Making sushi around our home is always a treat. One thing I’ve become quite particular about when eating sushi is the rice. I like mine well seasoned to complement a nice fat piece of hamachi, toro or scallop.

Here is my ultimate sushi rice recipe from one sushi lover to another.

A Sushi Lover’s Sushi Rice

  • 2 1/4 cups of sushi-style rice
  • 2 3/4 cups of water
  • 1/4 cup of rice vinegar
  • 1/5 cup of white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of salt

Having grown up eating rice, a rice cooking in our home is a kitchen essential. I recommend getting one, it beats standing in front of the stove stirring constantly. Here is a pretty inexpensive and simple to use rice cooker.

1. Place the rice in the rice cooker insert and fill with cold water. Rub the rice together with your hands and rinse the starch from the outside of the rice. The water should turn a milky white. Pour this water out and repeat until the water is almost clear. If you don’t do this step, your rice will have a gooey exterior when it’s cooked.

2. Next, drain the rice with a fine strainer and pour back into the rice cooker container insert. Add the 2 3/4 cups of water. Make sure the rice is level and turn on the rice cooker.

3. In a small saucepan, add the vinegar, sugar and salt. Stir the ingredients together and turn the stove on low heat. Let the mixture gently simmer until all the sugar and salt is dissolved. Set aside and let cool.

4. Once the rice is done, let it stand for 5-10 minutes. Then used a wide mouthed bowl and use a large wooden spoon to scrape the rice into the bowl.

5. Slowly add the vinegar, salt and sugar solution to the rice, using the wooden spoon to mix gently. Keep mixing until the rice is cool and all of the vinegar solution is incorporated.

If you are not using the rice right away, cover up with a damp cheese cloth or plastic wrap.

At this point, I love to pull some of the rice off and form a loose ball and pop it into my mouth. Yum! Your rice is now ready to be used with your raw fish and other ingredients for nigiri or maki sushi.

Loni Stark is an artist at Atelier Stark, self-professed foodie, and adventure travel seeker who has a lifelong passion for technology’s impact on business and creativity. She collaborates with Clinton Stark on video projects for Atelier Stark Films. It’s been said her laugh can be heard from San Jose all the way up to the Golden Gate Bridge. She makes no claims to super powers, although sushi is definitely her Kryptonite.