Etc., the first thing you need to do is learn how to cook rice for rolls correctly! The quality of the final product depends on this component, so do not ignore the instructions and recommendations!

You've probably noticed that rolls often begin to fall apart upon contact with soy sauce, and one of the possible reasons for this situation could be improperly cooked rice. So that your Japanese dish does not fail, let's look at how to cook rice for rolls and sushi so that the result of your efforts turns out impeccable!

Ingredients:

• Japanese or regular short grain rice - 1 cup;
• salt - ½ teaspoon;
• granulated sugar - ½ tbsp. spoons;
• rice vinegar - 50 ml;
• water - 1.5 cups.

How to cook rice for rolls and sushi correctly

1. To make sushi/rolls, you can buy Japanese rice, or you can get by with regular short-grain rice - experienced cooks have long been convinced in practice that there is not much difference between these types of rice. Just don’t use the long-grain variety - it’s absolutely not suitable for Japanese dishes! So, thoroughly rinse the rice grains with cold water 6-7 times (until the liquid becomes completely clean and transparent).
   
2. Place the rice grains in a spacious pan, fill with water, which should be one and a half times the amount of rice used. There is no need to salt the water or season with any spices! For flavor, you can throw just a piece of kombu seaweed into the pan, but be sure to remove it before the liquid boils.
   

   How long to cook rice for rolls

3. When the water boils, close the lid tightly and turn the heat to low. Cook for 10-15 minutes (until the moisture has completely evaporated). In any case, the rice should not be on the fire for more than 20 minutes, otherwise there is a high probability of overcooked grains sticking to the bottom of the pan! There is no need to stir the rice or remove the lid from the pan during cooking!
   
4. At the same time, we are doing refueling. Add sugar and salt to the rice vinegar (do not confuse it with regular vinegar!). Place on low heat, stirring. When granulated sugar and salt dissolve in vinegar, remove the mixture from the stove.
   
5. After removing the finished rice from the heat, continue steaming under a tightly closed lid for 10 minutes and only after that transfer it to a bowl. Pour dressing over hot rice grains. By the way, now you can find ready-made sauce for sushi rice on sale, which can replace a mixture of vinegar, salt and sugar.
   
6. Stir the soaked rice grains with a wooden spatula. After cooling the rice to room temperature, we begin to form sushi or rolls.
   
7. Do not forget that the finished rice cannot be put in the refrigerator or left for the next day, because in this case the rice grains will become hard, which, of course, will ruin the taste of the final dish!
   Once you learn how to cook rice for rolls, you can experiment with Japanese dishes!

Rice is the main component of sushi, which means its preparation must be as correct as possible, because any, even the smallest gastronomic mistake will spoil the taste of the future dish. If the rice is undercooked, the sushi will simply taste unpleasant. If you overcook it, then no matter how fancy you choose, the rolls will eventually fall apart. This article will help you avoid annoying mistakes.

Which rice to choose for making sushi

Success largely depends not so much on the method of preparation, but on the right choice in the store. You will only get sushi if you choose elastic and sticky porridge. This means that we immediately say “no” to the steamed crumbly one. Also, your grocery basket should not include pilaf rice, jasmine and basmati varieties (they are very popular, but are not at all suitable for sushi). We invite you to get acquainted with some principles of proper cereals:

• choose round grain rice. These varieties contain a lot of starch, and the porridge will end up sticky: you can easily form neat and beautiful rolls.
• the grains must be whole. No husks, breaks or cracks, as is often the case with low quality rice.
• the grains should be the same size.
• As for color, only white is opaque, other options are unacceptable.
• the best varieties are sushiki and koshi-higari (Japan). This type can easily be found in specialized corners in large supermarkets.

Cooking rice for sushi: 5 main secrets

Method 1: how to cook sushi rice

Method 2: sushi rice in a slow cooker

1. Wash the cereal thoroughly and soak it for half an hour (this is if you use special Japanese rice). If you are preparing sushi from regular round-grain sushi, do not soak it.
2. Place the rice in the multicooker bowl and add water (1 to 1.5, that is, 200 g of cereal per 300 ml of water).
3. Now set the “Rice” or “Buckwheat” mode (depending on the functions of your multicooker). If there are no such modes, do not be upset: the dish will be cooked in the “Baking” mode, only in this case the timer should be set for ten minutes, and then turn on the “Stew” mode for twenty minutes.

Method 3: Sushi Rice Recipe

Method 4: how to easily cook sushi rice

In this recipe, the dressing is prepared using lemon juice, which gives a pleasant flavor to future rolls.

Method 5: Simple Sushi Rice Recipe

You will need:

• polished rice (seven hundred grams);
• cold water (seven hundred milliliters);
• sake (two tablespoons);
• kombu brown seaweed (one plate is enough);
• apple cider vinegar (seventy grams);
• honey (one tablespoon);
• sea ​​salt (one tablespoon).

Wash and dry the cereal thoroughly. Pour it into a saucepan, fill it with water in the traditional proportion (200 g per 300 ml) and add two tablespoons of sake. Seaweed also goes into the pan. This whole mixture should sit for one hour. Then the seaweed is removed and the rice is boiled in the usual way.

Once the rice is cooked, leave it covered for fifteen minutes. Then mix honey, salt and apple cider vinegar (the amount of each ingredient is indicated above. As for the rice, place it in a large bowl and pour over the prepared dressing. To ensure that the mixture is thoroughly absorbed, carefully turn it over using a wooden spatula or sushi chopsticks. Prepare the rolls you can immediately after the mixture has cooled.

Bon appetit!

Do you know how to prepare sushi rice at home? If yes, then share with our users in the comments below the article.

If you don’t want to cook sushi at home, then welcome to our catalog: here you will find the best sushi bars in Kyiv with photos, descriptions and real reviews from guests.

You may also be interested in:

Photo: upon request from Yandex and Google

It’s hard to call sushi fast food. After all, rolling rolls is a real art, which is carefully learned from masters. And among the Japanese, eating sushi turns into a complex and lengthy ceremony. And although the ingredients for rolls and sashimi are, in general, simple products (rice, fish, seafood, soy sauce), preparing these dishes is quite difficult. But it is possible, even at home. In this article we will not talk about how to spin rolls. Let's focus on just one stage of their production - we'll discuss how to make sushi rice at home. This is the basis of the dish. If you compare rolls to fine art, rice is a primer for a painting, onto which the artist must apply paint. Yes, of course, the taste of sushi is determined by fish or seafood. But if the rice in them looks like porridge from kindergarten, all the art of creating this dish will come to naught.

Japanese vinegar and noria: preparing rolls yourself

Sushi requires special equipment - at least a makis, for professional rolling of products. Exotic products will also be required. For example, nori is sheets of dried and compressed edible seaweed. Or wasabi - a special horseradish paste. Gari - thin sheets of pickled ginger - is also difficult to make at home. But you can create Japanese vinegar yourself. To do this, you need to dissolve two large spoons of sugar and one teaspoon of salt in a third of a cup of regular table (or apple) acidifier. We don't need very much Japanese vinegar. There are only two spoons for two glasses of rice. But it defines the basis of taste. Now let’s start preparing sushi rice at home. In this case, the recipes advise us not to show initiative, but to strictly adhere to the Japanese tradition. After all, it has been practiced for centuries.

What kind of rice is suitable for sushi?

As for cereals, they require special ones. Small and round grains containing a lot of gluten. In large supermarkets, special “Sushi Rice” is sold in special sections. At home, recipes suggest using Krasnodar or Crimean cereals. In appearance it resembles Japanese. Elite basmati is good for pilaf, but not for rolls. Sushi rolled from it will crumble. Also, there is no need to be clever and show imagination where this is not required: all sorts of steamed, brown, unpolished and wild varieties will not work. Also, masters of Japanese cuisine will reject rice in bags. Only round grains, polished and uncrushed, are suitable. If there is none, long-grain rice should be soaked in cold, preferably filtered, water for a couple of hours. Then rinse and set to cook.

Secrets of product replacement: how to turn Krasnodar rice into Japanese

The cereal, ripened in the flooded fields of the Land of the Rising Sun, is not only small and round, but also contains a large amount of gluten. It is thanks to her that the rolls keep their shape well. How to use for sushi at home? Recipes suggest that we rinse the cereal thoroughly. Pour two glasses into a sieve or fine colander and keep under running water until clean and clear water drains from the cereal. This way we will get rid of excess. Porridge for sushi should under no circumstances be crumbly. But an overly viscous and watery base will also not work. Therefore, the ratio of water and cereal when cooking porridge is the second very important condition for creating successful rolls.

How to cook sushi rice at home

The recipe asks us to pour cold water over the cereal. But if for pilaf or porridge we keep the proportions of one to two, then rolls require a different approach. There should be equal amounts of rice and water. The same amount of liquid should go into two glasses of cereal. “How will the porridge cook,” you ask, “will it burn?” The whole secret is how to prepare sushi rice at home. Recipes for creating pilaf, casseroles, babkas, baby porridges and rolls are very different. Rice is a universal cereal. It can be used to make a hard loaf-like bun, a pudding, or a viscous mixture. So, pour the washed rice with cold water and put it on the stove. It is best to take a saucepan with a thick bottom and not enameled. The ideal solution would be a small cauldron for pilaf. After the contents of the saucepan boil, cover it with a lid and cook for one minute over high heat. The time limit must be taken seriously - 60 seconds, no more and no less. Then the fire should be reduced. Do not remove the lid and cook the porridge for about fifteen to twenty minutes. As soon as we see that the liquid has completely evaporated, turn off the heat under the saucepan. Let stand covered for another ten minutes. This way we will get enough for sushi.

Recipe at home in a slow cooker

Many people doubt: can a machine make cereal for rolls? After all, Japanese chefs put their souls into every stage of preparing this incomparable dish. Let's cast aside all doubts. The multicooker not only copes with this task, but creates simply perfect sushi rice. Cooking at home in a slow cooker will not take you much time. And the result will be even better than if you cooked the cereal in a pan. After all, you won’t need to open the lid, which means you won’t let steam out of the container, causing the rice to reach perfect stickiness. The only thing you should take care of is to rinse the cereal well. You need to pour a little more water - 2.5 measures of liquid for two glasses of grain. The multicooker bowl should be filled to no more than two-thirds of its volume. Set the “buckwheat” or “rice” mode. In machines of a different design, you can use the “Baking” program by setting the timer for ten minutes, and when the time is up, start the “Stew” for twenty minutes.

Authentic sauce

Even properly cooked cereal will remain a simple porridge if sauce is not added to it. An authentic Japanese sushi dressing includes mirin cooking wine (or sake vodka), special rice vinegar, sea salt and sugar. The base for the rolls gives a special charm. It is placed in the sauce when it is warmed up and later taken out. When combined, the dressing and rice should be approximately the same temperature - warm. Believe it or not, real masters cool the cereal with a fan so that it shines beautifully in the rolls. But on our agenda is sushi rice at home. Recipes, photos and useful tips teach us how to do without exotic ingredients and get a product that is as close to authentic as possible. So, let's prepare a sauce based on 250 grams of cereal.

What is rice vinegar

Although it is called Japanese, it was invented by the Chinese. According to some reports, this happened more than two thousand years ago. How was this vinegar prepared? The fish was cut into small pieces. Then they salted it and mixed it with rice. The enzymes released by the fish acted on the grain, and lactic acid was released. On the one hand, it preserved the fish, increasing its shelf life to a year, and on the other hand, it gave it a sour taste. In the fourth century AD, rice vinegar became famous in Japan. It was very expensive and was used only by the nobility. Vinegar became available to the common people only in the sixteenth century. Why are we providing all these details? To show that compared to other European sauces, rice sauce has the mildest taste. In addition, it is an excellent antibacterial agent. And if you take into account that in Japan raw fish is often served at the table, protecting yourself from various infections is very important. And most importantly, the sauce enhances the sushi rice. The recipe (following it at home is not a problem), which we will give below, assumes the presence of this vinegar. Getting it when the popularity of rolls around the world is growing is not so difficult. It is sold in the same stores as wasabi and nori seaweed.

Vinegar sauce

Well, let's season our sushi rice. The recipe at home is not much different from the one used in professional Japanese restaurants. The main thing is to have Mitsukan rice vinegar. It will require 180 milliliters. 120 grams of sugar and a spoonful of sea salt should be dissolved in this vinegar. It is also worth adding a small piece of kombu seaweed at the initial stage. After ten minutes it can be thrown away. Heat all the ingredients, but do not bring to a boil. Then cool, pour into a tightly sealed glass container and put in the refrigerator. That is, the sauce can be prepared for future use. But if you want to use a small amount for already cooked rice, cool the sauce to the temperature of the grain. Pour in a small amount of mirin or sake. If you don’t have Japanese alcohol on hand, don’t worry, we’ll skip this stage of preparation. Place the rice in a wide bowl. Pour over the sauce. Use a wooden spatula to carefully turn the rice over, but do not stir it (otherwise it will turn out to be porridge). Cool to room temperature. That's it, you can spin the rolls.

Rice Vinegar Alternative

All European types of acidulants have a more pronounced taste, so they need to be added in small quantities. There are several ways to prepare the dressing to pour over sushi rice. A recipe (at home) with apple cider vinegar is one of them. Mix a tablespoon of acidifier with a teaspoon of sugar and a pinch of iodized salt. Add one and a half tablespoons of hot water to this solution. Stir until the crystals disappear completely. Pour this sauce over the rice.

Exotic Japanese cuisine is gaining more and more adherents. An exquisite combination of sweetish sauces, nori seaweed, fish and vegetables creates an indescribable taste sensation. Having mastered the secrets of how to cook sushi rice in a slow cooker or over an open fire, and how to prepare marinade, you can independently create real masterpieces of Japanese cuisine at home.

What kind of rice is needed for sushi?

According to the inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun, food should not only nourish the body, but also bring aesthetic pleasure. The appearance of sushi and taste characteristics depend on the correct choice of the main ingredient. During the cooking process, special varieties of glutinous, sticky rice are used, which can be purchased in most supermarkets or specialty stores.

Long-grained, crumbly or steamed is best left for risotto and pilaf. The ideal option would be oval-shaped cereals of small size (2–3 mm):

• Dragon Rice. Perfectly sized, has a soft, delicate texture when cooked. Color – matte white. There are no cracks or roughness on the surface.
• Short grain Rice. Small grains measuring 3 mm are rich in starch, which gives the necessary stickiness during the cooking process. They are distinguished by a mother-of-pearl shade, without husks or irregularities.

If it is not possible to purchase special Japanese rice for sushi, pay attention to regular round-grain rice. So that the taste parameters do not differ much from traditional Japanese varieties, sort out the cereal before cooking the main ingredient. For sushi, leave only whole, uncracked grains of the same size and regular round shape.

Recipes for cooking sushi rice with photos

To boil rice you will need:

• glass bowl;
• wooden spoon;
• ingredients:
  • Japanese rice;
  • good quality water for cooking;
  • kombu seaweed (nori).

Before cooking rice, you must wash it thoroughly. The Japanese believe that taste directly depends on the purity and quality of the grain. Pour the required amount into a glass salad bowl and fill with water. After 1–2 minutes, carefully remove any floating husks and impurities with your hand. Drain off the cloudy water. Refill the bowl with cold liquid in a 1:2 ratio.

To remove “bad”, low-quality rice, gently move it through your fingers. It is necessary to rinse the cereal until the flowing water becomes clear, like spring water - at least 7 times. Then pour filtered water into the salad bowl and leave for half an hour. After time has passed, start cooking.

Cooking sushi rice in a saucepan

To prevent sushi rice from burning, use a heavy metal pan with a thick bottom. You will need:

• Japanese rice – 200 g;
• cold filtered water – 250 ml.

Place the thoroughly washed cereal into a saucepan. Fill with cold (add a couple of ice cubes) water using a ratio of 1:1.25. Add a small piece of kombu, 5x5 cm, for a subtle taste. Cover tightly and place over medium heat. When the cereal boils, remove the seaweed and close the lid tightly. How long should you cook sushi rice? Cooking time in a closed container until combined with the marinade will take about 30 minutes:

• Cook for 12 minutes on the lowest heat. The liquid must be completely absorbed so that the rice becomes sticky, grainy and fluffy.
• 15 minutes - the finished ingredient is infused, absorbing the remaining water.

How to cook sushi rice in a slow cooker

Pour thoroughly washed rice into the multicooker bowl. It is advisable to soak Japanese sushi varieties with cold water for half an hour. You will see the degree of readiness for cooking by the whitened grain, which will change its transparency to white. It is not recommended to soak ordinary round ones. Cooking sushi rice using a multicooker is not difficult:

Option 1 (when there is a “Steamer” function)

1. Pour cold filtered water over the rice, maintaining a ratio of 1:1.25.
2. Close the lid. Click the "Rice" or "Buckwheat" button. Set the timer for 10–12 minutes.
3. After automatic shutdown, do not open the multicooker lid and allow the contents to completely absorb the liquid.
4. Take out the cooked unleavened rice, pour it into a glass or wooden bowl using a wooden spatula and mix with the classic marinade.

Option 2

If the “Steamer” function is not available, it is possible to cook sushi rice in a multicooker using the “Baking” and “Stewing” modes. Divide the time it takes to cook as follows:

• 10 minutes – “Baking” function.
• 15–20 minutes – “Extinguishing” mode.

How to prepare dressing for rice

To prepare the marinade you will need:

1. rice vinegar – 60 ml;
2. sugar – 20 g;
3. teaspoon sea salt.

While you are cooking sushi rice, place a container on the stove into which you pour rice vinegar (if you don’t have the latter, replace it with natural apple vinegar), add sugar and salt. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Place the cooked rice into a glass container with a spatula, pour over the dressing and mix gently.

Video: how to make perfect sushi rice

Do you want to learn how to cook the right rice to make sushi? Be patient and willing to master all the intricacies of Japanese cuisine. After all, in the land of the rising sun, sushi masters have years of training in the intricacies of preparing this dish. What secrets do you need to master in order to learn how to cook rice cereal perfectly? After watching our video with step-by-step instructions, you will be able to do it elegantly, and the result will exceed your expectations.

The fact remains that Japanese cuisine conquered the vast expanses of the former USSR without a fight, where many gourmets have already begun to independently master its basics. In the interests of preparing rice delicacies, the pressing question remains: how to properly cook rice for sushi and rolls at home, and what type of cereal is best to choose for this? Oddly enough, in Japan cooking is based on the principle that the simpler, the tastier, and having mastered a couple of nuances, we will be able to solve this problem in one go.

Rice is the basis of sushi and rolls, and that is why, for the most part, the success of preparing these snacks depends on how the porridge is prepared. If the grains are undercooked, then the taste of traditional Japanese “canapés” will be disgusting, to say the least.

Overcooked porridge will simply ruin the hard-rolled roll. The lack of dressing will completely deprive rice balls with fish of the Japanese charm. And in order to avoid all these troubles lurking around every corner, today we will tell you how to make the right rice for sushi and rolls.

Choosing grains

The quality of the final product largely depends on the characteristics of the initial components. So you should immediately make a reservation about the criteria by which rice should be selected.

1. Cereals must be white and round, since Japanese snacks must have an excellent aesthetic appearance and a delicate taste. Black, brown, golden, long-grain, steamed and other varieties are not suitable for this dish.
2. A high gluten content is one of the main requirements for rice, since both sushi and rolls must certainly keep their shape, but this obviously will not happen with crumbly porridge.
3. The manufacturer also has a lot to say. Japanese rice is an ideal product for our purposes, but such rice is incredibly expensive, and it is not always on sale. Therefore, they are trying to replace such cereals with cheaper, but no less high-quality Egyptian or Korean ones. In addition, you can also get by with Chinese cereals, and as a last resort - Krasnodar ones.
4. In general, if the packaging says “sushi rice,” then you can safely take it. However, under no circumstances should you use grains intended for cooking in bags, regardless of whether they are round or elongated.

Secrets of successful sushi rice

Having figured out which grain to choose, we can now proceed directly to cooking. However, here too we can expect pitfalls that will help us bypass all the secrets of Japanese cooking.

Washing cereals

Before cooking rice for sushi and rolls, the grains should be rinsed very thoroughly several times until the water in contact with the grains of rice becomes clear. In this case, it is necessary to throw out all floating grains and any black particles.

Perfectly pure white rice is the key to beautiful rolls.

Cooking rice

After all the “bath” procedures, the cereal can be sent to the pan. And here again there is one trick. At the very beginning of cooking, you need to add a little nori seaweed to the water, which is designed to give the rice a characteristic aroma.

In addition to the taste component, there are other nuances, for example, how long should you cook rice for sushi and rolls, and in general, in what proportions should you take cereals and water?

Recipe No. 1

The simplest option is to cook 200 g of rice in 250 ml of water for 5 minutes on high heat, and then another 15 on low heat. In this case, the porridge will not be overcooked, and the rolls will easily hold their shape.

Recipe No. 2

For the classic method you will need:

• Rice groats – 1 tbsp.;
• Water – 500 ml;

Preparation:

1. First, rinse the rice thoroughly until the liquid becomes clear.
2. After this, fill the cereal with water and leave to infuse for half an hour.
3. After the allotted time, put a cube of kombu or nori seaweed in a container and put the saucepan with rice on the fire.
4. As soon as the liquid boils, remove the seaweed from the rice so that it does not spoil the taste of the porridge. Next, reduce the heat to low and, with the lid closed, cook the grains for another 10 minutes.
5. After turning off the burner, the cereal must be left for another 20 minutes under the lid so that it is thoroughly steamed.

Recipe No. 3

This method is much simpler than the previous one and does not take much time. To implement it you will need 175 g of washed rice and 250 ml of water.

• Pour the rice grains into a container and fill with water, and after boiling, boil for 2 minutes.
• Next, remove the saucepan from the stove and let the cereals steam for 10 minutes under the lid, and then another 10 minutes uncovered.

Recipe in a slow cooker

You can cook rice for sushi and rolls either in a saucepan or in a slow cooker. Moreover, in the latter it is much easier to do this, since the intelligent saucepan will certainly not allow the white grains to burn and will do everything in the best possible way.

Ingredients

• Rice groats – 200 g;
• Water – 1 full glass;

Preparation

1. Place the washed grains in the bowl of the unit and fill with water.

* Cook's tips
If we intend to cook Japanese rice, then it should first be soaked for half an hour. This rule does not apply to all other varieties of short grain rice.

1. After closing the multicooker lid, set the “baking”, “rice” or “buckwheat” mode on the program panel for 10 minutes.
2. After the signal, we reset the program to “stewing” and the cooking time to 20 minutes.

With this technique, we are guaranteed to get perfectly cooked rice for Japanese snacks.

Preparing the dressing

It’s not enough to learn how to cook cereal according to all the laws of the cuisine of the land of the rising sun; you still need to season it correctly. And only after we are able to successfully prepare the marinade can we consider the rice for sushi and rolls completely ready for use.

According to the classics of the genre, any recipe for Japanese snacks includes a vinegar sauce for the rice base. This aromatic liquid is sprinkled over the boiled cereal and gently turned over using chopsticks so that the marinade is evenly distributed throughout the rice.

Mixing the cereal is not allowed, otherwise the delicate grains will turn into real malasha porridge.

Gas station No. 1

The amount of components in this recipe is taken to anoint 450 g of finished cereal.

Ingredients:

• Rice vinegar - 2 tbsp;
• Granulated sugar - 1 tsp;
• Sea salt - 1 tsp.

Preparation:

1. In a small saucepan you need to mix all the declared products, then put the container on low heat.
2. By constantly stirring the composition, we achieve complete dissolution of the sweet and salty crystals, and the dressing can be considered ready.

Gas station No. 2

This version of the gravy is designed for 300 g of dry cereal, which yields about 0.7 kg of finished rice.

Ingredients:

• Mitsukan rice vinegar - 60 ml;
• Granulated sugar – 40 g;
• Sea salt – 10 g;
• Dried seaweed "Kombu" - 1 g.

Preparation:

1. Having combined all the ingredients in a common container, put the saucepan on the fire.
2. It is necessary to heat the marinade until the sugar and salt dissolve, but do not bring it to a boil.
3. Algae must be removed from the dressing immediately after removing the container from the burner.

Before seasoning the cereal, one more aspect should be taken into account: for this, the rice must be slightly cooled, but the vinegar itself must be extremely hot. Only if all these requirements are met, rice for sushi and rolls will turn out exactly the way it is made in Japan.