Cook Sushi Rice in The Rice Cooker – That’s How it Works

Prepare sushi rice in the rice cooker: the ingredients

Having a rice cooker at home will make cooking the grain much easier. Big advantage: In a rice cooker, the rice does not burn as quickly. In addition to the rice cooker, the following ingredients are necessary to conjure up sushi rice:

• 320g sushi rice: Only use short-grain rice from Japan. This has the right texture and sticky ingredients to give the sushi the right consistency. For four people, 320g of rice is recommended, which corresponds to four rolls. On average, a roll has 80g.
• If you don’t want to prepare sushi rolls, but rather a nigiri or other specialties, it is best to use 180g. That’s enough for two to three people.
• Water: The water is specially tailored to the amount of rice. They always use 150% water to 100% rice. This means that if you cook 80g of rice, you will need 120ml of water. With 180 rice it would be 270ml water.
• Optional: 1 sheet of konbu or kombu. Together with the rice vinegar seasoning (Sushi-Zu), this provides the characteristic sushi aroma but is not absolutely necessary.

Rice preparation in the rice cooker for delicious sushi

The preparation of the sushi rice is not really difficult because the rice cooker does the work for you. Depending on the model, the cooking time is between 20 and 60 minutes. Japanese rice cookers give the best results, but take much longer than models from Taiwan, China, or Thailand. However, the process is the same:

• First, the rice is washed. Fill this into a bowl and pour water over the grain. Throw it away immediately and leave the rice in the bowl. Repeat this step. This removes dirt particles that should not get into the rice.
• That’s why it has to be done so quickly. If you have trouble pouring the water away, you can also do this step in a fine mesh strainer (cold).
• Now cover the rice again with water. For 1 to 2 minutes, use your hand to wash the rice in a circular motion to keep it moving slowly. Pour off the water again. Repeat this step up to six times. A good sign is when the drained water is clear. Then the rice is ready for soaking.
• Pour the rice into a new bowl. Cover with fresh water and leave for 30 minutes.
• Pour the rice into a colander and let the remaining water drain completely.
• If you have konbu, cut off a piece measuring 5 x 5 cm and blot with a wet cloth. This will clean it. Never clean under running water.
• Now transfer the rice to the cooking bowl of the rice cooker and fill up with the above amount of water. If your rice cooker has a sushi scale, use this as a guide. Place the konbu leaf on top of the rice as well.
• Close the lid and let the rice cooker do the rest. As soon as the rice cooker is ready, pour the rice into a separate bowl, mix with the rice vinegar seasoning and leave to cool. Never scrape rice from the bottom of the rice cooker bowl as this rice is not suitable for sushi.