Sushi means “sour-tasting”. At its most common denominator, sushi is cooked short grained sticky rice that has been “vinegared”. It is also known as shari. Wikipedia says, “The vinegar produced from fermenting rice breaks down the fish proteins into amino acids. This results in one of the five basic tastes, called umami in Japanese”
Many people think of raw fish when they hear the word sushi. Actually, there are raw forms of fish in some sushi, but sushi can be anything that contains the vinegared rice- shari. Some forms of sushi don’t have any fish at all. Raw or uncooked fish is known as sashimi. That is another story for another day. Today we talk about sushi.
Sushi Rice
The only thing common to a sushi dish is the rice. If you can’t find sushi rice at your local store, any short grained rice will do or you can buy it at the Farm Store here.
You will also need:
To Make The Sushi Rolls:
- Bamboo sushi Mat – available here
- Seaweed Nori sheets – available here or here
- Plastic wrap to cover your mat
For the Vinegar Mix:
Heat and mix the following. Cool to room temp before mixing into the rice
In every 1 cup of cooked sushi rice mix:
- 1/3 c Rice vinegar
- 2 T sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
Without A Rice Cooker
- Rinse the rice until clear
- cover the rice in the pot by one inch
- bring to a boil on high heat, then reduce the heat to medium and cook 20 minutes more – never take the lid off while cooking
- remove rice to a bowl and cool to room temp
- Fold in the vinegar mixture gently not to make the rice pasty
With a Rice Cooker – video
How To Make A Maki Roll- video
How To Make A Tiger Roll – video
How To Make A California Roll – video
