Rice is the main component of sushi, so when preparing it you should take into account all the recommendations of Japanese chefs. If undercooked, it will spoil the taste of the dish; if overcooked, it will ruin your rolls. The lack of pronounced taste is also considered “bad form” in the Land of the Rising Sun. Therefore, we understand the recipe for preparing sushi rice thoroughly!

5 secrets of sushi rice

1. The Japanese use rice varieties for their favorite dish, which we call “Japanese” and “Mistral”. If you can’t find them in the supermarket, you can get by with regular round-grain. This will not make the rolls worse - it has been proven by culinary specialists from many countries around the world.
2. Boil the rice until tender, using water in a volume of 1:1.5. This means that 200 grams of rice requires 250 ml of water. In this proportion, the cereal will not boil over and will retain its shape.
3. Rice grains must be washed before use. Do this in a bowl, in running water. You need to drain the water many times until it remains cloudy. The grains of rice that float to the surface are also removed: the Japanese consider them spoiled. And all the black particles of poorly cleaned cereal.
4. At the beginning of cooking, a cube of nori seaweed (kombu) is placed in cold water. It gives a special flavor to sushi rice; the recipe later requires removing the nori before boiling the water so that the taste is not spoiled.
5. The classic sushi recipe calls for a vinegar dressing. It is sprinkled over the rice after it is cooked. The grains of rice are carefully turned over so that the dressing is distributed evenly. You can’t mix them, otherwise a mess will form. Both the rice and the dressing should be hot, but not fiery, so the rice should be allowed to cool after boiling.

Sushi rice recipes

Once you learn how to make sushi rice, you'll be free to make any type of dish at home, from Philly sushi with smoked salmon to Dynamite shrimp and avocado rolls. There are many recipes for preparing the base of the dish. We present the most popular and simple ones.

Recipe No. 1

1. Rinse the rice, pour into a saucepan, and cover with water. Place a piece of nori in cold water. Remove the nori before boiling. After this, do not open the lid again.
2. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10-15 minutes. The water will be completely absorbed.
3. Turn off the heat and remove the pan from the stove. Keep covered for 15 minutes.

Recipe No. 2

1. Fill the washed cereal with water: 2 cups per cup of rice.
2. Leave to swell for 30 minutes.
3. Bring to a boil on the stove, covered.
4. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Remove from the stove; do not open the lid for 20 minutes.

Recipe No. 3

1. Rinse the rice and add to boiling water.
2. Reduce heat and cover the pan.
3. Simmer the rice grains until the liquid is completely absorbed.

Recipe in a slow cooker

Preparing the base of the rolls is possible not only in a saucepan. We suggest you learn how to cook sushi rice in a slow cooker.

1. Rinse the cereal and soak for 30 minutes if it is Japanese rice. When using regular round grain, there is no need to soak.
2. Place in a bowl and add water at the rate of 250 ml per 200 g of cereal.
3. Set the “Buckwheat” or “Rice” mode. If they are not provided, use the “Baking” mode with a timer for 10 minutes, then turn on the “Stewing” mode for 20 minutes.

Preparing the dressing

An equally simple question is how to prepare a dressing for sushi rice. You will need 3 components:

• rice vinegar - 2 tablespoons;
• sugar - 1 teaspoon;
• salt - 1 teaspoon.

This volume is enough for 450 grams of finished cereal (using 200 grams of dry rice).

Preparation

1. Pour vinegar into the pan.
2. Add sugar and salt.
3. Stir over medium heat until completely dissolved.

It turns out to be a classic dressing for sushi rice, but the recipe is complicated in that you can’t always find rice vinegar here. If it is not available in stores, you can prepare an analogue yourself.

Sushi vinegar - recipes

Option #1

You will need:

• grape vinegar - 4 tablespoons;
• sea ​​salt - teaspoon;
• sugar (white, brown) - 3 teaspoons.

Mix everything and dissolve over the fire, without bringing to a boil.

Option No. 2

You will need:

• apple cider vinegar - a tablespoon;
• salt - half a teaspoon;
• sugar - teaspoon;
• hot water - 1.5 tablespoons.

Preparation is similar to the first option.

Option No. 3

You will need:

• table vinegar 6% - 1.5 tablespoons;
• soy sauce - 1.5 tablespoons;
• sugar - a teaspoon.

Mix everything and heat to dissolve.

If you don't have vinegar, you can use lemon juice. Mix it with a small amount of sugar and drizzle over the rice.

Ginger for sushi

Some sushi recipes call for the use of ginger to achieve a tangy, spicy flavor. The question of how to prepare ginger for sushi is also easy to figure out.

Preparation:

1. Peel the fresh root (weighing about 400 g), cut into thin pieces - “petals”. Boil for a minute in boiling water or rub with salt and leave overnight. In the morning, wash off the salt.
2. Mix 2 tablespoons of vodka or sake, 150 ml of rice vinegar, 3 tbsp. spoons of red wine, 70 g of sugar. Dissolve by heating over medium heat.
3. Pour the marinade over the ginger and use it after 4 days.

Knowing these secrets, you can quickly and professionally prepare the right sushi rice. And conquer the most difficult recipes for this dish!

Video: preparing sushi rice and ginger

Vinegar is the “air” for sushi rice. The Japanese and Chinese use rice. It comes in different colors and flavors, but its main task is to make the rice sticky and easy to mold, to add to it that very Asian note that plays the leading part in the entire orchestra.

There are three types of rice vinegar:

• black -
  thick like gravy, spicy and rich. Added to seafood products
  used for sushi rice, stewing meat;
• red -
  made from rice and red yeast. Add to seafood, soups, use as
  base for sauce, combined with noodles;
• white -
  light, sweetish, the most common. Always used in rice for
  rolls or sushi, season salads (sunomo) with them, and marinate fish.

It contains many elements that have a positive effect on the body. For example, amino acids support metabolism, calcium is needed for bone tissue. If you are still wondering why the Japanese and Chinese live long and don’t look their age, then now you know one of their secrets. Also, rice vinegar is not aggressive towards our stomach and intestines. There are even diets that include dishes seasoned with it.

Dosage: usually from 1 tablespoon to two per dish.

For sushi rice, you don’t need vinegar itself in its pure form, but its so-called vinegar. "marinade". You can prepare it like this: for two glasses of rice you will need 3 tbsp. l. rice vinegar (30-50 ml), half a tbsp. l. salt, two tbsp. l. Sahara. The mixture should be heated on the stove, without bringing it to a boil, or you can heat it in the microwave. Place the cooked rice in a wooden container (or glass), then add the marinade. Using a wooden spatula, turn the layers over with cutting movements, do not stir like porridge, but turn over. Let it cool, and you can make sushi balls or wrap rolls.

Rice vinegar can be purchased ready-made or prepared at home. This process is quite labor-intensive, but real. It will take patience and time. The result is a completely authentic product.

If the treasured bottle suddenly runs out, there are alternatives to save the dish. We will give some of the recipes for a homemade analogue below. Regular vinegar is suitable as a base: table vinegar 6%, apple, grape, wine, plum. The only negative is that you need to be careful with them in dosage, since their consistency is much brighter and the smell is sharper.

Option 1

• grape vinegar - tbsp. l.
• sugar – 3 tsp.
• salt – 1 tbsp. l.

Heat until sugar and salt dissolve, tbsp. l. Not
bringing to a boil.

Option 2

Apple cider vinegar in the amount of 2 tablespoons, a little
salt (1/2 tsp), 1 tsp. Sahara. We proceed in the same way as with grapes.
mixture. In some cases, in such a sushi mixture, which is prepared in-house
with your hands, add a spoonful of soy sauce.

Option 3

Dilute 50 ml table vinegar with the same amount
soy sauce, add a teaspoon of sugar, mix and heat. IN
In some recipes, add more water - 1-2 tbsp. l., as well as crushed
nori seaweed

Option 4

Sushi vinegar can be made from lemon juice (4 tbsp.
l. squeezed lemon juice, some gourmets take lime) stir with two
spoons of sugar, 1 tsp. salt, heat to dissolve the grains.

Rice vinegar is very popular in Asian, Japanese, and Chinese cuisines. This vinegar gives dishes a very interesting and piquant taste. You can easily make sushi rice vinegar yourself at home. Most often, this vinegar is made from rice wine or fermented rice. Now we will look at the preparation of rice vinegar for sushi, made from fermented rice.

Rice vinegar for sushi: beneficial properties

As everyone knows very well, sushi is now very popular among connoisseurs of delicious food. That is why many gourmets prepare this dish themselves, at home, trying to surprise and feed guests and relatives. But not everyone knows how to combine all the necessary ingredients correctly and does not always add something that you just can’t do without. Rice vinegar for sushi is just such an ingredient.

Adding this vinegar to rice makes it stickier, which allows the rice to take a certain shape and roll into rolls. In addition, rice vinegar can be used as a dressing for salads, fish dishes and poultry dishes.

In addition to its taste, rice vinegar is very beneficial for the entire body. This product contains amino acids and other beneficial substances that help increase the body's resistance to disease. Also, rice vinegar is a powerful antibacterial substance.

How to make rice vinegar at home

You will need:

• Sugar;
• Yeast;
• White refined rice;
• Gauze.

So, let's begin:

1. You need to first soak the rice in boiled cold water for 4 hours.
2. When the rice has steeped, strain it through cheesecloth, cover the resulting liquid with a lid and refrigerate overnight.
3. The next morning you need to add sugar to this liquid; for a cup of such rice water you need 2 tbsp. spoons of sugar. Stir thoroughly.
4. Next, you will need a double boiler, if you don’t have one, a water bath will do, you should heat this mixture in it for about an hour, and in a double boiler for 20 minutes, then cool and pour into any container except metal.
5. Add half a teaspoon of fresh yeast, stir well and do not cover with a lid, but rather secure with gauze so that the future vinegar can “breathe”.
6. Place it in a warm place and stir once a day, as soon as bubbles stop appearing in the liquid, the vinegar is ready.
7. Before pouring vinegar into a bottle, it must be filtered through cheesecloth and boiled.

At the same time, it is not rice vinegar that is added to the finished rice for sushi, but a vinegar seasoning prepared on its basis (for 2 cups of dry rice):

• 3 tbsp. l. rice vinegar;
• 2 tbsp. l. Sahara;
• 1/2 tbsp. l. salt.

Mix everything thoroughly.

That's all! With this rice vinegar, the taste of your sushi will be simply incredible, since you prepared it with love yourself!

Rice vinegar for sushi is an indispensable component of Japanese cuisine: it is thanks to it that sushi and rolls acquire their unique aroma. Invented in ancient China, this seasoning after some time became widespread in the countries of the East. For 12 centuries, rice vinegar appeared only on the tables of the most distinguished persons, because it was a very expensive product.

Nowadays, its production technology has been significantly simplified, which has made rice vinegar a very affordable and popular product in Chinese and Japanese cuisine.

Initially, rice vinegar was used exclusively as a marinade for cooking fish, because thanks to its antibacterial effect on the human body, it was possible to protect consumers from helminths and pathogens of dangerous infections contained in raw fish.

In addition, rice vinegar is used:

• as a flavoring agent for rice;
• to give the cereal plastic properties: it is under its influence that the rice becomes more sticky and holds its shape well;
• for dressing all kinds of salads and fish and poultry dishes.

Types of vinegar for sushi

There are two types of rice vinegar: Chinese And Japanese. Chinese rice vinegar has a slightly stronger pungency and slight sourness. The Japanese product has a barely pronounced sweetish taste.

When preparing rolls and sushi, it is better to choose the Japanese variety of vinegar, since the Chinese version can cause disharmony by interrupting the delicate taste of the sushi.

How to replace vinegar for sushi

Apple vinegar

If you are unable to find rice vinegar in the store, you can buy wine, apple or regular (6%) dining room vinegar. But in this case, it should be used very carefully: unlike rice vinegar, which has a special mild taste, table varieties of vinegar, taken in excessive quantities, can ruin delicious sushi and rolls.

To avoid mistakes and make a complete substitute for rice vinegar, you can use one of the recipes below:

• Mix grape vinegar (4 tablespoons), sugar (3 teaspoons) and salt (1 teaspoon). Place the container over low heat and heat the mixture until the salt and sugar are completely dissolved. It is strictly forbidden to bring it to a boil.
• Take apple cider vinegar (1 tablespoon), sugar (1 teaspoon), salt (1/2 teaspoon) and hot water (1.5 tablespoons). Stir all ingredients until salt and sugar are completely dissolved.
• You can prepare a mixture of 50 ml of regular 6% table vinegar (white wine or apple cider vinegar will also work), 20 g of sugar and 50 ml of soy sauce. The sugar must be completely dissolved, so the ingredients must be heated and mixed thoroughly.

Vinegar prepared in this way is in no way inferior to rice vinegar, you just need to add it in smaller quantities.

Instead of rice vinegar for soaking rice(boiled for sushi) you can use lemon juice, diluted with water with the addition of a drop of sugar. This dressing option is as close as possible to the taste of real rice vinegar, so lovers of homemade rolls should take note of this recipe.

How to make sushi vinegar

We offer Far Eastern sushi vinegar recipe, which was proposed by Japanese chefs working in Kamchatka in the early 90s.

Ingredients:

• Rice vinegar – 450 ml.
• Granulated sugar – 300 g.
• Salt – 80 g.
• Mirin sauce – 50 ml.
• Adinomoto (Japanese flavor enhancer) – 5 g.
• Seaweed leaves (kelp) – 5 g.

You should get approximately 870 ml of finished product.

Preparation:

All components of the future sauce are placed in a deep container and placed on low heat, stirring constantly and continuously to prevent the granulated sugar from burning. Heat the mixture only until there is no residue dissolve salt and sugar. Do not bring it to a boil!

The product can be considered ready if the salt and sugar have dissolved and the liquid became completely transparent. At the very end of cooking, you need to add kelp leaves: during the infusion process, it will give the sauce the necessary rich taste.

The minimum time for infusing sushi sauce is at least 60 minutes. After this, it can be used for cooking.

The sauce prepared according to this recipe does not have an expiration date. You can store it at room temperature, which will save you from the mistake made by inexperienced cooks who pour cold sauce over hot rice that was in the refrigerator.

Making rice vinegar at home

Do you want to make your own rice vinegar? This is not difficult to do.

Ingredients:

• Apple cider vinegar (for rolls) – 2 tablespoons.
• Sugar – 1.5 tablespoons.
• Japanese (round) rice - 2 tablespoons.
• Salt – ½ teaspoon.

Preparation:

Mix vinegar, salt and sugar until completely dissolved. Rinse a flat ceramic (or wooden) plate with cold water and place already boiled rice on it. Pour the mixture over the rice and add a small amount of boiling water.

Gently stir the rice without crushing it using a wooden spatula. Cool the rice to 20 degrees, and then transfer it to a special container with a lid (nabe). Process natural fermentation will take two to three weeks. Ready-made vinegar can be used to prepare sushi, rolls, and salad dressings.