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!
Art journaling from Wanderlust 2017. (Wanderlust is a year long art class.) As life has a tendency to make it’s own thing – I’ve not done all the classes yet! I’m still working on them when I have the time and is in the mood.
Here’s the result of the class from Amanda Grace on Wanderlust (week 6). It’s called “The love letter” and was really fun to do. The writing is something I’ve been telling my husband before, but it was really nice to get it down in an art journal, together with the photo(s) from our wedding.
In J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, Faramir is a fictional character appearing in The Lord of the Rings.
My husband comes from a white city and he’s scarily much like Faramir in character. (The book version, mind you, not the horrible one from the otherwise brilliant movies). He knows his plants, but he’s not as much into healing plants or medicine as Faramir… but he is an ecologist who has been known to wear down a pair of wellingtons of high quality, in a very short time, by climbing around in nature a bit too much. He’s just as home beside a campfire as in a posh hotel. AND he isn’t interested in power. At ALL.
And he looks like Faramir! (At least he looks like the Faramir in my copies of The Two Towers and Return of the King!) 😀
And yes, I own a sword. But I haven’t killed any Ringwraith with it – yet.
This is my canvas from Wanderlust 2017, from the lesson by Mary Wangerin called “Making Magic”.
(The quote is from Roald Dahl: “Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it”.)
I think this lesson was the hardest lesson ever! I felt a million times that this won’t be publishable at all. Filling the canvas with paint, over and over and over, tissue paper, coloured paper (with and without strucucture) and continuing…. (The hardest thing is not getting everything muddled up!)
But the magic happened… and then it just took over. (I couldn’t help all this painting! It just happend!) But that’s the magic that happens when you paint! Some call it inspiration. Sometimes it just starts with lots of hard work. Like now. But it did happen!
These are some steps I wrote down to remember my process, and what I do and how I think when I make a collage composition. Maybe it can be of interest for someone else? If not, just skip it and scroll down to the pictures!
Plan! Size of the project? Do I have something I want to use on this project? Collect and pile everything up next to my work surface.
Chose paper, colours, stencil (stencils?). Make the background!
Oh no! What do I do now? It looks horrible! Calm down! Take a step back!
Ok now, what was the problem? Do I need to make some doodles? (Remember, most of the background will be covered anyway. I’ll always cover up some stuff I like! I think that’s a rule. It’s like the advice for writers: “kill your darlings”. If I keep it, it will make the whole project unbalanced. Of course, once in awhile I can pull it off, but most of the time – let it go. New good stuff will happen, that’ll be good too – and probably work much better.)
Place everything where it’s supposed to be on the board. Don’t glue yet!
Stamp words if I can, if not, do that at #11 or when it works – from now on.
Ground the images. (I need to make them stand on something! Otherwise they’ll appear to float around in air!)
At the same time as #7: Do I need something more in the background? Add it and balance it up!
Do I need some kind of frame for the composition? How do I achieve it this time? It can be a proper frame, but it can also be just two straignt lines for the eyes to make the balance needed. (Ribbon, chipboard, row of buttons, twine, stamped area, more stenciling?)
Glue everything down!
Stamp words now, if I didn’t do that before!
Fancy stuff: Buttons, chipboard, flowers, ribbons, metal pieces… What do I have in my stash? What fits? (Do I still have the old typewriter keys?)
Glue everything down!
Add finishing touches! (Fix chipped paint, add something that I think it missing, tie twine/ribbon or such as a hanger, add bling, add some extra colour accent or such.)
Done! (Make it dry properly! Go to bed! Don’t look at it for 8 hours!)
During the process, be open to change the direction whenever. (That will make the project much better.)
Details.I’m using the 4.5×8” Etcetera boards from Stampers Anonymous. They’re really thick and sturdy.Distance foam pads – always makes everything look better!
Jag målade den här tavlan 2009 på en konstkurs i Modiin, Israel med en teknik jag fick lära mig av Aviva Berger som är konstnär, lärare och skulptör.
Jag tycker fortfarande att processen är magisk. Man börjar väldigt planlöst, med palettkniv och oljefärg. Helt plötsligt börjar former att framträda. Mer och mer. Fler och fler. Till sist förvandlas det till en detaljerad bild.
Den här processen egentligen är ganska lik den man använder i mixed media, men färg är mycket lättare för mig att kontrollera.
Kan det bero på att alla mönster, alla färger är “mina egna”? Jag vet inte. Det kanske bara handlar om att lära sig.
Som oftast är fallet.
—
I painted this painting 2009 in art class, with a technique I learned from Aviva Berger, Art Teacher and Sculptor, Modiin, Israel.
I still find it magical, the way it came to life. It started very random, with a palette knife and paint. Then shapes appeared. More and more. Until it became a detailed picture.
This process is similar to the mixed media process, but I find this way to paint much ea to control.
It could be that all patterns, all colours are my own to begin with? I’m not sure. Maybe it’s just a matter of learning.
One thing that really surprised myself, when I think about it: I’ve never done anything in Tim Holtz’s style!
It was my husband who actually said:
“How often do you make anything ‘Tim Holtz’s style’?”
I said:
“Ehhh… Never!”
It’s crazy! I never tried. I love Tim Holtz. I remember when I first found his work, in some of my old Design Original books, probably one sent to me from a dear friend in America, before Tim Holtz was known. I have been a fan ever since.
Tim Holtz seems to be so nice, so encouraging, so friendly – but he’s (at the same time) absolutely brilliant… Hmm… I think I understand myself a bit. I’m intimidated!
“You think you need to be good immediately”, my husband said.
Yes, that’s true. Very true, when I dare to admit it.
The tricky thing with mixed media is that it’s a process. Finnabair says that you have to go through that “icky stage”. I feel like I am in that icky stage all the time! Mixed media is not like painting. I feel I’m in control when I’m painting. Mixed media is not like that. At all. It’s chaos. For a long time. Then it may clear up. Just may. But the scary thing is that I never dare to believe it does.
But it does. At least it become much better.
But it is scary!
Still, the process is mesmerizing!
I started with the stuff I thought I’d use. Picked my stencils. Got the paper out. Embellishments. I picked colours. Buttons. Flowers. Painted, stencilled, glued, painted, sprayed, painted, glued some more, inked, stamped… over and over… Well, that’s pretty much it.
Anyhow. It cleared out after hours. I don’t know how many.
The most important is to:
Let go!
Don’t overplan!
Dry everything before a new layer is started! (This is tricky!)
Fix stuff in the end.
Don’t worry if it’s too flowery. Tim Holtz may not have made this, but actually, I did!
I don’t know why I love mixed media. It may be because it’s so hard to control. Maybe it’s because I feel it doesn’t come so easy. It’s challenging.
But now he’s been on holiday for some days. He didn’t go very far. According to information available to me, he’s been on a cloud that could be seen from the bathroom window.
Here he is!
But he didn’t return alone!
He’s got a child!
And now he has an offspring! (The text above the child says so, apparently.)
Last year I bought Kelly Rae Roberts book “Taking flight”.
“Taking flight” is about doing changes to your life. To be honest to yourself, especially when it comes to dreams. To stop and listen.
This year, I am taking her online course “Spirit Wings”, and it’s supposed to be a course following the book really close. Through the years Kelly Rae Roberts added rather much of her own ideas on spirituality to the material. The six lessons follow the book’s themes closely. The techniques are different, an extra bonus, and I enjoy watching the process of her making the paintings. Still, I liked the psycology approach in the book much better.
Here is my first painting. (I am republishing it from my old blog.)
This is my Angel of Heart Whispers. I call her “Kardemummabullsängeln från Odensbacken” (“The Angel of Cardamom buns from Odensbacken”). It’s a strange name, but it’s a strange painting/collage, all about dreams from my childhood unfulfilled, now being lifted up to the surface again by life.
The writing says: “Dare to continue dreaming your “impossible” dreams. Don’t give them up, they’re a part of you.”
Inspirationen går i vågor.../Random Waves of Inspiration 