Chef Hidekazu Tojo of Tojo's restaurant shared his own sushi rice recipe in in the interest of sharing the love of Japanese food - and encouraging people to keep the love flowing in their own homes! Tojo's been feeding Vancouver diners for nearly 20 years and is legendary locally and abroad -- Tojo's Sushi Maki (recipe here) - an inside out California roll - is now on every menu across the land and sea! While Tojo's complex and beautiful creations are not all something you'd try to make at home, he did insist to me that DIY sushi is a wonderful thing, too. Keep your rolls simple. And the real key is making the rice the correct way.
Chef Tojo's Sushi Rice Recipe
Ingredients:
- 4 cups Japanes short-grained rice
- 3 TB Japanese rice vinegar
- 1 TB salt
- 1 TB sugar
- kelp
Method:
- Combine vinegar, salt and sugar. Add one 2-inch piece of kelp and store refrigerated in an airtight container. Mixture keeps indefinitely.
- Rinse rice 3 times in cold water, until the water runs clear.
- Cook rice according to package directions and let sit for 10 minutes after cooking.
- Spread warm rice in a shallow, flat container.
- Pour prepared vinegar mixture over warm rice. Mix with a wooden spoon in a slicing motion, fanning continuously until rice glistens.
- Allow rice to sit until steaming stops. Repeat slicing motion several times until the rice has cooled.
- Place rice in a container and cover with a damp towel. Rice is ready to use and will hold up to three hours.
Once your rice is done, you're ready to make Sushi Maki. Go on. Try it.
Originally published in The Globe and Mail
