PROCESS:
Cooking Rice:
Start with 4 cups of rice in a large bowl. Cover it with cold water and scrub the rice by rubbing your hands together, see video. The water will become cloudy, because we are washing the talc off the rice. Drain the cloudy water into the sink, you don’t have to drain it completely at this step. Cover the rice with cold water again, do this three times until the water stays clear after scrubbing and rinsing.
Here’s a sushi rice tip:
After rinsing, cover the rice with cold water and allow it to soak for 20-minutes. This starts the absorption process and turns the rice pearl white. After 20 minutes strain all the water from the rice and let it drain in a strainer or china cap for a few minutes. Pour the rice into the bowl of the rice cooker. Add exactly 4 cups of water, stir with your fingers to level the rice in the bowl.
Another Tip:
Wipe the bottom of the bowl with a towel, this protects the electric cooking element and will help your rice cooker last longer.
Cooking:
Close the lid, plug in the cooker and press the cook button, the rice cooker will automatically turn itself off when it’s done cooking.
Another Important Rice Cooking Tip:
After the cooker clicks and goes from cook to warm, allow the rice to sit with the lid closed for an additional 15-minutes so it can blow off excess steam and dry out a bit. This will help the rice absorb the right amount of vinegar in the next step. If the rice sits too long it will absorb too much vinegar and become too sticky
Sushi Vinegar:
Sushi vinegar is equal parts sugar and rice vinegar, we are using one cup rice vinegar and one cup sugar
mix sugar and vinegar together and add the juice of one lemon for additional citrus flavor. This is Sushi Vinegar, use it to season sushi rice. Four cups of raw rice takes 1.25 cups of sushi vinegar after it is cooked. Sushi vinegar will keep up to a week in the fridge.
When the rice is done cooking:
Use a spatula to cut around the bowl, pour the rice into a bowl. Pour the vinegar over the spatula and shake evenly over the rice. Cut the rice in a chopping motion, the goal is to coat each piece of rice evenly with the sushi vinegar. Cover with a damp towel and allow the rice to cool to room temperature.
This rice is ready to be rolled into sushi..!
* If you like your sushi a little sweeter add more sugar…
In Japan they serve sweeter sushi in the winter and cut back on the sugar in summer for bathing suit season!
INGREDIENTS:
Rice
4 cups short grain rice
4 cups water
Sushi Vinegar
1 cup rice vinegar
1 cup sugar
1 lemon