How To Make Sushi Rice

Rice is fundamental to Japanese cuisine and, as such, is treated with great respect. The preparation of sushi rice is almost a ritual using traditional implements including a large flat-bottomed wooden tub (called a hangiri) and a fan to cool the rice quickly for a glossy finish.

Make your sushi rice in a wooden bowl if you have one, otherwise a wide, non-metallic (ideally flat-bottomed) bowl will do. Soak the wooden spatula and wooden bowl (if using one) in cold water for a while before mixing the rice to help prevent the rice sticking to them.

While the traditional ratio of rice to water is 1:1, when cooking sushi rice in a rice cooker I follow the markers on the cooker (which is generally a splash more water than rice). The measuring cups that come with most rice cookers are generally 180ml (6 fluid oz); the cup measurements below refer to a 250ml (8½ fluid oz) measuring cup.

Sushi rice should never be refrigerated as it becomes too hard. Store it at room temperature covered with a clean cloth for an hour or 2 or, if you need to keep it longer, wrap it in a clean damp cloth and place it in a sealed esky or other insulated box without any ice for up to 6 hours. Master Sushi Chef Hideo Dekura taught me how to make sushi rice in a rice cooker; see my step-by-step video with Hideo-san below.

Hideo-san will also teach you how to slice fish for sushi and sashimi and cook prawns for nigiri sushi as well as make dashi soy sauce as a dipping sauce for all sorts of sushi and sashimi.

Makes about 3¾ cups

Ingredients

330g short-grain sushi rice (1½ cups)
1¾ cups water (440ml)
2 tablespoons Japanese rice vinegar (40ml)
1 tablespoon castor sugar (18g)
3 teaspoons mirin (15ml)
Pinch salt flakes, crushed

Method

Wash rice under cold running water about 3 times, stirring it well each time, until the water runs almost clear. Drain well.
Place in a rice cooker with water and set aside for about 10 minutes then cook.
Meanwhile, combine vinegar, mirin, sugar and salt and stir until sugar and salt dissolve.
When rice is cooked, leave it to rest for 10 minutes or so before opening the rice cooker.
Then spread it evenly over the bottom of a large bowl (ideally wooden and flat-bottomed).
Run a wooden spoon through the rice to separate the grains without crushing them.
Then drizzle the vinegar mixture evenly over it and gently fold it through; ideally have someone fan the rice to cool it to room temperature while you’re folding in the vinegar mixture. If you don’t have an assistant, alternate the folding and fanning to help cool the rice as quickly as possible.
Cover with a clean dry cloth until it cools to body temperature; do not refrigerate.