Sushi Tips.

[this post is actually from my old blog, since that blog is practically dead. I'm moving posts that I think good enough to this blog.]
One of my friend actually have trouble making her sushi-meshi (sushi rice) nice...I'm happened to be lucky on my first try...so I guess I shared what I told her here...on how to make sushi rice.

What you need: rice cooker, spatula and big container made of plastic or wood, sushi-rice (short grain, japonica variety), sushi vinegar, a cup or a bowl, water, fan and a good discipline to keep yourself from opening the rice cooker lid before the rice is cooked.

Procedure:

1. Use a cup or a bowl to measure the rice. We gonna use the same cup or bowl later to measure the water volume.

2. Run the rice under water to remove residues...wash until the water clear.

3. Remove as much water as possible, and then let the rice stand for 30 minutes to an hour...this step is important to make your sushi-meshi thoroughly cook *I learn this the hard way last night, which is my third attempt on making sushi*.

4. After step 3 done, place the rice into rice cooker and add water using the same cup or bowl in step 1. If you cook 1 cup of rice, then add 1 cup of water.

5. Let the rice cook in the rice cooker. It's important for you not to open the lid at any cost! You don't want the rice to lose precious moisture.

6. Once the rice cooked (with the sound sort of click) Remove the inner part of the rice cooker from the outer part. This is to prevent the rice from being over cook.

7. Let the cooked rice stand for 10 minutes (again don't open the lid yet).

8. After 10 minutes, the rice is prepared to be used.

9. Move the rice to non-metal container or big bowl (wood or plastic). When you taking out the rice from the pot, it is important for you not to scrape the bottom of the cooker and taken out the overcooked rice (a lil brownish) together...the overcooked rice doesn't taste really nice to make sushi, but it taste nice if you eat it just like that.

10. Add sushi vinegar according to the instruction, usually I put 3 tablespoon of sushi vinegar to 1 cup of rice. Use spatula made of wood or plastic to mix rice with vinegar. Metal used can alter the taste of the rice due to reaction of acid from vinegar to metal.

11. While doing step 10, try to fan the rice or turn on the electric at the highest setting. This helps to cool down the rice and gives it glossy sheen that is one of the sign of good sushi-meshi.

12. Walla! The rice done and ready to be hand-rolled, or rolled by makisu or shaped to apt size.

P/S: Sorry guys, no pic since I don't have a camera for now.