Salmon Avocado Rolls are the 4th most popular sushi in Australia and the last recipe in my Sushi Rolls Recipe Series. As the name suggests, the fillings in my Salmon Avocado Rolls are raw salmon and sliced avocado. Salmon Avocado Rolls are one of the regular sushi rolls at Take Away Sushi Roll shops in Australia. They are thick and long, but the Salmon Avocado Roll in this recipe is thinner and cut into bite-size pieces.
Unlike the top 3 Aussie favourite sushi rolls – California Rolls, Tempura Prawn Rolls, and Spicy Tuna Rolls, Salmon Avocado Roll is not an uramaki sushi and the rice is wrapped in yaki nori. Because of this, it is perhaps the closest to the traditional Japanese sushi rolls called Norimaki.
Why is salmon avocado roll popular in Australia?
As the popular sushi ranking in Sushi Rolls Recipe Series shows, Salmon Avocado Rolls did not make to the top 10 in the US, although nigiri salmon ranked 5th.
I was curious about the big difference in popularity between the two countries, so I did a bit of research on this subject.
Salmon:
In Australia, the most commonly available salmon, farmed Atlantic salmon, is sourced within Australia from places such as Tasmania. On the other hand, the US heavily relies on farmed salmon from overseas such as Chile, Norway, and Canada.
Avocado:
Avocado is also a popular ingredient in Australia. Dishes such as avocado toast and salad with avocado cubes are very popular. The fact that avocados are grown in Australia all year round in a variety of regions helps the popularity of avocados.
In the US, avocado seems to be more associated with Mexican foods such as guacamole.
Prawn Mango Avocado Salad (left) and Guacamole (right) from RecipeTin Eats.
Focus on fresh food:
Meat pies and fish n’ chips used to be Australian favourites, but these days they are surpassed by international cuisines including Japanese food, e.g. sushi and sashimi. A piece of research from last year showed that Japanese cuisine topped the most in demand cuisines in Australia.
Aussies are also keen on healthy fresh food, and raw fish became quite popular among them.
Sushi is also popular in the US, but people seem to prefer strong flavours, with unique combination of ingredients and sauces. That’s probably the reason why California Rolls and Spicy Tuna Rolls made the top 2 popular sushi dishes in the US. Dragon rolls with a thick eel sauce (photo below), Philadelphia rolls with cream cheese inside, and spider rolls with deep-fried soft-shell crab inside were all invented in the US.
Well, that’s my analogy about popularity of Salmon Avocado Rolls in Australia.
What’s in My salmon avocado Rolls
I made two long rolls that make 16 sushi roll pieces. Because the outside of the sushi rolls is yaki nori, I am not using any ingredients to coat the rice.
- Sushi rice
- Yaki nori.
Filling
- Sashimi quality salmon, 2-3 strips of 1cm x 1cm/⅜” x ⅜” wide, 40cm/15¾” long in total.
- 4 thinly sliced avocado wedges.
I used a medium-size avocado, and each slice was about 10cm/4″ long, requiring 2 slices per sushi roll. If your avocado is short, you will need 3 pieces for each sushi roll.
Tools
- Sushi rolling 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.
Note that the sushi rolling mat does not have to be covered in cling wrap because the rice will not stick to the mat.
How to Make Salmon Avocado Rolls
The rolling technique is exactly the same as the way I showed you in my Sushi Rolls (Norimaki) recipe.
See the video.
- Spread sushi rice over a sheet of yaki nori on a rolling mat.
- Place the fillings on the rice.
- 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 salmon avocado roll into 8 pieces.
Yumiko
Watch How To Make It
Salmon Avocado Rolls are the 4th most popular sushi in Australia as per my post. As the name suggests, the fillings in my Salmon Avocado Rolls are raw salmon and sliced avocado.
- 240g/8.5oz sushi rice (note 1)
- 1 sheet yaki nori (roasted seaweed sheet), halved
- 100g sashimi salmon strips (2-3 strips of 1cm x 1cm/⅜” x ⅜” wide, 40cm/15¾” long in total)
- 4 thin avocado wedges about 10cm/4” long each (note 2)
- A sushi rolling mat (bamboo mat, note 3)
- 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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Place a piece of yaki nori on your end of the sushi rolling mat, shiny side of the nori sheet down.
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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, except 1cm/⅜” of the end of the seaweed sheet away from you (this will overlap with the other end when rolled). Ensure that the rice evenly covers the yaki nori sheet, and do not press the rice down too hard.
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Place a strip of salmon in the centre of the rice. If your salmon strips are not as long as the width of the seaweed sheet, connect the short strips so that salmon reaches to both ends.
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Place 2 (or 3 if the slice is short) avocado slices along the salmon. You may break the avocado slice to straighten it.
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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, overlapping with the end of the yaki nori sheet that does not have rice on it.
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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 a 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. After each cut, wipe the knife with the wet towel.
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Transfer the Salmon Avocado Rolls to a serving plate. Serve with soy sauce and wasabi paste (optional).
1. Please refer to Temakizushi (Hand Rolled Sushi) for how to make sushi rice.
2. I used a medium-size avocado. If your avocado is small, you may need 3 slices per roll to make about 20cm/8" when connected. This means 6 slices in total.
3. Unlike other sushi rolls recipes in the Sushi Rolls Recipe Series, you don’t need to wrap the sushi rolling mat in cling wrap for today’s sushi roll because it is not uramaki sushi roll.
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