Homemade sushi without a rice cooker
Hadn’t made sushi for a while but now I had a special occasion. Wish I had better salmon available at the moment but I was curious to test Royal Tiger sushi rice and roasted seaweed from local asian market. I’m trying to improve the way I’m making rice each time and I wanted to share what I’ve learned so far about making sushi without a rice cooker.
Prepping the Rice
First I rinsed the rice 4 times. Going to try with less rinsing next time to see if there is much difference. Then I let it sit about 10 minutes and changed the water one last time before starting to cook it. Water to rise ratio was 1:1.
After water started boiling I lowered the temperature and put a kitchen towel and the lid on. Cooking time is about 15 minutes. I peeked in some point to check if there is still enough water left since this was my first time with this brand of rice.
I’ve realised that I have a bad habit of using too much force on certain things. I watched a video of a chef separating grains after cooking with a wooden item. The point was that rice shouldn’t be mushed. I found a wooden butter knife from my kitchen – it wasn’t probably the most sophisticated equipment for this but got the job done! 😀
Mixed sushi vinegar with maybe a teaspoon of salt and pinch of sugar. Tasted that combination wasn’t too much on the sweeter side before adding to warm rice. I think adding a little bit of sugar and salt enhances the flavour.
Working the rice
After rice has cooled down it was time to roll. Again – I think sometimes I’ve used too much force trying to make the rolls tight. Deep breaths and taking my time with it. I used kitchen gloves, plastic wrap and had a small bowl of cold water next to me while handling rice.
Dipping fingers in cold water before touching the rice helps with shaping the rice. Otherwise it sticks to fingers. Same idea with the plastic wrap – I take a sheet and spread in on bamboo mat that I use for rolling and put the seaweed sheet on top of the plastic wrap.
Since another person eating these has FODMAP -diet I played it safe and used just gravlax salmon and cucumber filling this time. If you are making sushi with gravlax it’s good to use a bit less salt than usual since that salmon itself has already been salted. I like this Royal Tiger rice better than alternatives available at my local supermarket. I think I need to just experiment with it to get the result more fluffy – maybe a little less heat the next time so that the water doesn’t evaporate too quickly. After I finish studies and go to work I should definitely get myself a rice cooker. Really looking forward to that.
What is your favourite sushi filling? What rice are you using? Feel free to comment down below!
