Making Sushi Rice – This is What You Need to Get Started
By Steve J Gerwig

Making that divine, chewy sushi rice and getting just the right sheen to it takes more than just a pot of boiling water. In order to make the perfect sushi rice you will need the right equipment. The following is a list of the equipment you will need.

Electric Rice Cooker

For an almost foolproof way to get your rice to cook perfectly you will need an electric rice cooker. A good one to buy that will provide plenty of rice for most sushi recipes is a standard 10 metric cup (or 6 US cups) cooker with a non stick inner pot. Expect to pay about $50 – $70 for a good one.

Wooden Sushi Rice Tub

A Hangiri or Japanese sushi tub is simply a shallow wooden utensil that resembles a short barrel. Ity is used to cool down the rice after cooking and it also absorb the excess water that the rice is laden with immediately after cooking. The best sized one to use with the above mentioned rice cooker has a 16 inch diameter with 4 inch high sides. Perfect for about 10 – 12 cups of rice.

Rice Paddle

Used to help dish out the rice help you place it in the tub. Called a Shamoji, it is a flat thin wooden paddle. It separates the rice from the side of the cooker and helps chop it up for cooling without bruising the rice kernels.

Flat Fan (Uchiwa)

This is a stiff, flat (but not folding) lightweight fan. Used to help cool down the rice after it is placed in the tub. You can use other ways to cool down the rice but this is the more traditional way to do it.

Lint Free Towel

You need a dampened, lint free towel to cover the cooled down rice while you are making the different sushi pieces. This keeps the rice perfectly moist and fresh for use as you progress through your sushi recipes.

While you need more than just the right tools to make sushi rice, if you have these rice making tools in your arsenal you are well on your way to making the perfect sushi rice.

Steve has been writing articles on a wide variety of subjects. Come visit my latest site at http://philandtedstrollers.net/. You will find information and reviews from other Phil and Ted Strollers owners here.

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Japanese Customs – What is Sushi?
By Nancy McDonough

Once virtually unknown in the USA, sushi is now a common food associated with the Japanese. So what is sushi? Basically, sushi is cooked rice that has been treated with vinegar and then topped with other ingredients, most commonly seafood. It can also be rolled into a cylinder and sliced, which is called makizushi. Sushi is different from raw sliced fish (served without a bed or rice), which is called sashimi. The traditional form of sushi is fermented fish and rice, preserved in salt. Sushi literally means “it’s sour”, not raw, a misconception of the Western world.

So how is sushi made? Sushi rice is special, short-grained variety of white rice. After cooking, it is mixed with rice vinegar, sugar, and salt. Sometimes sake is added. The rice has to be seasoned at room temperature or it will be too sticky to handle. Traditionally, it is mixed in a hangiri, a round wooden tub, with a shamoji, a wooden paddle. The consistency of the rice is different from the long-grain rice of India and Vietnam. What makes the Japanese rice so desirable for sushi is its stickiness. While different regions of Japan use different types of vinegar and seasonings for the rice, the rice variety remains consistent throughout Japan.

Traditional Japanese sushi is topped with raw fish. Uncooked fish of course must be fresher and of higher quality than fish that is cooked, which is why professional sushi chefs are trained to recognize high quality fish. They have to be able to judge a fish’s characteristics, which include smell, color, and firmness. Commonly used fish are tuna, snapper, yellowtail, mackerel and salmon. Nori, the black seaweed wrapper used to make sushi rolls, is a type of algae. Pressed, dried and flavored with teriyaki and salt, the nori is often eaten alone as a snack, though nori used in sushi making is rarely flavored with teriyaki.

Condiments used to compliment sushi include soy sauce, pickled ginger, gomashio (roasted sesame seeds and sea salt) and wasabi (a green horseradish paste). True wasabi has anti-microbial properties which reduce the risk of food poisoning. A commonly used substitute is horseradish and mustard powder mixed with a green dye, sometimes called “Japanese Horseradish.” In traditional Japanese sushi bars, green tea is always included with the meal. Sake is another common drink served with sushi. Sake, a wine made from rice, is normally served hot in the winter and cold with lemon in the summer months.

Want to impress your friends or family? Host a sushi party – it’s easier than you think. Prepare a low table with some cushions or mats surrounding it. Place a simple vase with a flower or two on the table. Purchase or download some traditional Japanese music that includes the shakuhachi (flute) and shamisen (stringed instrument) to play in the background. Buy a low cost vintage kimono for your guests or just one for yourself if you are serving. Purchase fresh sushi to go at your favorite restaurant or food store (make sure you use it right away). Use a wooden platter for the sushi and small plates for each guest. Don’t forget the chopsticks! Heat some sake, make some green tea, light the candles, turn down the lights, and you are ready to go. A wonderful evening in Japan for your guests!

Nancy McDonough was for many years an English teacher in Japan. She is conversant in Japanese and travels to Japan yearly. She founded her retail kimono company in 1992. Nancy currently manages her kimono retail company Kyoto Kimono and her blog is here, Kyoto Kimono Mania.

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History of Sushi
By Steve J Gerwig

Pure and beautiful, plumb and chewy, sushi’s in it’s own world of tempting clean and fresh flavors.

Sushi can be over the top chic at times, but it started out with much humbler roots.

Sushi is over 2000 years old and started out in Japan. It started out as a process used to preserve fish by pressing the fish in a salt and rice mixture. The earliest known type of sushi was called “Nare-Zushi” or preserved carp. It was stored for months that way then opened and eaten without the rice. It is still eaten this way in some parts of Southeast Asia.

Around the fifteenth or sixteenth century the process was shortened creating the “Nama-Nare-Zushi” or partially fermented sushi. In this form the rice was eaten with the fish. It wasn’t until much later, around the seventeenth century, when the Japanese started adding vinegar to cooked rice to get the trademark tangy rice taste of today.

They called this “Haya-Zushi“or instant vinegared sushi rice.

By the eighteenth century “Maki-Zushi” or rolled sushi, began to appear. When the early nineteenth century rolled around (a little sushi humor there) “Nigiri-Zushi” or finger sushi, came into popularity as sushi stalls started popping up all over Japan. Sort of the first Fast Food sushi, people could eat these little bite sized rolls on the go.

The greatest moment in sushi history occurred in 1824 when a Tokyo sushi stall vendor named Hanaya Yohei made a finger sushi topped with a slice of raw fish. Word spread quickly and now we have sushi in it’s current form.

Raw fish and vinegared rice, what a delectable combination.

Steve has been writing articles on a wide variety of subjects. Come visit my latest site at http://philandtedstrollers.net/. You will find information and reviews from other Phil and Ted Strollers owners here.

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Interesting Facts About Sushi Rice
By David Urmann

For the Japanese, sushi implies vinegared rice typically topped with meats, fish and vegetables. Outside Japan, sushi is more often mistaken as “raw fish” or “raw seafood.”

In Japan, they call sliced raw fish, sashimi. It is different from sushi because sashimi implies purely on the raw fish part. In Archaic grammar, “sushi” literally means “it’s sour.”

There are several types of sushi. The Nigirizushi sushi consists of toppings laid with “hand-formed” rice clumps. Aside from topping it with vinegared rice, it is also dabbed with wasabi and a bite-size, thin slice of fish, egg or various other seafoods.

Although the egg is cooked, the seafood and fish can be served raw. The types of fish you can use are salmon, tuna, mackerel and eel.

When eating Nigirizushi, make sure that the rice side is not dipped into the soy sauce. The fish side should be the one dipped or it will fall apart. You can do this alternately, not dipping it completely in soy sauce.

Makizushi is a type of sushi rolled inside some “nori,” a pressed and dried layered sheets of alga or seaweed. It can contain vegetables, fish, seaweed and rice. These are rolled into a cylindrical form with the aid of a bamboo mat or makisu. Afterwards, it is cut into suitable widths. Futomaki refers to the thicker rolls. Hosomaki refers to the thinner rools. Uramaki refers to the “inside-out” rolls.

Inarizushi has toppings stuffed inside a tiny pouch of fried tofu. This is more uncommon compared to Chirashi-zushi. You still need to go to a sushi restaurant in Japan to order this type of sushi. Chirashi-zushi has toppings scattered and served over a sushi rice bowl. This is not regularly served in Japanese restaurants outside of Japan. The toppings are either raw seafood or sashimi.

Temaki Sushi is also called the hand roll. It is almost the same as maki except for the part where you roll it into a cylinder and slice it. With Temaki Sushi, you roll it with your hands and form cone shapes. Then, it is eaten as is, not sliced.

In any sushi, the common denominator is always sushi rice. They only vary on toppings, condiments, fillings and the procedure these ingredients are placed together. These ingredients can also be collected using contemporary or traditional ways, making distinct results.

Sushi is not only a favorite dish in Japan. It is well-loved in other countries also.

If you want to learn how to make sushi rice, it is easy. First, you need a sushi vinegar called sushi-zu. Mix it with rice vinegar, sugar and salt. Heat the mixture until the sugar dissolves. Stir frequently in the process. Afterwards, let the mixture cool to room temperature. This mixture is called tezu.

Using either a spatula or just a regular spoon, cut and fold the rice as gentle as possible. Avoid smashing the rice grains.

Get a bowl and moisten the sides with tezu. It is ideal to use a wooden bowl because it absorbs moisture. If none is available, any bowl is fine with a flat bottom.

Place the rice in the bowl and add a quarter of sushi vinegar. Mix them together, making sure you follow a folding motion to avoid smashing the rice. Afterwards, fan to dry the mixture for about 5 to 6 minutes. This process will remove the excess moisture and will make the rice look glossy and shiny.

As a tip, a good sushi rice is somewhat chewy in the mouth, and sticky to your touch.

For more information on Sushi Rice and Rice Cookers please visit our website.

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Written By: Scott Schirkofsky

With the exception of sashimi most sushi dishes contain some amount of rice.

To make great sushi you need the right sushi rice, cooked to perfection and seasoned with the right sushi rice seasoning. To make sushi rice you need a short grain rice. Sushi rice such as Koshihikari Japanese rice, short grain glutinous rice, sometimes known as pearl rice, is the best kind of rice to use. Similar to risotto rice but very different in taste.

The best sushi rolls, use a branded “sushi rice” like Akitakomachi all readily available at many online Asian grocery stores. It’s worth the extra hunting around for ingredients as the taste is fantastic and it will have the correct adhesive qualities after all, rice is the biggest part of your sushi meal ! There are many kinds of rice available (some estimates say up to 38,000 varieties!) but sushi rice is special for it’s tendency to bind together perfectly for sushi. All these kinds of rice can be divided into three distinct categories; long, medium and short grain rice. All rice used in traditional sushi is short grain white rice. Along with the length of rice, varieties are also divided up by colour and content of fibre. Short grain sushi rice is almost round and is very starchy even when washed. It is this starch that makes sushi rice so sticky and great for the job of making things like nigiri. Sushi, as we have all heard, is very healthy. The sushi rice plays a big part in this. White rice is basically brown rice with the husk polished off. This process removes a lot of the fibre from the rice. However it also leaves lots of carbohydrates to give you energy. In maki for example, there is a great deal of fibre from the nori wrapped around the roll, add to this all the vitamins and oils from the fish and you can see how healthy a diet that regularly includes sushi is.

The essential quality is its stickiness. Rice that is too sticky has a mushy texture; if not sticky enough, it feels dry. Freshly harvested rice (shinmai) typically has too much water, and requires extra time to drain the rice cooker after washing.

There are regional variations in sushi rice and, of course, individual chefs have their individual methods. Most of the variations are in the rice vinegar dressing: the Tokyo version of the dressing commonly uses more salt; in Osaka, the dressing has more sugar.

Scott Schirkofsky is the chef and owner of At Home Gourmet. You can find more recipes, and cookware on his highly recommended website: http://www.athomegourmet.com. Scott is also the owner of http://sushihousesupplies.com.