Spicy Black Grouper Sushi Roll
For the fifth and final recipe in, Frozen In Time: 5 Recipes From My Last Florida Keys Black Grouper, I decided to make a couple grouper sushi rolls. I’ve been making sushi for over 10 years now, and I can promise you the first time I made it, it didn’t look like the pictures you see below. This recipe assumes that you have a basic knowledge of rolling sushi, and is really just a recipe for the spicy Black Grouper filling. Don’t worry though, if you’ve never made Grouper Sushi from your fresh catch before I will be making a video series down the road that will show you how to.
I have always enjoyed making sushi rolls, because it gives you a platform to be as creative, or as simple as you want. Some of the best rolls I’ve ever made had the least amount of ingredients. Sushi can be especially fun, when you have a bunch of different species to work with. Each roll representing a different fish, and having a special story behind it. For this recipe, that story is of course; my last Florida Keys Black Grouper.
Grouper probably isn’t my top choice of fish when it comes to making sushi. Like I’ve said since the beginning of this series, grouper tends to be a little bit chewy the first couple days after you break it down, and needs time to age. I’ll go into more detail on how I age my fish in some later posts, but the key point here is that you don’t want to make this with a grouper you got yesterday. With that being said, once your grouper does age a little bit and starts to break down and develop flavor, it is incredible for sushi!
The Components of Grouper Sushi
The first, and one of the most important components of making sushi, is the rice. Making sure you use a quality rice and cook it to perfection will make your life easier when it comes time to roll. I’ve always used some sort of rice that is suitable for sushi, for this particular recipe I used this Nishiki Medium Grain Rice. I’ve actually used this rice the last dozen or so times I’ve rolled sushi, and I’ve had good results. It also goes great in poke bowls.
The second component is making sure you season your rice properly. I’m sure everyone that makes sushi has their own special recipe for their rice seasoning. What has worked best for me, however, has always been a mix of rice wine vinegar, sugar, and salt. This is pretty standard in the sushi world.
The third component I want to emphasize is the nori. There’s so many different brands out there that look very similar, and may very well be very similar. One of things I always look for, though, are the darker green sheets. At big box grocery stores, a lot of the nori sheets you will find aren’t the highest quality. They’re light in color and thin. This doesn’t mean they won’t work or make incredible sushi, I’ve just found the cheaper ones tend to rip if you’re not careful. If you’re not in a time crunch, I would recommend getting your nori sheets online or at a local asian market.
The last component is obviously the fish, lobster, crab, or whatever you’re going to be making. I’ve made sushi from just about every species I’ve harvested in South Florida and the Keys, with the exception of just a few. African Pompano, Blackfin Tuna, Yellow Jack and Mutton Snapper are some of my favorites. There’s really none that I would say absolutely don’t make sushi out of. If you take care of the fish properly from the time you shoot it, you should be good to go.
I hope you enjoy this Spicy Black Grouper Sushi Recipe:
Spicy Black Grouper Sushi Roll
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