How to Make Sushi Rice | Cook Sushi Rice in 10 Minutes

Today we’re going to learn how to cook sushi rice, and it’s not complicated but it’s likely not as simple and straightforward as most Western people might think it is due to the way that they’re used to preparing rice (instant rice, etc.).

First of all, you have to use the right kind of rice–anywhere outside Japan it will probably just be called “sushi rice”, and the most common brand that you’ll probably find in your grocery store is RiceSelect (which,

although it’s American, has gotten very good reviews on Amazon, where you can also order it along with various imported Japanese rices if you want to be as traditional as possible). The reason it has to be sushi rice is that only sushi rice has the correct balance of starches that will allow it to stick together so that it can be eaten with

chopsticks and used in rolls (if you’ve ever tried to eat medium or long grain rice with chopsticks then you know what I mean). The only required ingredients are granulated sugar, vinegar, salt, and the rice. In the video below they use a rice cooker like this one, which is what would normally be used in Japan for everyday meals, but you could just boil water in a pot instead like with normal rice as per the instructions that come with the rice, that’ll work fine as well. Alright, here’s what to do:

Additional Resources and Further Reading

If you really want to get into this the first book I’d recommend for you is The Complete Book of Sushi by Hideo Dekura, Brigid Treloar, Ryuichi Yoshii. I’ve read a dozen different books on Japanese cooking and none of them break down the techniques like this and make it so easy to understand, great pictures too.

Your next stop should definitely be sushifaq.com where they’ve got a great article on how to make sushi rice that I referenced.

Here’s another very short and simple recipe you can use to prepare sushi rice in case anything is unclear or you just want another perspective.