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Sushi Rice Recipe (with Vegan Sushi Ideas)

Sushi Rice Recipe (with Vegan Sushi Ideas)

Sushi Rice Recipe

To become a real sushi chef, it takes more than 10 years of training. 
But to enjoy sushi at home, you can start right now!
In Japan, maki rolls are made at home for gatherings or a saturday evening activity at home with the family.
Once the sushi rice is made, you just need to add the toppings you like which is not only for raw fish but you can basically mix and match it with whatever you like. 
Avocados, eggs, vegetables, sausages, mayonnaise ... this might not sound like the typical sushi you will imagine but this is the modern Japanese home made sushi in reality.

To make the basic sushi rice there are 4 important ingredients.
First is the short grain white rice

Normally I do like to use brown rice but when it comes to sushi making, you'll need the rice to stick together and it is hard to get that stickiness with brown rice. 
So please go for white rice when you are making sushi or onigiri. Also it is important to use short grain rice. Long grain is great for fried rice but it is hard to keep them in a shape when making sushi. 
In the recipe, I used 5% less water for cooking the rice. That is because we will add vinegar later with the flavors and if the rice is cooked with the normal amount of water, it will be come too wet when you add the flavors.


Rice vinegar will be the key ingredient for the sushi rice. I like to use the brown rice vinegar in particular. If you cannot get hold of the rice vinegar, apple cider vinegar will do the job too.

White sugar is one of the most used ingredients for Japanese cooking. Sometimes I find it way too sweet for my liking so I try to reduce the amount of sugar or replace it with healthier options. For sushi rice, I swap the white sugar with cane sugar. Sometimes I even go for coconut sugar but this will make the rice look brown so if you want the rice to look white, avoid using dark colored sugars. It will not be the same without the sugar but if you are really uncomfortable adding sugar to your rice, you can skip this.

And the last ingredient is salt. I love using sea salt for Japanese cooking but any natural salt will be great. 
As you can see, sushi rice is a sweet, sour and salty flavored rice.

Here are some tools that may come in handy.

Kai Thick Maki Roll Mold
This is the tool we used in the video to make the maki roll. It's designed so that you can "sandwich' the fillings in the mold with rice and pop it out on the nori sheet to roll it up. Great fun to make this with kids.

KAI Maki Sushi Cup - Ball Shape

Another fun tool to have when making the round temari sushi balls. Just add the sushi rice in and shake it! 
Top it with fish or vegetables of your choice. Temari sushi is a small round sushi that can be served like canapes and great for home parties.

Kai Nigiri Sushi Mold
prepare 10 pieces of nigiri sushi in one go!  
Put rice in the mold and cover. Turn the lid over and put the rice blocks on a plate and top it with fish or veggies to serve.  




Sushi Rice Recipe
(Will make 3 large Nori Maki Rolls) 

Ingredients 
300g, Short Grain Rice (White Rice will be easier to make Rolls) 
425g, Filtered Water to cook the Rice

4 Tbsp., Brown Rice Vinegar
3 Tbsp., Cane Sugar
1 tsp., Natural Salt

 

Tools that might be useful to make this recipe
Kai Thick Maki Roll Mold
KAI Maki Sushi Cup - Ball Shape
Kai Nigiri Sushi Mold
KAI Smart Design Rice Paddle 15cm


Instructions

  1. Rinse the rice and let is soak for 30 minutes. Cook the rice in a rice cooker with reduced water ( I use 5% less water than normal rice recipe).

  2. Prepare the vinegar, sugar and salt in a small bowl and mix well. the sugar may not dissolve but that is fine. (It will melt when mixed with the hot rice).

  3. Once the rice is cooked, transfer it to a large bowl and pour the sushi rice seasoning into the bowl and mix well with the rice spatula. The best way to mix if to use the "cutting motion" so that you don't destroy the rice shape. If you can use a fan to cool the rice while mixing that will be even better!.
  4. Once the rice becomes shiny and well mixed, it is ready! You can use the mold to shape the rice and add the toppings you like.

To share some vegan sushi ideas...
Temari sushi

This is what we made in the video. My original idea was to make a "toro" sushi with the grilled red peppers but Chef Misa prefered the simple style with minimum toppings. 

 

vegan sushi

This  was the nigiri sushi I had in mind.

vegan sushi recipe

...And this was the reality.  
You can see that Chef Misa is a minimalist. The two on the left is for mommy which has sliced cucumber with umeboshi plum paste and again roasted red peppers with shiso from our indoor garten on top.

Maki rolls

Here are the maki rolls with the star shaped okra in the middle with plenty of sesame seeds on top.

vegan sushi feast

Ready to serve!


little chef
...And Chef Misa crashing right after the filming! 

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