Sushi is a staple dish in Japanese culture, and Americans can't get enough of the savory dish. The dish's popularity and ways to work with it make it an appealing food to try making at home. The staple of a good sushi roll is the rice -- you want rice that is slightly sticky and able to mold together. Check out how to prepare high-quality sushi rice!
How To Make Sushi Race
Ingredients To Make Sushi Rice
- 2 of cups of Japanese white rice. This rice is small and sticky when cooked, whereas long grain rice doesn't pack together well.
- 2 of cups of water
- A third of a cup of rice wine vinegar
- ¼ of cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 teaspoon of butter
How Do You Prepare It?
- Wash your white rice in cold water.
- Boil your rice in water and let cook for 10 minutes or until soft. Add a touch of salt and butter to the water for extra flavor.
- In a separate pan, heat your sugar, salt, and rice wine vinegar. Bring the mixture to a boil and stir until the sugar and salt are completely dissolved.
- Add the rice wine vinegar mixture to the cooked rice and stir it in. The rice will get noticeably sticky as you continue to stir. Once the rice is dry and sticks together easily, your sushi rice is complete.
Variations To Sushi Rice
Once you've learned how to make quality sushi rice, you can expand your horizons with different ingredients.
Rice
While you need to make sure the rice you purchase achieves the right texture and consistency, that doesn't mean you're limited to just plain white rice -- try experimenting with brown rice or even quinoa as an alternative to change up your sushi's flavor.
Vinegar
If you want to give your rice a more diverse flavor, try playing around with the types of vinegar you cook the sugar and salt in -- common variants to rice wine vinegar include red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar. If you feel like getting fancy, champagne is also a popular choice, although keep in mind that it's quite sweet, so reduce the sugar amount.
Boiling Water
How your rice tastes, in the end, can be affected by what you boil it in -- if you want to add a pinch of taste, try boiling the rice in a chicken, beef or vegetable broth. For a more authentic sushi taste, a broth made of seaweed will do the trick.