Sushi and Sake

[ShooterJM]

Hey, I'm planning on throwing together a bunch of sushi and sake for this weekend. So...any opinions on decent rice-cookers or good, relatively inexpensive, saki?

:D


**EDIT** Yeah, I'm a tard. Spelled sake wrong.

[cphilip]

well I do know a pot works as well as any of them fancy cookers. Its the type of rice that makes the real differnces. Sticky high starch is the one. Like Nashiki. There are several other ones. But that is the one I use. And then letting it cool naturaly is the key.

Here is how I do it:

Ratio is 2 parts water and 1 part rice. Pleanty of salt. No oil or fat at all. Start with cold water. Bring water and rice to boil for only a minute or so. Stir it good, Cover with tight lid and turn down to lowest on stove top setting (simmer). Time it for 10 minute and then turn off burner completely and set the covered pot off the burner and let it sit. DO NOT PEEK IN THERE! It has to finish steaming itself for a few mintues more and you will mess it up. It's gonna be done, trust me.

Do this at least two hours before wanting to prepare and just let it cool normaly after that put in fridge if you want it colder or to keep it overnight. yes you can [prepare the rice the day before. Stiff and holds toghether is what you want.

[ShooterJM]

Originally posted by cphilip
well I do know a pot works as well as any of them fancy cookers. Its the type of rice that makes the real differnces. Sticky high starch is the one. Like Nashiki. There are several other ones. But that is the one I use. And then letting it cool naturaly is the key.


Yeah, but I have this horrible knack of messing rice up. I can cook most anything else I've tried (except for the crepe incident), but the secret of rice eludes me. Do you use rice vinegar to help the rice stick together? Think I might try your way tonight, see if I can not screw that up! Besides, a store near me is having an awesome sale on fresh tuna!

:D

[Miscue]

Zojirushi is da bomb! Good rice cookers and other stuff.

[ShooterJM]

Originally posted by Miscue
Zojirushi is da bomb! Good rice cookers and other stuff.

Cool, this isn't the type of thing I'm going to have to special order or something like that is it? The brand I mean, just sounds like that's not something I'll be able to find in your average cookery store.

[cphilip]

No you use nothing else as the "right kind" of rice has the right consistency to stick together itself. There are several varities grown strickly for Sushi and that is one of them. Try the Nashiki. Its a "Sticky rice"

Seriously though carefull follow my directions and you will be fine. But stay right there with it until its off the stove. You can do it way ahead so you got plenty of time to mess up once. Once you master it you will do it almost instinctively. Steaming rice is no real big thing. All those cookers do is what I told you to do in a simple pot. You think all those orientals have a fancy rice cooker? No..they use a pot!

[ShooterJM]

Sweet! It's on my shopping list. Fortunately I have a great asian market within 10 minutes of my house! Any Sake suggestions (other then warm, highly refined, lots, and sake bombs)?

[Tactical Neural Implant]

I have to agree with Miscue (especially if you make a lot of rice.) get the Zojirushi or other Rice cooker. I have made rice using just a regular pot but the cookers are better. Mine keeps the rice warm for several hours after completion. I also agree with Cphilips suggestion to get quality rice, none of that Uncle Ben's crap! I refuse to eat that! (its a Asian pride thing!)



Oh ya don't forget the pickle ginger, soyu and wasabe! I also use a little rice wine vinigar in my rice for sushi.;)



Edit: get Gekkeikan brand sake!

[cris8762]

korean kim-bop..mmmmmmmmm anyone else here like korean food? i think it is THE BEST food next to Thai

[FooTemps]

I dunno about sake but I do know sushi....

If you really want good sushi rice then you have to steam it in a pot. Take the rice grains and wash them gently so you don't break the grains or it'll screw a lot of it up. Then do what cphil said but put a piece of cloth between the lid and the pot and rubber band the lid to the pot handles, it makes a better seal. Then bust out the rice vinegar and sugar! Put all the rice you need out onto a large flat bowl/plate/whatever and start mixing in the rice vinegar(MAKE SURE IT IS RICE VINEGAR). Use a cutting motion when mixing it in so you don't screw up the rice and you mix it evenly. Adjust the flavor until it's to your liking I guess. Then when you wrap your sushi, make sure to cut the sushi seaweed in half for smaller rolls.

[RT_Luver]

sushi is really good, but i dont know what sake is??

[FooTemps]

Originally posted by RT_Luver
sushi is really good, but i dont know what sake is??

Sake is japanese rice wine... good stuff imo. I usually sneak small tastes of it durin special ocassions.

[Mossman]

sake's sum good schtuff :). Only liquer that goes down smooth (or goes down at all), when its warmed up. Good sake is nice, but my parents dont know what there getting so sometimes its kinda gross.

Anyhow, its really really hard to mess up sushi rice. Get a pot or a pressure cooker and clean the rice, toss it in, i think its 2x water per 1x rice. Then let it sit for a few, and stir in the salt and sugar and rice vinegar.

Theres also this Kombu stuff you can put in that tasty's it up, but i dont remember when you put it in. Maybe when the rice is like 1/2 done or something, but i dont think at the very beginning or very end.

Sushi owns....its summer time and i'm tellin mama-dukes I'm makin sum soon. Goddamn raw tuna is good

[FooTemps]

Originally posted by Mossman
sake's sum good schtuff :). Only liquer that goes down smooth (or goes down at all), when its warmed up. Good sake is nice, but my parents dont know what there getting so sometimes its kinda gross.

Anyhow, its really really hard to mess up sushi rice. Get a pot or a pressure cooker and clean the rice, toss it in, i think its 2x water per 1x rice. Then let it sit for a few, and stir in the salt and sugar and rice vinegar.

Theres also this Kombu stuff you can put in that tasty's it up, but i dont remember when you put it in. Maybe when the rice is like 1/2 done or something, but i dont think at the very beginning or very end.

Sushi owns....its summer time and i'm tellin mama-dukes I'm makin sum soon. Goddamn raw tuna is good

u kno how to pickle fish!?!?! TEACH ME!!!
(yes, all raw seafood in sushi/sashimi is pickled to get rid of the nasty fishy smell in your food)

[masterninja]

Pickeled? If you pickle raw fish it becomes pickled fish! Here in Hawaii things like sushi and sashimi are everyday foods, we wouldn't touch it if it were pickled. When fish starts smelling fishy it's starting to age. If the fish smell is really strong you shouldn't eat it anyway. Fresh fish smells more like clean seawater.

[Mossman]

Footemps....I thought you were asian, plus you had a great way of making rice up top. Raw fish man! what the restaurants do is put the fish in the freezer for a while to kill any microbes and stuff, but Its not that necessary if you have a good fish store. We buy ours from a health food supermarket, and they make sushi there with their own fish, so we figure its fine and after maybe 20 times no ones gotten sick at all.

Anyhow...cut the raw fish...wrap it up...you have sushi.

Pickled fish....lol, ive had pickled herring, thats tasty, but tuna or salmon....OH wait..i had pickled salmon too...but its a little bite thing, not a sushi thing.

[ShooterJM]

Cphillip -- Ok. So I tried the whole rice thing. Still came out sticky and gooey. Is there something different I have to do because I'm at such a high altitude? Gonna go with a rice cooker.

Tactical Neural Implant -- Gekkeikan brand sake, I'll have to try that. Yeah sake and sake bombs with sushi are hard to beat!

Mossman -- Tuna is my favorite too! Overall I like sashimi better then the average sushi roll though.

[cphilip]

Well altitude does change the way it cooks and how long it is to boil but I cannot remember which way. Sticky is good. You need some sticky to hold shape and mold good. Gooey is... well... over cooked just a tad maybe? Sounds like shortening for altitude maybe? Then perhaps taking off burner in five minutes and allow to cool. There is a fine line between cooked and over cooked. If you are looking for a different consistency there are several other Varities of sushi rice types you may want to try. The Nashiki is cort of a border line one for steamed rice use and Sushi. Some of the others are strickly Sushi I think. Ask your marketer about them and if they have any special charicteristics that may need technic change. Sounds like you were very close to it though. Sticky is the rice with a larger starch content gooey is overcooked.

[ShooterJM]

Originally posted by cphilip
Well altitude does change the way it cooks and how long it is to boil but I cannot remember which way. Sticky is good. You need some sticky to hold shape and mold good. Gooey is... well... over cooked just a tad maybe? Sounds like shortening for altitude maybe? Then perhaps taking off burner in five minutes and allow to cool.

Cool I'll try that, before I buy a steamer. If that doesn't work, maybe I'll just have sashimi.

[ShooterJM]

Tried it again. Just can't cook rice. Amazing really. On the bright side found a steamer and rice cooker that has a timer on it! ie I can set it too cook so it'll be done when I get home from work! woohoo!

[MantisMag]

if your rice is gooey you added too much water. and altitude makes you need to cook longer. water boils at a lower temperature at high altitudes.

cphilip - i'm chinese and my family has a rice cooker. actually we have three in different sizes. it makes it easier because we can just set the rice to cook and then go about preparing everything else.

[Vex]

If you can find it, get awamori--it's Okinawan sake. Okinawa is known to have some of the purest and best water on the planet. Helios is a good brand. It shouldn't be too expensive--but if it is, it's worth it, and it's DAMN GOOD!!

Raw tuna is the schiznit!

Fun Fact: Okinawans have the longest average life span in the world (so it MUST be the water :D )