Sushi Rice, Tatsu Nishino

We took a class with Tatsu Nishino - Executive Chef at Nishino in Madison Park, Seattle, Washington. He gave us these recipes, demonstrated how to do them, and coached us as we executed them ourselves.

Ingredients

• 5 cups short grain rice - Tama Nishiki Short Grain Japonica Rice
• 5 cups water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup rice vinegar (not seasoned) - Mitsukan Rice Vinegar
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon Miring (sweet cooking saki) - Kikkoman Aji-Mirin
• 1 3 inch square of Kombu (giant kelp) - Shirakiku Itame Dashi Kombu

Instructions

• Wash and rinse rice several times in cold water until the water runs clear.
• Massage the rice with your hands while rinsing and remove any foreign material or dark hulls.
• Let the rice sit in the water for 20 minutes for absorption
• Cook rice in rice cooker

• Put vinegar, sugar, salt, Mirin and kombu in sauycepan and stir over low heat until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Do not boil. Remove the Kombu.
• Leave the Kombu in for at least 5 minutes.
• The sauce keeps for 3 weeks. Two months in the fridge
• Mix the rice with the vinegar mixture when the rice is very hot. Ok if it seems a little wet.
• Cool the rice and vinegar as fast as possible. Place the rice in a wide flat bowl (hangiri tub) and toss with horizontal cutting strokes to keep the grains separated. A large shallow wooden bowl is good for mixing rice as it allows the moisture to escape and the rice to accept the vinegar dressing. While tossing, sprinkle vinegar dressing generously over the rice. You may not need it all so be careful not to add so much liquid that the rice becomes mushy. To speed cooling, it is helpful to have an assistant fan the rice while you aare tossing. The tossing and fanning take about 10 minutes. Taste to test whether the rice is cool enough. Sushi rice should be a little greater than body temperature. Break it up every few minutes while cooling.
• If not using the sushi rice immediately, cover it with a damp cloth to keep it from drying out. Vinegared rice should be eaten the same day it is prepared, it does not keep more than 1 day. It should not be refrigerated.