That being said, this post is all about the fundamentals of sushi, the rice. Being as that, even though in the past this was not the case, now the rice is one of the most important parts of sushi. It's only deserving that it gets a whole post to its self! Haha. For the following posts about sushi, I'll be posting the recipe first, and explain the process with the pictures, and an occasional video, personally, because I think it's much easier to learn how to do it that way, then with my just blabbing a lot in one big paragraph. That's bound to get confusing. Let's start!~
First thing is first, how much rice are you going to make? In the pictures that follow I used 2 cups of rice, that exploded into I have no clue how many afterwards. If it's one of your first times making sushi, I suggest going for a simple 1 cup. This way it's a fairly good amount, you get a couple tries at making sushi, and if you fail all of them and screw up horribly, at least you didn't waste that much rice!
I always make my rice in a rice cooker, much much easier than the stove top. Actually, come to think of it, I've never made rice on the stove top. It seems a lot harder than just pressing a button or flipping a switch. But for those of you who may not have a rice cooker, here is what the instructions on the back of my rice say.:
"COOKING DIRECTIONS
Combine 1-1/2 cups Botan Calrose Rice and 2 cups water in medium saucepan. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low and simmer covered 20 minutes, or until moisture is absorbed. Remove from heat; let stand covered 10 minutes. Fluff with fork and serve. Makes about 4 cups cooked rice or 6(2/3 cup) servings."
The supposed way of measuring the amount of water to the amount of rice is by half of a cup. In other words, always add in half of a cup more water than rice. However, I personally don't really like doing that, whenever I add that full half a cup more, I feel as if my rice is much too fat, if that makes any sense. If you're making onigiri, it's a lot harder to shape too. So what I like to do is add in the exact same amount of water to rice, and then about 1/4 of a cup extra. But you should try out the regular amount first, if you're happy with it, then there is no need to change it, if you feel what I feel, then feel free to make adjustments to get your perfect rice!
For the purpose of this blog post, I did follow the regular 1/2 cup extra water, still workable, but like I said, not my favorite texture. Who knows, maybe what I think is right may be wrong, but it's my kitchen, so I don't play fair teehee!
First thing is first. I don't care what the instructions on your rice may say, I ALWAYS wash my rice, especially if I'm going to make sushi rice. As I said, the most important part of sushi is the rice, take your time, clean it make sure it's perfect, even before cooking!
When making about 2 cups of rice I wash it about 5-6 times. Until I feel that the water is as clear as it's going to get.
^ This is the rice I use.
^ Here are my uncleaned 2 cups of rice.
^ Do you see how nasty that water looks?
How to clean your rice:
Fill the bowl containing your rice with water, then just stick your hand in there and start shaking it around like a mad women!
^ My flash was a bit too strong, but notice how you around the rims the water is actually clear.
^ When making sushi (if you don't make it often) forget faucet water! Use the cleanest water you have! For me that would be lovely bottled water.
^ Lovely flip of a switch and my rice is a cookin'!
^ When your rice has finished cooking, carefully put some/most/or all of it in either a glass bowl, or one of those wooden sushi bowls if you happen to have one.
^ You can either add the rice vinegar following the directions on the back of the bottle, or just eye ball it like me, until you feel as if all the rice has a nice light coating of it.
^ Once your rice and the vinegar are all nice and mixed together, cover the bowl with a clean table cloth, preferably moist, but it doesn't have to be. Mine above isn't!
And that ladies and germs, is how I make my sushi rice! In reality, it is very easy, but you do need patience. Take your time washing the rice, don't just go psycho and leave the poor thing dirty. You take a shower every day don't you? :P
Well that's all lovelies! Stay tuned for post number two, how I make my California Rolls!
Ohhmmmgee! Did I mention I went to Sephora today!? Well, that's going to get it's very own blog post anyways!
Have fun in the kitchen and see you later!
Bye Beautiful! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment