It may not be the most exciting part of sushi, but the vinegared rice or sushimeshi (鮨飯) is what makes sushi sushi. By some accounts, the word sushi is a contraction of the words su which means "vinegar" and meshi which means "rice". Another creation legend is that the kanji character for sushi "鮨" resembles the Chinese character for salted fish "鮓" and so perhaps the origins of sushi lay somewhere in southern China. In any case, raw fish without the rice is just sashimi.In Japan, where hundreds of varieties of fresh sashimi-grade fish are flown in from around the world to local fish markets, the best sushi restaurants differentiate themselves based on their technique, not just the variety and freshness of their fish. The rice in particular is what separates the truly extraordinary sushi restaurants from the merely good, and how they make it is a closely guarded secret.Great sushi rice teeters the line between tender and hard. Each grain of rice retains its original shape, and yet they magically stick together, without being gluey or gummy.

The seasoning is a balancing act between sweet, sour and salt, well seasoned, but not so much so that it detracts from the fish. Most importantly the grains sport a lustrous shine that would make a shampoo model jealous.While it may surprise some, not all rice is not created equally. Even amongst short-grain rices there are huge variations in texture, color and shine based on the species, where it was made, what the weather was like, how it was milled, and even how fresh it is. A pound of recently harvested premium rice can fetch upwards of $20 in Japan. Unfortunately we don't have quite the selection of rice here in the US, but lookng for rice labelled as "new crop" is a good start. How the rice is washed, cooked, and seasoned are equally important, so here's my technique for getting the best sushi meshi out of the rice you have available to you.Lastly, if you're looking for great quality fish thats safe to eat raw, Luxe Gourmets has a good selection of salmon, hamachi and tuna that's the best I've seen in the US.

Since the fish they carry is intended to be eaten raw, and handled by experts who know how the fish is going to be used, the fish is better quality and safer to eat than most stores outside Japan.Recommended products Previous Next4 servings Based on your location, units have been adjusted to Metric measuring system. sushi online spielenStepsNOTE: A rice cooker cup does not equal 1 US cup. order takeout online ukIf you don't have a rice cooker, use the weight measure.sushi en madrid gran viaIf you're using a rice cooker, add the rice to the bowl of the rice cooker and add cold water to just under the 2 cup line (you want the rice to be on the firm side as you'll be adding the seasoned vinegar after the rice is cooked). sushi to go tilburg

If you don't have a rice cooker, add the rice to a large heavy bottomed non-stick pot, then add 1 1/2 cups of cold water.sushi grade fish at homeLet the rice sit in the water for at least 30 minutes. best party food delivery manilaThis allows the grains of rice to soak up some water before cooking, which results in shinier rice with a better texture.sushi roller machine priceIf you are using a rice cooker, turn it on and let it do it's thing. If you are doing this on the stove, turn the heat onto high and bring the rice to a boil (be careful not to let it boil over). Turn down the heat to low and cover with a lid. Set a timer for 15 minutes. Once the rice is done, turn off the heat and let the rice steam for 10 minutes.

The rice is done when the surface is no longer wet and slippery, the rice is fluffy, and each grain is very shiny. It will still be a little warm, but it should not be hot. Spread the rice out over the surface of your bowl, and cover with a damp towel until you're ready to use it.This is the first of several sushi lessons brought to you by me, displaced sushi lover, and Cody, a half-Japanese sushi chef from the big city. Cody visited the ranch last week (a birthday present from Marlboro Man, who figured it was the only thing on earth besides a pug that I would possibly want) and spent a few hours deconstructing the basics of sushi so that sad souls like me would have the skills to prepare it from time to time. I love sushi so much. Today, we’re going to start with the basic building block of sushi: rice. Rice is the basis of sushi. I repeat: Rice is the basis of sushi. According to sushi chef Cody, you could slap a little slice of Spam on a small pillow of rice and it would technically qualify as sushi.

Gross me out the door. Though I’ll bet my dad would love it. He learned to love Span in Vietnam. Sushi has an interesting beginning: people in China (funny, since sushi is a Japanese dish) used to cure large pieces of fish in between two flat layers of vinegar-soaked rice. They’d create a flat layer of rice, pour a vinegar solution over it, then lay a single layer of fish all over the rice. Then they’d top it with another vinegar-soaked layer of rice and let it cure for a length of time as a means of preserving it. When the fish was ready, they’d discard the rice and keep the fish. I guess somewhere along the way, someone got the munchies early, grabbed a big mouthful of the fish and rice, and decided it was a treat in itself. I would have been that person. According to Cody the Sushi Chef, the first step toward making perfect sushi rice is to cook the rice properly. 1. Use short or medium-grain rice. It’s more starchy and round than the long-grain variety, which just won’t hold together well enough to support ingredients in sushi.

Many stores now sell specifically-labeled “sushi rice”. 2. Before you cook it, wash/rinse the rice until the water runs totally clear—about five or six times. If you don’t thoroughly rinse the rice, it’ll end up in a big, sticky ball. There’s enough internal starch in the rice for it to sufficiently hold together for sushi, so get all the stuff on the outside OFF by rinsing well. 3. Use a rice cooker/steamer. Rice made on the stovetop will not work for sushi; it won’t be the right consistency. Rice cookers are widely available for as low as $12. 4. Add the rinsed rice to the rice cooker with equal parts water, and follow the directions for the rice cooker. After it’s done, transfer the cooked rice to a large mixing bowl. The second step for making perfect sushi rice is to add a vinegar solution called the “su“. 4 parts rice wine vinegar 1 part sake or mirin wine You’ll need 1 part sushi su for every 4 parts rice. So using the above proportions, here’s a sample recipe for sushi rice:

4 cups short grain/sushi rice 1 cup rice wine vinegar 1/4 cup sake or mirin (a Japanese rice wine) 1. Heat vinegar, sugar, and sake or mirin in a saucepan just to dissolve and combine. Allow to cool to room temperature. 2. Cook rice according to rice cooker directions. Transfer to large mixing bowl. 3. Pour su (vinegar mixture) over the rice, gently folding to incorporate. 4. Let rice stand for 10 minutes, then fold again. Rice should be shiny, not mushy and have a slightly tart/sweet taste. Cover with a warm, wet towel and keep warm. Cody brought a whole cooler full of sushi rice, the showoff. Sushi rice should be slightly warm when it’s time to make the Nigiri or Sushi Rolls. We’ll get into this much more on another day, but just to give you a little primer: Nigiri is the classic piece-of-fish-on-top-of-a-pillow-of-rice style of sushi that everyone recognizes.Cody the Sushi Chef is not a medical technician. He’s simply putting on a pair of food-grade plastic gloves to make handling the sushi easier.

(But doesn’t he look like he’s about to perform…an exam?) To form the rice for nigiri sushi, Cody grabs a heaping tablespoon of the sushi rice… Then he works it around in his hand… Until it’s the shape of a small “pillow.” Then he places a piece of fish (shrimp, yellowfin tuna, yellowtail, salmon) on top of the pillow of rice.I want to dip you in wasabi-clouded soy sauce and pet you and dress you up and play with you and call you George. And then I want to eat you. *I’ll be showing you how to prepare the shrimp necessary for this delicious nigiri sushi in the coming days; it’s a piece of cake. It’s about the rice, baby. The most common form of sushi these days, accounting for almost 90% of sushi sold in Cody’s restaurant, is the Sushi Roll. I’m obsessed with sushi rolls, and you wouldn’t believe the variety Cody makes. We’ll be covering all the details regarding the seaweed and other ingredients for different sushi rolls during the course of our sushi journey together…but here, I wanted to show you what the layer of sushi rice looks like on the sheet of dried seaweed.

Do you see how the rice is spread into a sheet, but has still maintained it’s light, non-mushy quality? It’s all about the rice, baby. It’s all about the rice. Didn’t I just post a hamburger recipe here, like, day before yesterday? I’m sorry about the identity crisis here. But I have to be me. Here’s a little supporting video footage of Cody the Sushi Chef discussing sushi rice. We didn’t have our good mic or lighting in place yet, but it’ll at least allow you to be there with us and listen to Cody’s unlikely California surfer-dude voice. He was the nicest sushi chef I’ve ever met. He’s also the only sushi chef I’ve ever met. But I’d venture a guess he’s one of the nicer ones.Some of the information is a little redundant, but he does throw in a couple of helpful nuggets along the way. (And excuse the pesky clicking of my still camera. I couldn’t get enough.) Sushi Rice, by Cody the Sushi Chef from Pioneer Woman on Vimeo.