Summary
Many sushi chefs use rice cookers because of convenience. A.J. [Beatrice Han], sushi chef at Secret Garden, and [Bob Langkammerer] use them. Inexpensive and easy to use, most rice cookers run between $20 and $30 and allow sushi chefs both time and consistent quality, Langkammerer says. After rinsing the rice, which is an art form in and of itself, it takes about 35 to 45 minutes to cook. Langkammerer stresses the importance of making more rice than the recipe calls for because stopping mid-recipe to make more jeopardizes food safety. It's essential to handle the rice as quickly as possible, he says, because food can become contaminated if handled for long periods of time.
Before the rice is cooked, it must be rinsed, which removes some of the starch and affects stickiness. The more the rice is rinsed, the less sticky it becomes. Some sushi chefs rinse the rice only once, making the water look like thin skim milk, Langkammerer says. Others rinse it twice, which leaves the water semicolored and the rice semisticky. Langkammerer says he prefers the rice this way. And some even rinse it a third time, leaving the water colorless and the rice starchless.After the rice and sushi filling are made, it's time to roll. Han says he trained for about 1½ years to make sushi and he is now the sushi chef at Secret Garden. After slowly slicing the salmon's pink flesh into tiny pieces, he takes a handful of the sushi rice and quickly flattens it on top of a piece of dark green nori. The layer of rice is thin, and his fingers move quickly to create a uniform rice square-shaped patch, leaving a quarter-inch space between the rice and the nori edges.See the full content of this document
Extract
Paddy Cake
Talk about sushi often focuses on the buttery texture of the fish or the precision with which the sushi chef hand-rolls each piece encased in a paperlike seaweed known as nori. But the key ingredient that holds the exotic concoction together, sush...
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