Have you eaten sushi before? If you said yes, I assume that you bought it in a restaurant or store. In fact, sushi is not so difficult to make, and you can make it with simple ingredients. Once you've learnt how to make sushi rice, you'll be able to make many types of sushi as Maki sushi(sushi roll), Temaki sushi (hand roll) and Inari sushi (sushi rice stuffed in deep-fried tofu).
Temaki sushi
Temaki sushi (hand rolled sushi), a make-yourself type of sushi where you take Nori (seaweed sheet) on your hand wrap it round rice and fish or vegetables. It's a popular dish for family gatherings, and a similar style to having tacos at home in some countries.
Sushi is usually made with seasoned rice and fish and/or vegetables. The seasoned rice is called Sumeshi (酢飯) in Japanese, literally means vinegared rice, or Sushi rice in English.
What You'll Need for Ingredients
You need sugar, salt and the other ingredients below.
Rice
Use Japanese short-grain rice or rice commonly labelled as sushi rice. Long-grain rice is too dry to make sushi.
Vinegar
Rice vinegar (Komezu in Japanese) is usually used for sushi. Use apple vinegar if you can't get it although the taste will be milder.
Kombu(kelp)
dried Kombu
You can make sushi rice without Kombu, but I recommend you to use it as it adds such a nice flavor and umami savoriness.
Kombu is a very important ingredient for Japanese cuisine, and it has lots of nutrients and many benefits for your health as well as having special flavors. Read more about it from Kombu (Kelp), the Role in the Japanese Diet
What You'll Need for Equipment
Pan with a Lid
22-25cm round deep pan with a lid will be perfect for cooking rice for this recipe. Of course, you can use an automatic rice cooker if you have one at home!
Sushi Rice RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
[ For 5-8 people ]
For rice
3 cups (600ml) rice
3 cups water
8cm x 8cm kombu, optional
For seasoned vinegar
mix all these together in a cup
half a cup of rice vinegar
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
INSTRUCTIONS
1 Rinse the rice changing water a few times, and drain. Put the rice and cold water in a pan, and leave it for an hour, so the rice can absorb some water, and cook evenly.
2 Put the pan on medium-heat with a lid after adding the kombu.
3 Take the kombu out of the pan when it boils. Keep the rice boiling for 2 minutes, and then put it on low heat, leave it for 12-15 minutes.
4 Take the pan off from the heat, and leave it for 10 minutes.
5 Put the cooked rice into a container. (Wooden bowl is highly recommended to use as it can absorb the excess water). Pour the seasoned vinegar evenly on top, and mix gently, folding with a large spatula. Don't mix too vigorously as this makes the rice too sticky. Try to cool immediately. A paper fan is usually used to cool sushi rice.
How to Enjoy Sushi Rice
Adding sesame seeds and/or finely chopped ginger to the rice is good.
Also, making a seafood dish with the sushi rice is great. Put some rice into a bowl and add seafood on top.
You can also make these one-bite sized sushi.
Related Articles
Kombu (Kelp), the Role in the Japanese Diet
Today's Recommendations
Kombu(kelp)
Oguraya: Natural Kelp Seaweed, Makonbu
Dried Kombu Harvested in the coasts of Hokkaido, which will produce a strong umami savoriness.
Salt
Amabito no Moshio Gourmet Seaweed Salt
Beige in color, this salt is abundant in minerals such as iodine (a compound found in seaweed), calcium, potassium, magnesium, etc. The mild taste is a result of the umami flavor naturally present in the seaweed, a unique quality of this salt.
Konacha (Green tea powder)
Tarui Tea Farm: Organic Sushi Restaurant Green Tea Powder
This type of green tea is often served in sushi restaurants, and is a convenient way to consume the entire tea leaf.
Enjoy the autumn harvested, deep steamed green tea produced in Shizuoka with powder.
Nori (seaweed sheets)
Mikuniya’s Aonori Yakinori Seaweed Sheet for Sushi - Premium Grade 10 pcs
Let's enjoy Temaki sushi (hand rolled sushi) with the Nori at home!
