Sushi Rice

Making good tasting sushi boils down to one important ingredient: sushi rice. Believe it or not, making the rice is the hardest part of making sushi. Without well-cooked sushi rice, the sushi itself will not taste good. It is not as simple as cooking rice and serving it. The rice with which sushi is made is a bit different, since modern sushi is of Japanese origin and it differs a lot from the Indian or Chinese rice. It is essential to use the correct rice, to ensure perfect consistency and quality.

Know Your Sushi Rice

The rice is what binds the whole sushi together. You cannot just serve pieces of uncooked fish and call it sushi. Without the rice, the dish you serve is called a sashimi! The first step towards making the perfect sushi is getting the right type of rice for it. There are over 40,000 varieties of rice in the world, but sushi requires rice that can bind together. You can think of rice in terms of the size. There is long-grain, medium-grain, and short-grain rice. You cannot use long-grain or medium-grain rice for making sushi; you specifically need to use short grain rice. Other factors include fiber content, color, and grain integrity. If you do not know the difference between the different qualities, you can just pick up a pack of rice labeled “sushi rice” from the store. Sushi rice is usually a little pricier than other rice. The whole point of using a short grain rice is due to its ability to stick with each other, so the rice does not fall apart when rolling or eating it. This is because short-grain rice contains a higher percentage of starch. Most rice loses its excess starch when rinsing the rice, but sushi rice will retain more of it. Long grain rice such as jasmine rice does not have that sticky consistency.

Vinegar and Rice

After getting the right type of rice, you will have to focus on getting the taste correct. That is where vinegar comes in. To make the right flavored sushi rice, you will need the right type of white rice vinegar mixed with salt, and a bit of sugar to season the rice. The mixing of the ingredients and rice should be done right after the rice is fully cooked and before the rice cools down. Note that the stickiness of the rice should not come from overcooked rice, but rather from the vinegar mixture along with the original starch content of the rice. You will need the right amount of mixture with the sushi rice. If you put too much vinegar in your rice, you’ll have to let the rice soak for longer to absorb the mixture. Letting the rice soak in room temperature for the appropriate amount of time will create that sushi rice, which is the key ingredient to making perfect sushi.

How to Make Sushi Rice

You will need 3 cups of rice, ½ cup of rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and 1 teaspoon of salt.

  1. Wash the rice in cold water until it nearly runs clear; this will take 3-5 times of rinsing
  2. Drain the excess water and add twice the height of water as there is rice
  3. Use a rice cooker, so the rice comes out consistently; this is the superior way to cook rice instead of cooking it over the stove
  4. Create the vinegar mixture by heating, over a stove, ½ cup of rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and 1 teaspoon of salt for every 3 cups of rice. It all should dissolve and combine into one mixture. Remove from stove (Rice vinegar cannot be substituted!)
  5. When the rice is done, put the rice in a large bowl
  6. Slowly add the vinegar mixture in the rice bowl while mixing the rice. Do not mush the rice together; each grain should still be an individual grain and not broken
  7. Store the sushi rice at room temperature and cover it with a damp towel to keep the rice from drying out. The rice should be cooled down and sticks together before serving it with sushi. If the rice is still wet and falls apart, it is not ready to be used for nigiri or sushi rolls

Due to the rice vinegar’s preservatives, the sushi rice can be stored at room temperature for a couple of days before having to refrigerate it. This is especially useful if a restaurant has a large quantity of sushi rice being prepared day after day.