how to make sushi rice
March 6, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in how-to (all), how-to - fundamentals Tags: sushi
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When I posted about our “sushi night” on my blog before, I mentioned about “Sushi-noko” which was like powdered vinegar to make sushi rice. This time I decided to make sushi rice from scratch with ingredients you can easily get at a regular supermarket. Actually, it’s really not hard to make sushi rice, but the recipe requires you to work really fast. I don’t usually like cooking food that is “time-sensitive” due to my laziness, but freshly cooked sushi rice does taste better than the one made with vinegar powder.
[Vinegar mix for 3 cups of sushi rice] *( ) for 2 cup of sushi
- White vinegar 3 1/2 tbs (2 1/2 tbs)
- Sugar 2tbs (1tbs and 1ts)
- Salt 1 heaping ts (1ts)
EDIT: I forgot to mention a very important thing!
“3 cups of rice” is when measured with a rice measuring cup. (It usually comes with a rice cooker.)
3 cups of rice is 1 cup and a half of uncooked rice with a regular measuring cup.
1 cup of rice measured with a rice measuring cup = roughly a 1/2 cup of rice measure with a regular cup
*I use a regular mixing bowl, but a shallow bowl is ideal for making sushi rice because it’s easier to get the air between the rice and mix.
1. Mix the ingredients in a bowl and set it aside.
Don't worry if sugar doesn't fully dissolve right away. Most of it will dissolve while you cook rice.
2. Cook rice with a little less water (about a half of a cup less) than you usually use. In other words, cook rice “hard.” <- This is very important!
When the rice is done, take a deep breath. Because you have to move really fast from here. Step 3 – 4 have to be done in about a minute.
3. Put freshly cooked rice in a wet bowl, pour about 2/3 of the mixture of Step 2 on the rice, and start mixing rice immediately with a wet spatula with slicing motion, folding the rice over from the bottom, so the vinegar won’t stay at the bottom.
Tips: If you have an extra person and a hand fan, have the person fan the rice. I had my boyfriend as a "fan-boy." A fan-person isn't a part of this recipe, but fanning does help dry the rice a lot.
4. If the rice is not soggy, add the rest of the mixture little by little. If the rice starts to get soggy, stop adding the vinegar.
If you aren’t using the sushi rice right away, cover it with wet paper towel or wet cheese cloth until you use it.
Now you have sushi rice for sushi!
Simple but very important tips when you make sushi rice are…
* Cook rice with less water.
* Pour vinegar mixture in freshly cooked rice. (The water in vinegar will evaporate when mixed with hot rice, leaving the vinegary flavor on the rice without getting all soggy.)
* Mix the rice with a spatula with slicing motion. FAST.
I’m no definitely not a sushi chef, and whenever I make sushi, they all have different sizes and shapes. I think that’s the fun part of making sushi on your own. The only thing you want to remember is that make sure to wet your hands before you make each sushi, just like when you make rice balls. Otherwise most of the rice will just get stuck on your hands. Also, try using a little bit of rice first. The rice should be smaller than fish.
Gently hold the rice in your hand.
Put fish (shrimp in this case) on the top of the rice, and gently press it down with two fingers. Actually I think I used a little too much rice here. 
If you’re interested in making shrimp sushi, check out “How to prepare shrimp for sushi.”
How to make sushi rice on my flickr
For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.
If you have any questions about any of my how-to’s, please feel free to leave a comment or email me!
Comments»
Thanks for sharing this! I always make maki sushi because I always fail at making regular ones…
I use rice vinegar to do the rice, didn’t know you had to add salt and sugar. And to make it easier to flatten (for maki sushi), I only take the amount of rice I need for one roll, and mix it with vinegar, so that the rest of the rice stays hot and easy to flatten.
I’m not a sushi expert, and actually learned how to make sushi from a French guy! So maybe this is all heretic
Hello.
When you say “Vinegar mix for 3 cups of sushi rice”, that 3 cups of rice is measured cooked or not cooked?
Sorry for the bad english
Thanks
Hi,
1. the mentioned of “cup” is equal to 240ml?
2. @ step “3. Put freshly cooked rice in a wet bowl…” how to “wet” the bowl?
Hi JuAn666 and reiner
It’s 3 cups of uncooked rice, and I forgot to mention that it’s measured with a rice measuring cup. (It usually comes with a rice cooker.)
1 cup of rice measured with a rice measuring cup = roughly a 1/2 cup of rice measure with a regular cup
As for “how to wet a bowl”, if you pour water in the bowl and dump it out, it should be fine.
Hi! I LOVE your site. It’s so inspiring!
I do have a question though- you said ” Pour vinegar mixture in freshly cooked rice. (The water in vinegar will evaporate when mixed with hot rice, leaving the vinegary flavor on the rice without getting all soggy.)” Does this mean the vinegar is only for flavor? I really want to make this sort of rice, but I can’t stand that vinegary taste. Would it affect the stickiness if I didn’t add that in?
Thanks!
Hi fugu
The main ingredient for sushi rice is vinegar, and you can’t make sushi rice without vinegar. All sushi (maybe except some American rolls) use sushi rice. So if you’re okay with regular sushi, this recipe should be okay. But it does have very strong vinegar smell when you mix it in rice (the smell will dissipate in the air once you’re done mixing it), so if you can’t stand the smell of vinegar, you might want turn your face away from the bowl when you mix it. Or have someone fan the rice.
Let me know if you have any questions, and good luck!