There are, indeed, various forms of sushi that involve some degree of cooking. Eel, as you say, is always broiled or cooked in some way. It’s the sort of thing that I could normally never imagine eating except that with the wonderful presentation and flavouring of a great sushi chef, I’m all for it!
But there are indeed various forms of great sushi that aren’t raw fish. Some memorable examples from my favourite sushi bar are blowtorch-seared tuna belly, and straw-smoked tuna from Nova Scotia.
And I mentioned a personal favorite earlier which has no fish at all.
This doesn’t sound too bad, though still too time-consuming for impromptu sushi (uramaki and nigirizushi, anyway). Would have to plan ahead. I take it that the InstaPot is not necessary to your method – you just need to start off with a pot of cooked rice some way or another.
I’m a little curious why the vinegar, sugar and salt couldn’t be boiled with the rice (on a stovetop, say) and impart that “sushi rice flavor” to the rice while it’s cooking. But I guess if that worked, people would be doing it.
I made some last night for the first time (maybe inspired by this thread), and after reading a few recipes, ended up using Alton Brown’s instructions for sushi rice. There are more involved recipes out there, with more ingredients, but this turned out pretty tasty and well within the spectrum of “correct” with almost no effort. His recipe is basically:
I have a rice cooker, so didn’t follow the first two (of the three) steps which are basically instructions to cook the rice in a normal fashion.
He calls for 1.5 tsp of salt, but I just used two pinches, after seeing some reviews of the recipe that found it too salty.
I also added a splash more than the 2tb of rice wine vinegar to get the sugar to dissolve more easily. I should add that the function of microwaving/heating the vinegar and sugar combo is to dissolve the sugar.
But basically 5min of total active time (depending on how adept you are at cooking rice on the stovetop) and at max 40 minutes total. Of course, you probably want to cool the rice a bit before rolling, so that will add some time between cooking and sushi assembly.
This is excellent, thank you!
On a day I’m working from home, I could make the sushi rice early in the day and then have it on hand to roll at dinner time. None of this “fanning the rice repeatedly over the course of several days”.
Interesting to me: I had always assumed that sushi rice was unrinsed before cooking – the better to make sure it’s sticky enough to roll or to form into rectangular bricks for nigirizushi. Instead, the sugar in the vinegar-sugar-salt mixture must do the job of helping the rice grains stick together enough to roll.
I think (though could be corrected) that if anything the vinegar makes the rice less sticky, it’s not structurally necessary. I rinsed but not as thoroughly as I do with regular long grain rice. And, short grain rice is by its nature stickier/starchier than long grain rice, which is why it’s used for sushi and similar.
Thinking on it some, even without the surface starch … the act of rolling/pressing the rice grains might “burst” the individual grains a bit and release enough starch to render the rice sticky enough. Similar in concept to mashing individual cooked beans into refried beans (but not mashing the rice that much).
Mostly it’s the type of rice. Short-grain rice of the type used for sushi tends to be sticky because of its high amylopectin content. It would be just about impossible to make sushi with basmati rice or something similar. It just wouldn’t hold together.
There are types of rice even stickier than Japanese sushi rice. Thai sticky rice, which you can get in some Thai restaurants, is so sticky that you can form it into balls and use it to soak up thin sauces, similar to how you can use bread to soak up gravy. Thai sticky rice is too sticky for sushi.
Knife and raw fish…slice
Rice is for carb lovers.
By definition sushi includes rice.
Indeed, etymologically speaking, the word sushi historically refers to a vinegared rice mixture that was used to preserve fish — i.e., not the fish, but the rice itself specifically. People who eat just raw fish alone and say they’re eating “sushi” are making a common mistake.
Yes. And there are common types of sushi that contain no fish, like inarizushi (a pouch of fried tofu filled with sushi rice).
For the record, i adore inari sushi, and often order it. And that’s one i wouldn’t try to make at home, because i have no clue how to make the tofu skin.
I can’t speak for how inarizushi is made, but sheets of tofu skin are available at our local Chinese supermarket (for making Chinese dishes).
https://www.tntsupermarket.com/eng/51785601-full-fortune-bean-curn-sheet.html
You buy it pre-made. If you want, you can lightly blanch it in hot water or blot it (because it’s deep-fried tofu and absorbed cooking oil like a sponge), but preparation can be nothing more than opening the package.
And to complete the correction, what you’re describing is sashimi, not sushi.