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Sushi Rice
Updated on 11 Jan 2021.
Sushi (すし、寿司) is a Japanese dish made up of cooked vinegared rice which is commonly topped with other ingredients or put into rolls.
See Also:
- Onigiri (Japanese Rice Balls) Recipe
- Kappa Maki (Cucumber Sushi Roll) Recipe
- California Temaki (Handroll) Recipe
With the base sushi rice (酢飯) recipe, you can make all types of sushi such as nigiri zushi, maki zushi, inari zushi and temaki. For fellow sushi lovers, here’s a step-by-step photo tutorial on how to cook sushi rice. This will be the base rice recipe for all sushi recipes.
STEP-BY-STEP PHOTOS
Measure the rice. Use short-grain white rice.
Rinse the rice in a few changes of water until the water runs less cloudy (skip this step if you are using pre-washed rice). Drain the rice in a colander for roughly 30 minutes. Draining the rice is believed to improve the texture and appearance of the cooked rice, but I skip this step most of the time.
Measure and add water for cooking the rice (1 cup rice: 1 1/4 cup water). My rice cooker is a Japanese brand so the pot came with its own water marking for sushi rice. Also, there is a mode to schedule the completed cooking time of the rice, so I take this chance to soak the rice for about 1-2 hours before it starts cooking. Optional – add a piece of kelp/konbu (make cuts all over; pictured above) and sake for additional flavour. Cook the rice using a rice cooker or simmer over the stove top.
While waiting for the rice to cook, prepare vinegar mixture by mixing rice vinegar, sugar and salt in a small, non-aluminum saucepan over low heat until the sugar dissolves. You may also use a microwave oven and heat using low power for about a minute. Alternatively, use ready-made seasoned rice vinegar which has already been mixed with sugar & salt, and can be used straight from the bottle.
When the rice is cooked, discard the piece of kelp.
Transfer the cooked rice (while it is still hot) to a hangiri or any wide bowl. Pour prepared vinegar mixture over the rice. Stir the rice (gentle slicing action) using a rice paddle with one hand, while fanning the rice with a paper fan on the other hand. Do so until the rice has cooled to room temperature. Fanning the rice gets rid of excess moisture and gives the rice grains a glossy look.
It is difficult for me to coordinate everything with only 2 hands (fanning, stirring & photographing), so I mounted a portable fan along the side of my kitchen cabinet to automate the fanning process.
Cover the bowl of rice with a damp slotted cloth (dim sum cloth is perfect for this role) to keep the rice fresh and moist. Use the rice as soon as possible, preferably within a few hours. Wrap leftovers in cling wrap before refrigerating.
Your sushi rice is now ready to be used for making all kinds of Japanese sushi.
It’s so easy but sooo delicious! I love sushi rice- will be nice to see other ways of using sushi rice other than sushi!
Nice! I didn’t know that the steps include adding kelp :) and fanning the rice too. Heheh… Thanks for sharing, very useful!
Mmmm…I love sushi. Nice rice. Would love to see more of your sushi.
I made sushi rice for one of my posts…flat sushi and I found it to be so easy. Now I make it all the time.
Great tutorial. I have yet to make my own sushi rice. :P
Oh, I love love the Japanese sushi rice. If I cook it, my family will surely finish the whole lot from my cooker.
Great tutorial with lovely pics. :)
What a great tutorial!
Great tutorial! I love sushi rice and hey, I got the same rice cooker as yours
What an informative and useful post for all the sushi lovers! Love it! Can’t wait to see how you will use this sushi rice. ;)
Very clear instructions! Maybe I’ll get my daughter to read your blog. She loves japanese rolls!