How to cook sushi rice at home: recipes. Sushi rice Cook sushi rice proportions

What is the most important thing in sushi? It's difficult to answer unambiguously. The freshness of fish and seafood determines the degree of usefulness and safety of the product. Properly prepared sauce is responsible for the final taste and aftertaste. And following certain rules when cooking rice guarantees the aesthetics and appetizing appearance of the finished sushi. What can be said for sure is that the basis of all sushi is rice. Therefore, if you are going to prepare sushi at home, then you definitely need to know how to properly cook rice for sushi and its main variety called sushi.

How to choose and cook sushi rice? To prepare sushi, only short-grain rice, which is highly sticky, is used. It is this quality of rice that determines how neat and regular the shape of the future product will be. When choosing rice, you can choose any variety of small round rice - all of these varieties have good stickiness. But rice in packaging labeled “For sushi” is often a banal marketing ploy designed for simpletons.

After choosing rice, decide on the amount you will need to prepare the dish. Rinse it well with cold water in a large bowl. Rice must be washed until the water becomes completely clear. Professional chefs believe that this requires “changing seven waters,” stirring the rice thoroughly each time.

Clean rice should be dried for 30-40 minutes, spreading it in a thin layer along the bottom of a wide sieve.

If you intend to cook sushi rice properly, be sure to use a deep, thick-walled pan with a thick bottom. After putting rice in it, fill it with cold water at the rate of one and a half glasses of water per glass of rice. Immediately add a piece of kombu - seaweed, which gives the rice a specific aroma. Cover the pan tightly with a lid and place over medium heat. When the kombu boils, you need to remove it, close the pan again and keep it on the stove for 15 minutes. Then turn off the stove and let the rice sit for another 20 minutes.

While the rice is cooking, you need to prepare a dressing that will give your rice the properties it needs for sushi. The main ingredients of the dressing are usually rice vinegar, salt and sugar. If you don't have rice vinegar, you can use white wine vinegar instead. It wouldn't hurt to add a little sake to the dressing, but you can do without this ingredient.

For two tablespoons of vinegar you need to take a teaspoon of sugar and salt. However, the ratio of ingredients is not constant and may change depending on the preferences of sushi lovers.

The ingredients prepared for the dressing should be mixed well in a small saucepan and placed over medium or low heat. Stirring constantly, keep the pan on the stove until all the grains of sugar and salt are completely dissolved.

When the rice is ready, it is transferred from the pan to a wide bowl. Pour the dressing evenly and quickly mix with a wooden spatula. This should be done with chopping movements so that the grains of rice separate from each other and do not turn into a sticky lump. Well-mixed rice will be completely soaked in the dressing. You need to let the rice cool slightly, to about 35 degrees, after which you can start preparing sushi.

Well, if you manage to find the freshest fish or seafood, your sushi will deserve the highest praise.

It’s hard to call sushi fast food. After all, rolling rolls is a real art, which is carefully learned from masters. And among the Japanese, eating sushi turns into a complex and lengthy ceremony. And although the ingredients for rolls and sashimi are, in general, simple products (rice, fish, seafood, soy sauce), preparing these dishes is quite difficult. But it is possible, even at home. In this article we will not talk about how to spin rolls. Let's focus on just one stage of their production - we'll discuss how to make sushi rice at home. This is the basis of the dish. If you compare rolls to fine art, rice is a primer for a painting, onto which the artist must apply paint. Yes, of course, the taste of sushi is determined by fish or seafood. But if the rice in them looks like porridge from kindergarten, all the art of creating this dish will come to naught.

Japanese vinegar and noria: preparing rolls yourself

Sushi requires special equipment - at least a makis, for professional rolling of products. Exotic products will also be required. For example, nori is sheets of dried and compressed edible seaweed. Or wasabi - a special horseradish paste. Gari - thin sheets of pickled ginger - is also difficult to make at home. But you can create Japanese vinegar yourself. To do this, you need to dissolve two large spoons of sugar and one teaspoon of salt in a third of a cup of regular table (or apple) acidifier. We don't need very much Japanese vinegar. There are only two spoons for two glasses of rice. But it defines the basis of taste. Now let’s start preparing sushi rice at home. In this case, the recipes advise us not to show initiative, but to strictly adhere to the Japanese tradition. After all, it has been practiced for centuries.

What kind of rice is suitable for sushi?

As for cereals, they require special ones. Small and round grains containing a lot of gluten. In large supermarkets, special “Sushi Rice” is sold in special sections. At home, recipes suggest using Krasnodar or Crimean cereals. In appearance it resembles Japanese. Elite basmati is good for pilaf, but not for rolls. Sushi rolled from it will crumble. Also, there is no need to be clever and show imagination where this is not required: all sorts of steamed, brown, unpolished and wild varieties will not work. Also, masters of Japanese cuisine will reject rice in bags. Only round grains, polished and uncrushed, are suitable. If there is none, long-grain rice should be soaked in cold, preferably filtered, water for a couple of hours. Then rinse and set to cook.

Secrets of product replacement: how to turn Krasnodar rice into Japanese

The cereal, ripened in the flooded fields of the Land of the Rising Sun, is not only small and round, but also contains a large amount of gluten. It is thanks to her that the rolls keep their shape well. How to use for sushi at home? Recipes suggest that we rinse the cereal thoroughly. Pour two glasses into a sieve or fine colander and keep under running water until clean and clear water drains from the cereal. This way we will get rid of excess. Porridge for sushi should under no circumstances be crumbly. But an overly viscous and watery base will also not work. Therefore, the ratio of water and cereal when cooking porridge is the second very important condition for creating successful rolls.

How to cook sushi rice at home

The recipe asks us to pour cold water over the cereal. But if for pilaf or porridge we keep the proportions of one to two, then rolls require a different approach. There should be equal amounts of rice and water. The same amount of liquid should go into two glasses of cereal. “How will the porridge cook,” you ask, “will it burn?” The whole secret is how to prepare sushi rice at home. Recipes for creating pilaf, casseroles, babkas, baby porridges and rolls are very different. Rice is a universal cereal. It can be used to make a hard loaf-like bun, a pudding, or a viscous mixture. So, pour the washed rice with cold water and put it on the stove. It is best to take a saucepan with a thick bottom and not enameled. The ideal solution would be a small cauldron for pilaf. After the contents of the saucepan boil, cover it with a lid and cook for one minute over high heat. The time limit must be taken seriously - 60 seconds, no more and no less. Then the fire should be reduced. Do not remove the lid and cook the porridge for about fifteen to twenty minutes. As soon as we see that the liquid has completely evaporated, turn off the heat under the saucepan. Let stand covered for another ten minutes. This way we will get enough for sushi.

Recipe at home in a slow cooker

Many people doubt: can a machine make cereal for rolls? After all, Japanese chefs put their souls into every stage of preparing this incomparable dish. Let's cast aside all doubts. The multicooker not only copes with this task, but creates simply perfect sushi rice. Cooking at home in a slow cooker will not take you much time. And the result will be even better than if you cooked the cereal in a pan. After all, you won’t need to open the lid, which means you won’t release steam from the container, which will cause the rice to reach perfect stickiness. The only thing you should take care of is to rinse the cereal well. You need to pour a little more water - 2.5 measures of liquid for two glasses of grain. The multicooker bowl should be no more than two-thirds full. Set the “buckwheat” or “rice” mode. In machines of a different design, you can use the “Baking” program by setting the timer for ten minutes, and when the time is up, start the “Stewing” program for twenty minutes.

Authentic sauce

Even properly cooked cereal will remain a simple porridge if sauce is not added to it. An authentic Japanese sushi dressing includes mirin cooking wine (or sake vodka), special rice vinegar, sea salt and sugar. The base for the rolls gives a special charm. It is placed in the sauce when it is warmed up and later taken out. When combined, the dressing and rice should be approximately the same temperature - warm. Believe it or not, real masters cool the cereal with a fan so that it shines beautifully in the rolls. But on our agenda is sushi rice at home. Recipes, photos and useful tips teach us how to do without exotic ingredients and get a product that is as close to authentic as possible. So, let's prepare a sauce based on 250 grams of cereal.

What is rice vinegar

Although it is called Japanese, it was invented by the Chinese. According to some reports, this happened more than two thousand years ago. How was this vinegar prepared? The fish was cut into small pieces. Then they salted it and mixed it with rice. The enzymes released by the fish acted on the cereal, and lactic acid was released. On the one hand, it preserved the fish, increasing its shelf life to a year, and on the other hand, it gave it a sour taste. In the fourth century AD, rice vinegar became famous in Japan. It was very expensive and was only used by the nobility. Vinegar became available to the common people only in the sixteenth century. Why are we providing all these details? To show that compared to other European sauces, rice sauce has the mildest taste. In addition, it is an excellent antibacterial agent. And if you take into account that in Japan raw fish is often served at the table, protecting yourself from various infections is very important. And most importantly, the sauce enhances the sushi rice. The recipe (following it at home is not a problem), which we will give below, assumes the presence of this vinegar. Getting it when the popularity of rolls around the world is growing is not so difficult. It is sold in the same stores as wasabi and nori seaweed.

Vinegar sauce

Well, let's season our sushi rice. The recipe at home is not much different from the one used in professional Japanese restaurants. The main thing is to have Mitsukan rice vinegar. It will require 180 milliliters. 120 grams of sugar and a spoonful of sea salt should be dissolved in this vinegar. It is also worth adding a small piece of kombu seaweed at the initial stage. After ten minutes it can be thrown away. Heat all the ingredients, but do not bring to a boil. Then cool, pour into a tightly sealed glass container and put in the refrigerator. That is, the sauce can be prepared for future use. But if you want to use a small amount for already cooked rice, cool the sauce to the temperature of the grain. Pour in a small amount of mirin or sake. If you don’t have Japanese alcohol on hand, don’t worry, we’ll skip this stage of preparation. Place the rice in a wide bowl. Pour over the sauce. Use a wooden spatula to carefully turn the rice over, but do not stir it (otherwise it will turn out to be porridge). Cool to room temperature. That's it, you can spin the rolls.

Rice Vinegar Alternative

All European types of acidulants have a more pronounced taste, so they need to be added in small quantities. There are several ways to prepare the dressing to pour over sushi rice. A recipe (at home) with apple cider vinegar is one of them. Mix a tablespoon of acidifier with a teaspoon of sugar and a pinch of iodized salt. Add one and a half tablespoons of hot water to this solution. Stir until the crystals disappear completely. Pour this sauce over the rice.

If you decide to make sushi at home, then the first thing you will have to deal with is how to prepare sushi rice. Avid sushi connoisseurs will argue that rice for sushi must be of a special Japanese variety, and cooking rice in a steamer or rice cooker will make the taste of sushi as close to Japanese as possible.

But such statements could have been followed a few years ago, when preparing sushi at home was a fantasy, and in order to taste Japanese cuisine, you had to go to a restaurant. Now the situation is a little different, and personally, I always prepare sushi and rolls at home - it’s cheaper and I’m always confident in the quality and freshness of the ingredients used. So, before you start making sushi rolls at home, you need to know the following:

Rice for sushi should be round-grained, with a high percentage of gluten.

The Japanese rice varieties Nishiki, Kahomai, Maruyu, Kokuho, Minori are ideal for making sushi at home, but it’s okay if you buy rice from a domestic manufacturer with a mark on the package “Rice for sushi”, the quality of the sushi rolls will not suffer from this.

How much rice do you need?

I have experimentally found that 200 grams of raw rice is enough for two people. If you are preparing rice for four people, then take 400 grams of rice.

Before you cook

Before cooking sushi rice, be sure to rinse it several times in cold water until the water becomes clear.

How much water does it take to cook sushi rice?

If we are preparing rice for sushi, then we need to pour 1.5 times more water than the volume of rice. Pour the rice into a measuring cup to the 250 ml mark. (this will be 200 grams of rice) and measure out 1.5 times more water - 375 ml.

5. Pour cold water over the rice, cover with a lid and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and leave to cook for another 10-15 minutes until the rice has absorbed all the water. Next, remove the rice from the heat and let it sit under the lid closed for at least 15 minutes.

Sushi rice dressing

For 200 grams of rice we will need the following ingredients:

• juice from one lemon (or 25 ml rice vinegar)
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp. water
• 2 tsp Sahara
• 1 tsp salt

Mix all dressing ingredients until dissolved. Taste the dressing - if it's too sour, add more water. When the rice has cooled, pour in the dressing and mix thoroughly with a wooden spatula so that all the dressing is evenly distributed over the rice. You will immediately see how the density and structure of the rice will change. The rice will spread very easily over the seaweed sheets.

On a note

Rice for sushi should be slightly firmer than for other dishes. It is better to take not long-grain, but round rice. There is a special rice for sushi, small and round, it is much shorter than our usual - oblong. Its distinctive feature: increased stickiness when boiled. It is very convenient to make sushi balls.

Europeans wash rice three times, and the Japanese - at least seven, claiming that the more you wash, the tastier it is.

The lid does not come off during cooking. The fact is that when the lid is open (even slightly), steam escapes, and this can negatively affect the taste of the rice.

Cooling quickly makes the rice shine. You can cool the rice using a fan or hair dryer.

Method No. 1

Wash the rice in plenty of water until it becomes clear. For cooking, take a non-enamel pan with a thick bottom. Fill the rice with water in a 1:1 ratio. If you initially take a glass of rice, then there should be no more water. Close the container with a lid and place on high heat. After boiling, without opening the lid, reduce the heat to low and leave for 12 minutes. When the time is up, remove the pan from the heat and leave for 15 minutes with the lid closed. After this, mix the rice so that the top dried layer mixes with the bottom wet one. Then cover again and leave for 5 minutes. Then transfer the rice to another bowl. Pour the prepared rice with a special solution - awazesu (see recipe below) in a ratio of 3:1 (for 1 cup of rice, 1/3 cup of sweet pouring is required). Cover the finished rice with a damp towel.

To prepare awasezu required: ½ liter of rice vinegar, ½ liter of sake, ½ kg of granulated sugar and ½ tbsp. salt. Everything except salt is mixed in a saucepan and placed on high heat. When the contents of the pan boil, remove it from the heat and add ½ tbsp. salt. Then cool to room temperature and pour over the rice.

When awasezu is added, sushi acquires a specific aroma and a sour-sweet taste. When preparing awasezu, the main thing is to maintain the proportions, otherwise the rice may turn out either too sweet or too sour.

Method No. 2

Wash the rice thoroughly in cold water, changing the water until it becomes clear, then place it in a sieve and leave for an hour. After this, put the rice in a deep pan and fill it with water. The amount of water should exceed the amount of rice by 1/5, i.e. For 200 g of rice there should be approximately 240 ml. water. The pan should be no more than 1/3 full. To add flavor to the rice, add a square piece of kombu seaweed, the size of which reaches 5 cm, to the water; remove it before boiling. After this, cover the pan with a lid and place on medium heat, bringing to a boil (about 5 minutes), reduce the heat to low and cook the rice cereal at a low simmer until the rice has absorbed all the water, about 10-13 minutes. Then remove the pan from the heat and let it stand without lifting the lid for about 10-15 minutes.

Let's prepare the vinegar mixture. Mix 1 tbsp. white wine vinegar or Japanese rice vinegar with 7.5 tsp. granulated sugar and 2 tsp. sea ​​salt. Mix all of the above thoroughly until the sugar and salt are completely dissolved.

After this, transfer the rice into a damp wooden bowl intended for sushi, pour over the vinegar mixture and stir with a wooden spatula. Allow the rice to cool completely before preparing sushi.

Method No. 3

Rinse the sushi rice in a stream of cool running water until it becomes clear. Cook the rice for about 2 minutes (for 200 g of rice, 240 ml of water), then turn off the burner and leave it under the lid to swell for 10 minutes. Then remove the lid and leave for 10 minutes. Mix 1 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. sugar with 2 tbsp. rice vinegar (it is sold in large stores), heat it up. Pour the rice into a bowl, add the marinade and mix well with chopsticks.

Method No. 4

About an hour before starting to cook the rice, rinse it thoroughly in a flat-bottomed container. To remove remnants of peeling, rub the wet grains against the walls and bottom. Wash the rice until the water becomes completely clear. Then fill it with water and leave it to brew for a while. For good results, wash the rice and soak it in water for at least 30 minutes. Fill the peeled rice with 1/5 more volume of water, add a piece of kombu, 6-7 cm in size, after wiping it with a damp cloth. Cover with a lid and set to cook. At the first sign of boiling, remove the kombu and add sake - 1 tbsp for each glass of dry rice. sake. Reduce the flame and cook for about 10 minutes. Then turn off the heat and let the rice brew for at least 10 minutes. While the rice is cooking, prepare the vinegar seasoning. To do this, mix 7-8 tbsp until smooth. rice vinegar and 1 tbsp. salt, 4-5 tbsp. Sahara. To begin, moisten the bowl in which we will cook the seasoning with water. Remove excess moisture. And moisten with acidified water, which is obtained by mixing 2-3 tbsp. vinegar and 1 glass of water. Remove excess moisture. Pour the boiled rice into the center of the bowl. It cools down in about 10 minutes. After this, pour the rice seasoning over the resulting mound of rice. Stir the rice with a spatula or a wide wooden spoon lowered to the bottom to distribute the seasoning evenly.

Method No. 5

Add rice to boiling water. Reduce heat, cover the pan with a lid and cook until the rice has absorbed all the liquid. In a small saucepan, mix lemon juice, vinegar and add granulated sugar, as well as salt - all to taste. After bringing to a boil, reduce the heat and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Pour the resulting liquid over the rice, close the pan tightly with a lid and let it sit until the rice has absorbed all the liquid. Leave the rice to cool.

Method No. 6

Place the rice, washed until clean, in a saucepan, add water and leave for 30 minutes to swell. Then put the rice on the fire and bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat to low and cook for another 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the rice simmer for another 20 minutes, at this time we prepare the vinegar for sushi: in a small saucepan placed on the fire, mix all the ingredients and heat until the salt and sugar dissolve. Place the finished rice on a pre-prepared sheet of parchment, moisten it with the prepared vinegar and mix.

Method No. 7

We rinse the rice as follows: put it in a large container, add a sufficient amount of water and mix vigorously. We drain the water that has become cloudy, along with it most of the rice husks, litter, and dust are removed. After removing the water, grind the rice with light movements of the fingers and palms, quickly processing all the grains one after another. If after this procedure the water at the bottom is still cloudy, add clean water to it, mix thoroughly and drain again, and so on until the water becomes clear. Pour the thoroughly washed rice into a colander, completely getting rid of the water, then soak it in cool water for 20 minutes.

Fill the rice with water 1:1, close the lid and leave to simmer over low heat for 20 minutes. Before the water boils, turn up the heat; when it starts to boil, turn down the heat to very low. Simmer the rice over low heat until the liquid is absorbed into the grains, about 20 minutes. Then turn up the heat again for 10 seconds, then turn it off completely. Place a towel or napkin between the pan and the lid. After 20 minutes, the rice is ready to eat, as well as treating it with a vinegar mixture or lemon juice.

Method No. 8

Preparation peeled rice for sushi. Place the rice, washed to clean water, in a saucepan, fill it with cool water in a 1:1 ratio and set to cook, having previously salted it well. We choose any of the methods described above for cooking technology. While the rice is cooking, stir 1 tsp. salt and 70 g of plum vinegar and add 3 tbsp. Mirina. After boiling the rice, let it stand for 15 minutes and transfer it to a large container. Spray the vinegar mixture over the surface. Using a flat wooden stick, stir the rice, evenly distributing the vinegar mixture. Once the rice has cooled completely, you can use it to make sushi.

Method number 9

Preparation polished rice for sushi. Pour cold running water over the rice and add sake (approximate proportion of 700 g of rice per 700 ml of water and 2 tablespoons of sake). Then we wash the rice and fill it with water again. Mix 1 plate of kombu brown seaweed, 70 g apple cider vinegar and 1 tbsp. l. honey Salt the mixture 1 tbsp. l. and add to the soaked rice, leave for 1 hour. After cooking a little, remove the seaweed and continue to cook the rice as usual. After the rice is cooked, let it sit for 15 minutes. Mix apple cider vinegar with honey and salt. Transfer the rice to a bowl and pour over the vinegar mixture. Using a flat wooden stick, stir the rice, distributing the vinegar mixture evenly.

Method No. 10

A simplified method of preparing sushi rice. For 1 kg of rice 2 tbsp. sugar and 1 tsp. salt. Boil the rice using the method described above and let it stand for 15 minutes. Mix salt, sugar and vinegar until completely dissolved. Transfer the rice to a large container and sprinkle the vinegar mixture over the surface. Stir the rice with a wooden stick.

In order to give the finished dish a contrasting festive look, the rice can be colored. If you use red plum vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar to make the vinegar mixture, the rice will turn out pink. And to give a bright yellow tint to the water before boiling the rice, add 1 tsp. turmeric. If you add 2 tbsp to the prepared sushi rice. ground seaweed, it will turn a soft green color.