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| Older recipes for sushi rice often recommend rinsing the raw rice and leaving it to drain before you cook it. This is because processing mills used to coat the grains with talc, which needed to be rinsed off completely. Now, most sushi rice has cereal starches that don't need to be rinsed off. Check the package for rinsing directions. |
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Perfect sushi rice is sticky enough to hold nigiri pieces and maki rolls together, and its vinegar seasoning is a delicately balanced mixture of sour, sweet, and salty. The following are general guidelines for cooking and dressing it. Measure. One cup (150 grams) of raw rice yields about 3 cups (450 grams) of cooked rice. If you're making maki, count on up to 1 cup (150 grams) of cooked rice per roll (six to eight pieces). If you're making nigiri, count on about one-fifth that amount per piece. Cook. In a pan with a tight-fitting lid, combine one part rice with two parts water. Cover and bring to a rapid boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the rice sit, still covered, for 10 to 15 minutes. Meanwhile, make the dressing. Dress. If you don't have seasoned rice vinegar, combine four parts unseasoned rice vinegar with two parts sugar and one part salt. Stir rapidly until the sugar and salt are dissolved in the vinegar. Adjust the sugar and salt to taste. Count on 1 to 2 tablespoons (15 to 30 milliliters) of dressing per cup (150 grams) of cooked rice. Make more rather than less the first time. (The dressing keeps for months unrefrigerated.) Put the hot cooked rice into a wooden, ceramic, or plastic mixing bowl (metal may react with the vinegar), and spoon the dressing over the top one tablespoon at a time. Gently mix it in with a wooden or plastic spoon or spatula, as if you were tossing a salad. Taste it occasionally to see how much vinegar you like in the rice. Cool. Right after you combine the rice with the dressing, start cooling the rice to room temperature. In Japan, special cooling tubs and fans have been developed to cool the rice perfectly, but you can do the job with your mixing bowl, spoon, and a piece of cardboard or a magazine. Gently turn the rice in the bowl and fan it energetically until it's all cool to the touch, about 5 to 10 minutes. Store. While you prepare the other sushi ingredients, store the prepared rice in its bowl on the counter, with a damp, clean dishcloth covering the top of the bowl. Don't stick it in the refrigerator to cool or store it: Refrigeration hardens the rice, and cold dulls the delicate flavor of the dressing.
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Make the rice
