Today’s recipe, California Rolls, is the first of the 4 Sushi Rolls Recipe Series, and the most popular sushi in Australia and the US. The fillings in California Rolls consist of real or imitation crab meat, avocado, and cucumber, which make this sushi roll more accessible to people who are not familiar with (or fond of) raw fish.
Unlike standard Japanese sushi rolls, you don’t see yaki nori (roasted seaweed sheet) around the roll, which makes it a unique sushi roll.
The fillings of the original California Rolls included cooked crab meat, but these days imitation crab meat called kanikama (カニカマ, crab-flavoured fish paste sticks) is used, simply because of the cost of the real crab meat.
Frozen kanikama.
You can see a different kanikama in my post Crab Omelette on Rice (Tenshinhan).
Origin of California Roll
There are a few stories about who invented California Rolls – a couple of Japanese chefs in California, USA and a Japanese chef in Vancouver, Canada. Regardless of who invented it, the reason why such a non-traditional sushi roll was created appears to be the same.
It was around 1970 when Japanese chefs tried unsuccessfully to introduce traditional sushi to local diners. Even sushi rolls were not popular.
Sushi was not readily accepted by people for a couple of reasons – raw fish and yaki nori. People were not familiar with raw fish at the time. To those people, yaki nori looked like carbon paper.
To overcome these problems, raw fish was replaced with cooked crab meat and yaki nori was hidden by rolling sushi with yaki nori inside of the rice. This inside-out sushi roll was called uramaki (裏巻き), and it hit the spot.
California Rolls – uramaki.
California Rolls evolved since then and became very popular in the US by 1980. There are many different versions of California Rolls these days, but you must have kanikama (posh restaurants might serve real crab meat) inside the roll and the sushi roll must be uramaki. California Rolls often have roasted sesame seeds or tobiko (flying fish roe) around the roll of rice.
I recently travelled to San Francisco and bought takeaway California Rolls. I also dined at an authentic Japanese restaurant and had some California Rolls. The filling of both California Rolls had kanikama dressed in mayonnaise and avocado. The California Rolls at the Japanese restaurant were much better quality in appearance and taste, but I personally preferred the kanikama without mayonnaise.
Left: From a takeaway shop. Right: From an authentic Japanese Restaurant.
What’s in My California Rolls
I made two long rolls – one with roasted white sesame seeds around the roll, one with tobiko (flying fish roe) around the roll. You need a half yaki nori to make one roll.
- Sushi rice
- Yaki nori
- Roasted white sesame seeds
- Tobiko (flying fish roe)
Filling
- Kanikama
- Cucumber strips
- Avocado slices.
I didn’t use mayonnaise, but you can add some to the filling if you like. The take away California rolls that I had in San Francisco had kanikama dressed in mayonnaise.
Tools
- Sushi rolling mat wrapped in cling wrap to prevent the rice grains from sticking to the mat.
- A small bowl of water with 1 tablespoon of vinegar to wet your hands when handling the rice.
- A sharp kitchen knife – preferably a thin knife so that the surface area of the knife is minimal when cutting through the rolled rice.
- Wet kitchen towel to wipe the knife before cutting through the rolled rice. This will prevent the rice grains sticking to the knife.
How to Make California Rolls
The rolling technique is fundamentally the same as the way I showed you in my post Sushi Rolls (Norimaki), except that you need to turn the rice on the yaki nori over to make uramaki.
See the video.
- Spread sushi rice over a sheet of yaki nori on a rolling mat.
- Scatter white sesame seeds (or tobiko) over the rice.
- Turn the rice with yaki nori over so that the yaki nori is on top.
- Place the fillings on the yaki nori.
- Roll the rice with fillings using the rolling mat as a guide.
- Unroll the mat and transfer the sushi roll to a cutting board.
- Cut the California roll into 8 pieces.
Yumiko
Watch How To Make It
Today’s recipe, California Rolls is the first of the 4 Sushi Rolls Recipe Series, and the most popular sushi in Australia and the US. The fillings of my California Rolls consist of imitation crab meat called kanikama, avocado, and cucumber. You can of course use real boiled crab meat.
Total Time does not include making sushi rice.
- 240g/8.5oz sushi rice (note 1)
- 1 sheet yaki nori (roasted seaweed sheet), halved
- 1 tbsp roasted white sesame seeds (note 2)
- 1 tbsp tobiko (seasoned flying fish roe, note 2)
- 40g/1.4oz kanikama , break/shred into 1cm/⅜" wide pieces (note 3)
- 2 x 19cm/7½" long thin cucumber wedges (note 4)
- 4-6 slices avocado , sliced lengthwise (note 5)
- A sushi rolling mat (bamboo mat) wrapped in cling wrap (note 6)
- A cup of water mixed with 1 tablespoon of vinegar
- A sharp knife
- A wet kitchen towel to wipe the knife
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Beak or shred kanikama into long, thin pieces of about 1cm/⅜" wide.
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Place a piece of yaki nori on a sushi rolling mat.
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Wet your hands with the vinegar water in the bowl, take ½ of the sushi rice and make an oval ball.
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Place the rice in the centre of the yaki nori sheet and spread the rice in all directions, covering the entire yaki nori. Ensure that the rice evenly covers the yaki nori sheet, and do not press the rice down too hard.
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Sprinkle roasted white sesame seeds all over the rice.
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Turn the rice with yaki nori over, facing the yaki nori up, and place it to the edge of the rolling mat closer to you.
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Place your kanikama in the middle, spreading thinly from the left end to the right end. Place avocado and cucumber pieces along the kanikama (note 7).
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Using the thumb and index finger of both hands, hold the end of the mat and lift it up.
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Keeping the thumbs on the mat, place your fingers on the fillings firmly. While placing these fingers on the fillings, roll the bamboo mat away from you.
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When the edge of the rolling mat is at the top, let go of your fingers on the filling and keep rolling slowly until the edge of the rolling mat reaches the other end of the rice.
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By now, the mat should be completely covering the sushi roll. Don't roll the end of the mat into the rice!
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Press the rolling mat around the sushi roll gently but firmly.
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To completely roll the rest of the rice, hold the roll by placing one hand over the mat, then pull the end of the mat with the other hand a few centimetres away from you so that the sushi inside the mat rolls a further 90 degrees or so.
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Using both hands, gently but firmly press the mat over the sushi, then unroll the mat.
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Place the sushi roll on the plate/cutting board with the overlapping seam line down.
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Wipe a sharp kitchen knife with a wet towel to give moisture to the knife. This will prevent the knife from sticking to the rice, resulting in a clean cut.
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Cut the roll in half, then cut each half-length roll in half, then cut each piece in half again. You should have 8 small pieces.
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Transfer the California Rolls to a serving plate and serve with soy sauce. Wasabi paste is optional.
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To make California Rolls with tobiko, follow the same instructions above but replace white sesame seeds with tobiko using a small spoon to scatter.
1. Please refer to Temakizushi (Hand Rolled Sushi) for how to make sushi rice.
2. I made one roll with roasted white sesame seeds and one roll with tobiko. But you can make both rolls with the same coating.
3. You can buy frozen kanikama at Japanese/Asian grocery stores. It comes in different shapes and textures. Some are like a fish paste stick. Some are imitated more like real crab meat, including how the crab meat breaks into shredded meat.
Please visit my post Crab Omelette on Rice (Tenshinhan) for more details about kanikama with a photo.
4. My cucumber was short, so I made 3 wedges and used 1½ cucumber pieces per roll.
5. The number of avocado slices you need depends on the size of your avocado. You need to connect 2-3 slices to make 19cm/7½" long per roll.
6.This is to prevent the rice grains from sticking to the mat.
7. The filling should be placed slightly closer to you.
Hi, Yumiko!
One of the places that is reported as the birthplace of the California Roll is Little Tokyo here in Los Angeles. I think I remember it being credited to a long-standing (but gone now, I believe) restaurant called Tokyo Kaikan. The funny thing is, I distinctly remember when I first had it, it was not uramaki, but chumaki — a medium thick roll made in the conventional way.
One other point, I do not consider the rolls made with the shredded imitation crab+mayo a true California Roll, but it’s getting harder to find rolls made with the unadulterated krab, as it is often called here.
Hi Lynne, yes you are right about Little Tokyo being one of the birthplaces and the original California roll using real crab meat.