Recipe: 5 Original Ways To Cook Rice

Rice: The staple food of Japan!

Rice is the basic ingredient in Japanese cooking. When making Japanese food, cook rice as the  Japanese do. If you want to make good Japanese food, you will need to learn how to make good  Japanese rice. To get started, buy short grained Japanese rice.

Method 1: Cooking Steamed Rice

To cook steamed rice, you need to make sure that the quantity of water is slightly more than rice  e.g. for 2 cups of rice you will need to add 2 1/4 cups of water. Wash the rice with cold water  repeatedly until the water becomes clear. Now set the rice aside for half an hour. Now take out  the rice and water in a pot. Cover with a lid and cook on high heat until the water comes to a boil.  Lower the heat and cook until all the water is gone, approximately twenty minutes. Turn off the  heat and let it stand for fifteen minutes. Now uncover the pot and use a wooden spatula to gently  fluff the rice. Your Japanese-style steamed rice is ready to be served.

Steamed Rice (Credit for images copyrighted by JNTO)

Method 2: Sushi Rice 1

Cook rice exactly as you cooked steamed rice but substitute the water with dashi stock. Cook and  cool the rice as directed above. Take a large wooden dish or a hangiri and shift the rice into it. Take  a wooden spatula and season the rice with sushi vinegar, salt and sugar. Spread and cool the rice by  means of the spatula and a fan. You can now use the sushi rice to make perfect sushi rolls.

Method 3: Sushi Rice 2

Just because you can’t find sushi vinegar doesn’t mean you can’t cook sushi rice. To make a vinegar mix for sushi rice you will need:

• Rice vinegar – ¼ cup
• Salt – to taste
• Sugar – 1 tablespoon
• Brandy
• Mirin – ½ tablespoon

Mix all the ingredients in a saucepan and cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Remove  from heat and cool. Substitute this vinegar mix in place of sushi vinegar and cook rice as directed  above.

Sushi (Credit for images copyrighted by JNTO)

Method 4: Cooking Rice in a Frying Pan

To cook two cups of rice, you will need an 11-inch non-stick pan with a lid. Wash and soak the rice  as directed in method 1. Set the frying pan on high heat and bring the water to a boil and then use  a rice spatula to stir the rice. Lower the heat and let the water get absorbed. Turn off the heat and let  the rice stand for 10 minutes with the lid on.

Method 5: Cooking Rice in Rice Cooker

The simplest and easiest way to cook perfect Japanese rice is by means of a rice cooker. You can  easily purchase a rice cooker from the appropriate section of your local supermarket.

Author profile:

Andrew Black loves cooking and especially Japanese food. When he is not blogging, Andrew  distributes sushi robots and noodle machines

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