A modern twist on conventional Japanese rice rolls is the California roll. It’s fresh and crisp, stuffed with avocado, crab, and cucumber, and it makes a substantial supper. You can use imitation or real crab.
| Prep Time: | 1 hr |
| Cook Time: | 20 mins |
| Additional Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 50 mins |
| Servings: | 5 |
| Yield: | 5 rolls |
Ingredients
- 4 cups water
- 2 cups uncooked white rice
- ½ cup seasoned rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon white sugar, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- ¼ pound cooked crab meat, drained of excess liquid and shredded
- 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
- 5 sheets nori (dry seaweed)
- 1 avocado, sliced
- ¼ cup red caviar, such as tobiko
- 1 English cucumber, seeded and sliced into strips
- 2 tablespoons drained pickled ginger, for garnish
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce, or to taste
- 1 tablespoon wasabi paste
Instructions
- Gather all ingredients.
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- Wrap a sushi rolling mat completely in plastic wrap and set aside.
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- Bring water and rice to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until rice is tender and liquid has been absorbed, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer rice to a bowl and cut in vinegar using a rice paddle or wooden spoon. Season with sugar and salt. Allow to cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.
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- Combine crab meat with mayonnaise in a small bowl.
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- Place nori sheet on a flat work surface. Spread a thin layer of rice on top of nori.
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- Place nori, rice side down, on the prepared rolling mat. Place 2 to 3 avocado slices on top of the nori in one layer.
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- Top with 2 to 3 tablespoons of the crab mixture.
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- Spoon 1 to 2 teaspoons tobiko lengthwise on one side of the avocado-crab mixture, and 2 cucumber strips on the other side.
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- Using the mat as a guide, carefully roll the California roll into a tight log. Remove the rolling mat. Top roll with more tobiko, cover with plastic wrap, and gently press the tobiko into the top of the roll.
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- Remove the plastic and cut into 6 even pieces using a wet knife. Repeat with remaining sheets of nori and filling. Serve garnished with pickled ginger, soy sauce, and wasabi paste.
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Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 445 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 70 g |
| Cholesterol | 94 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Protein | 15 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Sodium | 1237 mg |
| Sugars | 3 g |
| Fat | 11 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
good Califnia roll
As an Asian, I do equal parts water as rice.
This is so delicious
Husband says it tastes like the real thing. I omitted the mayonnaise and salt otherwise followed the recipe. We made 5 rolls/40 pieces. Will make again.
I added a tsp of sesame oil to the rice. Cook a bit longer if rice is still damp.
As expected…..video helped.
Me and my daughter made california rolls and we added additional ingredients. Like Saracha mayo,eel sauce, and French fried onions. This came out just like the dragon rolls that we buy at the store, except that we added a little more eel sauce.
easy with all different variations, butterflied shrimp, fresh salmon… yum!
this is fantastic made it just as instructed wouldn’t change a thing except for maybe adding cream cheese with the crab instead it was truly wonderful! the caviar was expensive but worth it!!
The mayonnaise is used on your fingers so nothing sticks to it. Great job in the useless description of how to make this folks. You have people mixing it in as per the first person that reviewed this recipe. Try harder next time…
where I come from a good California roll has crab salad, not crab stick (which isn’t even crab) I believe crab salad is made using crab stick though and mayo (but not 100%) also it’s very easy to make your own sushi rice and to buy sushi grade ric at your local Asian market. it makes rolling the sushi easier as it sticks to the nori better. e en though Cali rolls aren’t traditional Japanese sushi. they are still one of my favs! yum! also orange flying fish roe is used if making an inside out roll. much tastier than red caviar and is traditional. try my tips it’s worth it. over all this is a great recipe though
I did change one thing and used a wrap instead of seaweed and I couldn’t find avocado though but it was still good ??
Very easy to follow.
I’m doing this for a project in my Basic Ag class. I’m going to change a few things around though. Instead of crab, I’m going to use crushed salmon and instead of red caviar, I’m going to use my very own pimento spread. I don’t think I’ll find the wasabi anywhere so I’ll use the closest thing to it and go with horseradish sauce. I think it’ll turn out pretty good. 🙂
I thought this tasted very good and once prep is done assembly is easy. My only problem was the rice was a little to wet, maybe next time I’ll use about a 1/4 less water when making the rice.
I did this, but I changed and added some things! Instead of rice vinegar I used Balsamic vinegar and mixed in sugar and salt. Than instead of mayonnaise, I used cream cheese (which is what most California Sushi Rolls use) cut into cubes placed on top of the Nori sheets along side the crab and avocado. I do not use the red caviar, cucumber, or the drained pickled ginger. My version come out really good! The rice kinda of had a dark tint to it because of the sauce.
Liked the outcome. rolling the roll not as hard as i thought. used less salt. glad i did.