80 min · Vegan · Pantry staple · For beginners
Sumeshi
In German: Sushi-Reis · In English: Sushi rice
For 4 servings · US units
Seasoned sushi rice with kombu — glossy, separate grains, still hand-warm
Sumeshi is the vinegared rice every piece of sushi is built on: the base for maki, chirashi and nigiri. The rice cooks with a piece of kombu, then gets folded with seasoned vinegar in a dampened wooden tub and fanned until it turns hand-warm and glossy. For a festive sushi platter — at spring celebrations, say — it's worth making your own, without rushing.
Ingredients
- 10½ oz2 go, washed and drainedJapanese short-grain rice, often sold as sushi rice, which cooks up soft and slightly sticky.Substitute: Californian medium-grain rice comes very close and is often cheaper. Pudding rice is also short-grain but turns too soft and mushy, and risotto rice keeps a firmer core; both are only a stopgap, while long-grain rice such as basmati or jasmine does not stick and will not work.Read more
- 1½ cupswaterfor cooking the rice, measured slightly short
- 1about 5 x 5 cm, wiped, cooked with the rice and removed afterwardsCaution: Kombu is very high in iodine, so it is best used mainly for making stock rather than eaten in large amounts, especially by people with thyroid conditions.Dried kelp, a brown seaweed sold in stiff, dark green sheets; the foundation of the Japanese stock dashi.Substitute: There is no true substitute. A pinch of MSG supplies the savouriness but not the taste of the sea or the depth; instant dashi granules come close in flavour but usually contain fish, which rules them out for vegetarian dishes.Read more
- ¼ cupfor the seasoned vinegarA mild, faintly sweet vinegar made from rice, much gentler than wine vinegar.Substitute: Light cider vinegar or white wine vinegar, thinned with a little water and rounded off with a pinch of sugar, comes close. It tastes slightly fruitier and sharper, and the difference shows most in sushi rice and delicate dressings.Read more
- 2½ tbspsugardissolve completely in the vinegar
- 1 tspsaltfor the seasoned vinegar
- 1½ tbspadded to the rice cooking water (optional)Japanese rice wine, used in cooking mainly to round out flavours, tame fishy notes and add umami.Substitute: Dry sherry or Chinese Shaoxing wine come closest but bring their own stronger flavour; mirin is not a substitute because it is distinctly sweet.Read more
Method
- Wash the short-grain rice in several changes of water until the water stays more or less clear, then let it soak for about 30 minutes, drain, and leave it briefly in the sieve.
- Put the rice in a pot or rice cooker with the slightly short measure of water, lay the wiped piece of kombu on top, and cook. If you like, add the sake to the cooking water.
- Meanwhile, stir the rice vinegar with the sugar and salt until the sugar has dissolved completely.
- Let the cooked rice steam, covered, then take off the lid and lift out the kombu.
- Dampen a wooden tub (hangiri) or a large bowl and wipe it out with a cloth soaked in a mixture of water and vinegar. Tip in the rice and spread it out flat.
- Pour the seasoned vinegar over the rice across the back of the rice paddle, so it doesn't soak into one spot.
- Fold the rice with cutting motions, lifting from the bottom, breaking up any clumps without crushing the grains.
- As you mix, fan the rice with a fan or a piece of cardboard until it is hand-warm and glossy.
- Cover the sumeshi with a damp cloth and leave it at room temperature until you use it.
Tips and variations
Instead of mixing the vinegar yourself, you can use ready-made sushi vinegar — about 4 tbsp for 2 go of rice. In a rice cooker, let the rice sit with the lid closed for a further 15 minutes after the programme ends; once mixed, the sumeshi can rest under a well-wrung cloth for about 2 hours. For a plainer version, leave out the kombu and work with just rice and seasoned vinegar. Nice for serving: press the rice into a tin lined with cling film, cut it into pieces and top them as mosaic sushi.
Allergens
Not every ingredient in this recipe has been checked, so nothing is promised as free from.
These notes follow from this recipe's ingredient list. Ready-made products and brands may contain further allergens — please check the packaging yourself.
Something not right?
This recipe was put together from independent sources and checked before publishing. Even so, a mistake can slip through — an amount that does not add up, a step that does not work as written. If you spot something, write to us: we will look into it and put it right.
