It looks so simple when you see someone work with sushi rice. It’s not. Sushi rice is incredibly sticky.
But there is a trick to it. Or actually, several.
I’m no expert. But because I’m not, I don’t take anything for granted. I have to learn it the hard way.
So let’s do it!
The things to keep in mind:
Sushi rice is sticky and you can’t do anything about changing that!
Have clean cold water close to hand at all times. I’m never far from the tap, but I always have at least one small bowl (like a breakfast bowl) with cold water next to my rice.
Wash away the rice that sticks to your hands, but learn to ignore the starch! (Just ignore it! I know, this is horribly hard, but this is a big secret! You have to tolerate that the starch builds up on your hands, otherwise you’ll end up scraping away starch and not doing anything else.)
Everything you work with has to be washed in water, but not dried. (Huge secret! This makes the rice not stick to your tools. You have to know this, especially when working with onigiri moulds!)
Dip your hands in water as soon as you get rice to stick to them. (Ignore the starch, se point #3!)
Perseverance!
And finally, when you’re done: Wash your hands with soap to get rid of the starch!
The first time I tried to make homemade sushi I used the same rice we use when making rice pudding/porridge for Christmas. I couldn’t get why my rice balls turned out so wet – compared to the sushi rice I had at the restaurant.
When I understood that there is a specific kind of rice just to make sushi everything improved.
But still I had problems with my rice being soggy. I also had problems with it being too sticky and I had problems with my onigiri balls not wanting to keep together- they fell apart.
But I didn’t give up. No. That’s not how it was… Honestly, I gave up every time! Either my memory is a bit bad or my addiction to sushi rice very strong – because I kept trying.
I changed the way I made it. I changed recipes… Nothing worked!
But one day I started to take it seriously: I weighed the rice, I stared at the pot, I did everything I could to make it perfect. Still it didn’t turn out as I wanted, but from that moment on it started slowly to improve. I tried and tried, but now I took notes. And one day, it worked. It turned out exactly as I wanted it to.
I’ll share my secrets with you.
Here. Now.
Sushi rice
(makes about 20 pieces, 1-2 portions, depending on how starved you are)
You need 250 g dry sushi rice. (Use scales!)
Put the rice in a pot. Pour cold water in the pot until the rice is covered. Stir a couple of times. Leave it soaking for 20 minutes.
Pour out some of the extra water (optional). Place the pot under cold running water. The water should run as slow as possible, not making the rice flow over the edge of the pot. If your water runs slow enough, the rice will never leave the pot, but sink back to the bottom. Let this go on until the water is totally clear (and not milky of starch anymore). If you make a double or a triple batch stir a couple of times, and let the water run longer. Yes this takes time! If you can’t wait, go and do something else! This is where you don’t want to rush it! Believe me!
Pour out all the extra water. Be careful not to rush this either!
Add 4 dl new cold water. Put a lid on the pot. Put it on the heat. When it boils, you need to lower the temperature and make it simmer for 10 minutes. (It took me years before I dared to just leave it on the stove! I used to stand there checking that it kept boiling, turn the heat higher or lower if needed. Don’t rush this either! It’s just 10 minutes of your life. What’s that compared to perfect sushi rice?)
While you stand there anyway, heat 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar and 2 tablespoons of sugar in a pot. Heat it a bit, just to make the sugar dissolve – so you can’t see the sugar crystals anymore. Put it off the stove. Let it rest until you need it. (Have a lid on!)
Take the rice off the heat. Let it rest in the pot, under the lid, for another 10 minutes.
When the rice is done, scoop it up carefully on an oven safe pan. (I use this one from IKEA, taking away the barbecue rack.) It is 40x32x6.5cm. It can be used for all my batch sizes.
Now you need to be careful not to work with the rice more then you need! (That’ll make it soggy!) Pour half the vinegar/sugar over the rice, turn the rice gently with a spatula (like you do when you fry something) and then repeat one more time.
Let the rice stand until it reaches room temperature. When it does, put a clean towel on it until you’ll use it! This last step is the most critical of them all. You can’t get the rice to stay together if you don’t! This was the last step I figured out. After that my rice became as I wanted it!
This is not a very big batch of food, and maybe you’d like to make some more. We usually double this batch or make it three times as much. The amount of ingredients then just doubles or triples, see below.
(If I’d ever make it out of 1kg rice, I’d switch to another recipe. You can’t just scale everything linearly!)
Sushi rice x2
500 g sushi rice
8 dl water
4 tablespoons rice vinegar
4 tablespoons sugar
Sushi rice x3
750 g sushi rice
12 dl water
6 tablespoons rice vinegar
6 tablespoons sugar
Note: We have an electrical stove. I have tried almost all of our pots with different lids, and this recipe seems to work just fine with all of them. But if you want the scientific approach, here is a great video. Have fun experimenting!
(Thank you Anna Olsén, for pointing this out and giving me the link to the video above!)
I’ll tell my secrets about working with rice another time. That’s something completely different!
Inspirationen går i vågor.../Random Waves of Inspiration 