Show the Working

Sushi Rice

Short-grain rice dressed while hot, where the dressing is cut through with a slicing motion and never stirred.

Vegan.

Ingredients

For the rice

For the dressing

Method

  1. THE DRESSING IS CUT THROUGH WITH A SLICING MOTION AND NEVER STIRRED. A flat wooden paddle held like a knife, drawn down through the rice and lifted, turning the bowl between strokes. Stirred or folded like a cake mixture, the grains break open, release their starch and the whole lot turns to a paste that will not hold a shape and tastes gluey. Every grain should still be a grain you can see. This is the only step here that is not ordinary rice cookery, and it is the whole difference.
  2. AND IT IS FANNED WHILE THAT HAPPENS. A fan, a magazine or somebody else's hand. Fanning drives off the surface moisture as the dressing goes on, which is what makes the rice glossy rather than wet, and it cools it at the same time. Dressed without fanning, it stays slack and sits in a puddle.
  3. IT IS DRESSED HOT, straight out of the pan. Hot rice drinks the dressing; rice left to cool first will not take it, and what you get is seasoned liquid in the bottom of the bowl and bland rice above it. There is no second chance at this.
  4. THE RICE IS WASHED UNTIL THE WATER RUNS CLEAR, which takes four or five changes and more agitation than seems polite -- rub the grains against each other with the heel of your hand. That cloudiness is loose surface starch, and left on it is exactly what makes the finished rice claggy.
  5. A WOODEN BOWL IF YOU HAVE ONE, AND NEVER METAL. Wood takes up the excess moisture the fanning is driving off. Metal does the opposite, holds the heat, and reacts with the vinegar to leave a faint tin taste. A wide glass or ceramic dish is the honest substitute; a mixing bowl is too deep and too narrow to slice through.
  6. AND IT IS NEVER REFRIGERATED. Cold ruins it -- the starch retrogrades, the grains go hard and dry, and warming it again does not bring it back. It is used at body temperature, within about four hours, covered with a damp cloth.
  7. Rice put in a bowl, covered with cold water, and rubbed between the hands. The cloudy water poured off.
  8. Repeated 4 or 5 TIMES until the water runs almost clear.
  9. Drained in a sieve and left 15 minutes, then returned to the pan with the measured 660 ml of water and the kombu, and SOAKED 30 MINUTES. Unsoaked, the outside cooks before the centre of each grain.
  10. The kombu lifted out. Brought to the boil covered, then the heat right down for 12 minutes, then off the heat and LEFT COVERED, undisturbed, 10 MINUTES. The lid stays on throughout.
  11. Meanwhile the vinegar, sugar and salt warmed gently until the sugar and salt dissolve. NOT boiled, which drives the vinegar off. Cooled to warm.
  12. The hot rice tipped into a wide wooden or ceramic dish and spread out in an even layer.
  13. The dressing poured over the PADDLE rather than straight onto the rice, so it is distributed instead of soaking one patch.
  14. CUT through with the paddle on its edge, slicing down and lifting, turning the dish a quarter between strokes, while fanning. 3 to 4 minutes, until it is glossy and cooled to body temperature.
  15. Covered with a damp cloth and used within 4 hours. Not in the fridge.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Japan · All recipes