The Ultimate Rice Cooker (36 page)

The vinegar dressing Sharon uses is much sweeter and more abundant than that used in the
maki
sushi recipe, which we learned from a Tokyo-born cook. Sharon’s seasoned shiitake mushrooms, too, are sweeter and much less salty. If you like the Osaka-style sushi rice, by all means use these vinegar dressing proportions to make rice for
maki
sushi, hand rolls or
inari zushi
.

MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) or large (10 cup) rice cooker; fuzzy logic or on/off

CYCLE: Regular or Sushi

YIELD: Serves 10 to 12

RICE

4⅛ cups (5½ rice cooker cups) high-quality sushi rice

About 4⅛ cups water

¾ cup rice vinegar

¾ cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

INGREDIENT LAYERS

Kampyo
(
dried gourd strips
)

Grated Carrots

Seasoned Shiitake Mushrooms

Peas or snow peas

Japanese Omelet

1 teaspoon to 3 to 4 tablespoons red pickled ginger strips (
beni shoga
), to your taste

About ¼ ounce shredded nori (
kizami
nori
) (about 1 loosely packed cup)

1.
Make the rice:
Wash it as directed for Sushi Rice. Place the rice in the rice cooker bowl. If your machine has a Sushi cycle, add the amount of water directed. If not, add the water so that it’s under the 5-cup water line in the rice bowl (about 41.8 cups). Soak the rice for about 30 minutes. Set for the regular or Sushi cycle.

2. In a small saucepan, combine the vinegar, sugar, and salt and heat on the stove or in a micro wave oven just until the sugar and salt melt. Let the mixture cool. (If you’re short on time, cool quickly by placing the container in a larger bowl of ice water.)

3. When the rice is ready, prepare it as described in steps 6 and 7 for Sushi Rice. Cover it with a clean, damp towel and leave at room temperature until you are ready to proceed.

4. Uncover your prepared rice and add the prepared
kampyo
, mushrooms, and carrots. Mix well with a dampened rice spatula, holding the spatula vertically and using the same cutting and lifting motions you did to mix the rice and vinegar.

5. Arrange the rice in a large serving bowl. Smooth the top without smashing the rice. Top the rice with the peas in a single layer, then with the omelet strips. Arrange a few red pickled ginger strips decoratively on top of the omelet strips or just make a little pile in the center.

6. Just before serving (you don’t want it to get soggy), sprinkle on the nori strips. If you can’t find
kizami nori
, buy
ajitsuke nori
(seasoned) in strips and use scissors to cut the strips into fine shreds.

Chirashi
sushi can be made several hours ahead of time. If you are making
chirashi
sushi 2 hours or less before you intend to serve it, complete the dish up through the ginger topping and let it rest, tightly covered, at cool room temperature. Add the nori just before serving.

If you must make
chirashi
sushi 2 to about 8 hours ahead, complete the recipe up through adding the peas. Store the
chirashi
sushi tightly covered at room temperature. An oversize plastic container with a snap-on lid is perfect for this—authentic Tupperware will preserve it best. Refrigerate the omelet strips, tightly covered. When you are ready to serve, finish assembling the dish, adding the nori at the very last minute.

kampyo (dried gourd strips)

These are white strips of a dried gourd; the long strands look like fettuccine. They must be soaked with salt to soften, then cooked and seasoned before use. They may look strange, and they’re a bit of work to prepare, but they are moist, sweet, and delicious. You can find
kampyo
in plastic packets on the shelf in Asian markets.

About 1 ounce
kampyo

4 teaspoons salt

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons sugar

2 to 3 tablespoons soy sauce, to your taste

¼ cup Sharon’s Dashi

1 tablespoon sake

1. Place the
kampyo
in a bowl with the salt and 2 tablespoons of the water. Knead it with your hands for a few minutes, rubbing the salt into the strips. Add the remaining 1 cup of water and let soak for 20 minutes.

2. Massage the softened
kampyo
strips with your fingers, smoothing out any that are curled up. Drain the salted water from the bowl, add fresh cool water to the bowl, and massage the
kampyo
underwater to remove as much salt as possible. Drain and rinse again.

3. Place the
kampyo
in a small saucepan with the sugar, soy sauce, dashi, and sake.

Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover the
kampyo
(not the pan) with a circle of parchment paper cut just a bit smaller than the diameter of the pan; a small saucer; the lid to a slightly smaller pan; or an
otoshi buta
, a flat wooden drop lid designed to keep simmering items submerged and yet allow some steam to escape. (They are sold in several sizes in Japanese markets or hardware stores.) Let the
kampyo
cook about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid is absorbed. The
kampyo
will be shiny and amber-colored. It should be tender, not rubbery; if it’s not tender, cook it longer. Drain.

4. When the
kampyo
is cool enough to work with, line up the strands on a cutting board, and dice.

grated carrots

1 large or 2 medium-size carrots

1½ cups Sharon’s Dashi

¼ teaspoon salt

1. Peel and grate the carrots.

2. Bring the dashi and salt to a boil in a small saucepan. Add the carrots. When the liquid returns to a boil, immediately drain the carrots and run cold water over them to stop the cooking.

seasoned shiitake mushrooms

6 large dried shiitake mushrooms

½ cup Sharon’s Dashi

⅓ cup soy sauce

¼ cup sugar

3 tablespoons sake

CLICK TO SEE ALTERNATE TOPPINGS FOR CHIRASHI SUSHI

1. Place the mushrooms in a small bowl;add warm water to just cover. Let the mushrooms soak until softened, 2 to 4 hours at room temperature. (If you are short on time, soak in hot water for 1 hour, or cover the bowl of mushrooms and water tightly with plastic wrap and micro wave for 2 minutes on high. Allow to cool before proceeding.)

2. Drain and cut the mushrooms into 1.8inch-wide strips, or as thinly as possible, discarding the stems.

3. Combine the dashi, soy sauce, sugar, and sake in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. When the mixture boils, add the mushroom slices and stir. Reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover the mushrooms (not the pan) with a circle of parchment paper cut just a bit smaller than the diameter of the pan, a small saucer, the lid to a slightly smaller pan, or an
otoshi buta
, a flat wooden drop lid designed to keep simmering items submerged and yet allow some steam to escape. (They are sold in several sizes in Japanese markets or hardware stores.) Let the mushrooms simmer slowly for about 20 minutes. Most of the liquid will be absorbed or evaporated and the mushrooms will have turned a caramel color. Drain any remaining liquid.

peas

1½ cups Sharon’s Dashi

1 teaspoon salt

One 12-ounce package frozen petite peas

Bring the dashi and salt to a boil in a medium-size saucepan. Add the peas and cook briefly, about 1 minute, just until thawed and separate. Drain the peas and cool quickly under cold running water.

snow peas:
Substitute 2 cups snow peas, trimmed of tough strings and sliced on the diagonal into 1/4-inch-wide strips.

japanese omelet

2 large or extra-large eggs

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine) or sake (for a less sweet omelet)

Pinch of salt

1 teaspoon mild vegetable oil

1. Lightly beat the eggs in a small bowl with the sugar, mirin, and salt.

2. Coat a 10-inch nonstick skillet with the oil. Heat the skillet over low heat. Pour in the egg mixture, cover the skillet, and cook, undisturbed, until the egg is set but not browned, about 2 minutes, or longer, if needed.

3. Flip the omelet out of the pan and onto a cutting board. (If the omelet is cooked through, it should pop right out.) A perfect omelet will be all yellow, with no browned spots.

4. When the omelet is cool enough to handle, cut into 2-inch-wide strips. Stack the strips and slice into thin slivers.

THE BASICS: RISOTTO IN THE RICE COOKER

There are three distinct steps to making risotto: cooking the onion and rice, adding the stock and other ingredients, and adding the butter and cheese to finish, known as “creaming.” Note that Arborio rice is never washed; you want all the starch to make the creamy dish just right.

1. Risotto must be made by first sautéing chopped onion in butter (or half butter and half olive oil), then sautéing the rice in the hot fat. You can sauté the onion and rice right in the rice cooker bowl before adding the liquid; then it will just finish cooking on the Porridge or regular cycle. If you have a nonstick rice cooker bowl, you can use a bit less fat.

Place the butter, in pieces, in the rice cooker bowl. Set the bowl into the machine body. Plug in. Set the rice cooker to start the Porridge or regular cycle (use the Quick Cook cycle if your regular cycle has a built-in soaking period). The butter will melt in 1 to 2 minutes. Leave the cover open or off (some cookers will shut off if the cover is left off). Add the chopped onion, leeks, or shallots; cook until soft and any liquid they exude has evaporated, stirring a few times. Add wine, if using, and cook to burn off the alcohol, a minute or two. Add the measured amount of rice to the hot fat and stir with a wooden or plastic rice paddle or wooden spoon. The rice will gradually heat up and gently sizzle. Stir occasionally, and gently, with the wooden spoon or rice paddle. Give the rice a full 3 to 5 minutes to cook and coat the grains, just like for a pilaf. This precooks the outer coating of the rice to keep the grains separate and release their amylopectin, while slowly absorbing and cooking in the aromatic stock later on.

2. Add the stock and any other ingredients as specified in the recipe. Stir a few times. Close the cover and reset for the Porridge cycle, if your machine has it, or the regular cycle. While cooking, open the cooker once or twice and stir gently, but this is optional. If you are using an on/off cooker or one without a Porridge cycle, set a timer for 20 minutes to time the cooking.

3. At the end of the Porridge cycle or when the timer sounds, turn off the machine or unplug it to stop cooking. If the risotto is too thick, add ¼ to ½ cup stock; if it is too soupy, allow it to cook longer, checking at 5-minute intervals. When the rice is
al dente
and the texture is like that of oatmeal, it is ready. Stir the risotto a few times, adding the butter and cheese, if using. Serve immediately in shallow soup bowls with more Parmesan cheese for sprinkling (use as much as you like) and the pepper grinder. If you’re not ready to serve, you can hold the risotto on the Keep Warm cycle for up to an hour, stirring in the butter and cheese right before serving.