The Ultimate Rice Cooker (33 page)
Boiled Italian Rice
MACHINE: Large (10-cup) rice cooker: on/off o n l y
CYCLE: Regular
YIELD: Serves 3 to 4
2½ quarts water
Pinch of salt
1¼ cups medium-grain risotto rice (
superfino
Arborio, Carnaroli, or Vialone nano)
½ to ¾ cup freshly grated or shredded Parmesan cheese, to your taste, plus more for serving
2 to 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, to your taste
Freshly ground black pepper
1. Place the water and salt in the rice cooker bowl (we fill to the 6- to 7-cup line on the inside of the bowl). Set for the regular cycle and bring the water to a rolling boil, 5 to 7 minutes.
2. Add the rice in a steady stream, stirring with a wooden spoon. Bring the water back to a boil and set a timer for 18 minutes. Boil the rice the entire time, uncovered. When the timer sounds, check the rice; you want it tender with a bit of bite, just like spaghetti. Cook for a few minutes longer, if necessary, until the desired texture is reached.
3. Turn off the cooker by unplugging it. Using oven mitts, carefully remove the full rice bowl from the machine. Drain the rice through a fine strainer into the sink, then pour the rice into a medium-size serving bowl. Immediately stir in the cheese and butter. Serve hot with more cheese and black pepper on the side.
Japanese home cooks make sushi often, but not the little fish-topped rice logs, called
nigiri
sushi, that are perhaps the most common sushi bar offerings. The word
sushi
, in fact, refers not to fish but to the vinegar-dressed rice that is the basis for a wide variety of sushi dishes.
Nigiri
sushi is deemed too hard to make at home. The sushi chef’s special training is required for almost every step of the process—shaping the rice just so, cutting the fish properly, and so on. Home cooks have their own versions of sushi. Japanese home cooks prepare:
Maki sushi
—seaweed-wrapped rolls that are sliced to expose the carefully arranged fillings inside.
Hand rolls
—the sushi rice is spread on a piece of seaweed, topped with fillings (you can use the fillings detailed below under the
maki
section), and casually rolled up in an ice-cream cone shape to be eaten out of hand.
Inari zushi
—the rice is stuffed into hollow little “pockets” made from fried tofu. This is great lunch box and picnic food.
Chirashi sushi
—like a rice salad, a sort of sushi in a bowl.
A NOTE ABOUT STORAGE
A NOTE ABOUT RAW FISH
For any form of sushi, the first step is the rice, which your rice cooker will allow you to prepare perfectly. Many rice cookers made for the Japanese market have a special Sushi cycle. Even if your cooker doesn’t have this cycle, you can use it to make great sushi rice.
This is a basic recipe for rice cooker sushi rice. The amount of the vinegar dressing—and the manner in which it is seasoned with salt and sugar—is subject to both regional and personal variation. Sushi rice is said to be made saltier in the Tokyo area, sweeter near Osaka. Individual cooks vary the sugar and salt to suit their own tastes. The type of rice you use is very important; it will be labeled “short-grain” or “medium-grain” and you want a Japanese-style medium-grain rice, not a risotto or Carolina medium-grain rice. An excellent, but somewhat expensive, brand is Tamaki Gold from Williams Rice Milling Company of Williams, California. Other favorites that are good, and likely to be slightly cheaper, are Kokuho Rose and Nishiki. If you can’t find them, look for rice labeled “new variety” or “sushi rice.” Calrose is okay if you can’t find anything else.
It is traditional to use a wooden bowl to mix your sushi rice because the wood absorbs excess moisture. This mixing tub is called a
han giri
, and it looks like half of a very flat wine barrel. It is made of a wood from the paulownia tree and banded with copper strips.
Han giri
are expensive, but new ones are easily available in Japanese hardware stores or large Asian markets. You can also use any large wooden bowl that isn’t oily and doesn’t smell like salad dressing. If you don’t have a wooden bowl that is pristine, a medium-large plastic, metal, or glass bowl works fine.
You will also need something to blow cool air on the rice while you mix it. A hand fan or a folded-up newspaper is okay in a pinch, but many Japanese home cooks just aim an electric fan at the bowl. One friend uses a hair dryer set on “cool.” That delivers a nicely focused stream of air and is especially good if you have a friend there to hold it steady. (A blow dryer or a hand fan is tricky to juggle by yourself.)
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic or on/off
CYCLE: Regular or Sushi
YIELD: 51/ 2 cups loosely packed rice
2¼ cups (3 rice cooker cups) high-quality Japanese-style short- or medium-grain rice
About 2¼ cups water
2 tablespoons sake
¼ cup rice vinegar
1½ to 2 tablespoons sugar, to your taste
1 teaspoon salt
1. Wash the rice thoroughly. Place the rice in the rice cooker bowl and fill the bowl about half-full with cold tap water. Swirl the rice in the water with your hand. Carefully pour off most of the water, holding one cupped hand under the stream to catch any grains of rice carried away with the water. Holding the bowl steady with one hand, use the other to rub and squeeze the wet rice, turning the bowl as you go so that all the rice is “scrubbed.” (One friend calls this giving the rice a massage, and you definitely do want to use some muscle power.) The small amount of water in the bowl will turn chalky white. Now, run cold water into the bowl, give the rice a quick swish, and carefully drain off the water as before. Repeat the scrubbing and pouring-off process twice more. By the third time, the water you pour off will be nearly clear.
2. Add the cooking water. Some cooks like to use bottled water; do this if you are not crazy about the taste of your tap water. (Note that you are using slightly less water than the regular 3-cup level marker on your cooker bowl; the exact amount depends on how much water remains in your washed and drained rice.) Let the rice soak in the rice cooker bowl for 30 minutes if your machine has a built-in soak period, 45 minutes if it doesn’t.
3. Add the sake to the rice. Close the cover and set for the regular or Sushi cycle.
4. While the rice is cooking, prepare the vinegar mixture. In a small saucepan, combine the vinegar, sugar, and salt. Simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally, just until the salt and sugar melt. Or you can heat the vinegar mixture in a micro wave oven. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
5. While the rice is cooking, lay out the following items around your workspace. When the rice is done, you will have to act quickly, so everything should be assembled and available within arm’s reach.
a clean dishcloth or cloth napkin, rinsed in cool water and wrung out
a
han giri
, a clean bowl, wooden (if it is pristine), plastic, metal, or glass (if your bowl is wooden, rinse it out with cool water to prevent the rice from sticking)