on a frying pan, cook the egg into a thick omelette.
⑤Spinach: Blanche a bunch of spinach leaves and squeeze out excess water completely.
Mix with a TBS of soy sauce and 1 ts of suger.

For vinegar rice
⑥Mix 100 ML of rice vinegar, 2TBS of sugar, and 1 ts of salt, which is a basic "vinegar mixture" for Japanese cooking.
Wash 300g of Japanese sticky rice and strain it to get rid of water. 
*If you have a rice cooker you can use it to cook the rice. Add 300 ML water to the rice and push the button to start cooking.
*If you'd like to use a thick heavy pot, put the washed rice into the pot and add 300 ML water gently. Close the lid and turn on the stove to low heat.
After 5minutes, change to high heat and cook for around 15-20minutes. Then turn off the heat and wait about 5 minutes. (Until this step, be careful not to open the lid at all!)
Open the lid, and take out the cooked rice into a big bowl.
Pour the "vinegar mixture" immediately onto the rice while it is still hot. Mix the rice with a spatula and fan it to cool it down quickly. (Then the rice absorb "vinegar mixture" well)

Making a roll
⑦Place a bamboo mat on a cooking board and place a big sheet of "Nori (seaweed)" and spread rice gently onto it.
Please don't push the rice at all, rice pieces shouldn't be crushed for Sushi.
Leave a space at the edge of Nori as shown in the photo.
Also make a little heap at the edge of rice as the purple arrow indicated.
⑧Place each ingredient on right before the heap as shown in the photo.
Then pick up the side close to you and roll toward the other end.
After rolled and formed the shape, you can add a little pressure to make the both edges of Nori stick completely.
⑨Cut off both edges of the roll and cut into 1inch (2.5-3.0 cm) slices carefully.
Since rice pieces are not pressed, rolls can easily fall apart during cutting.
(additionally you can sprinkle some sesame seeds if you like.)