Making sushi rolls

(I totally wish these were mine, but no, the picture came from this site)

Maya’s history class is studying medieval cultures this year. Right now, they’re studying medieval Japanese culture, and they had ‘Japan Day’ today in class. The kids worked in stations, learning about Japanese brush painting, scroll making, origami, and sushi making. Since I’m out of work, I decided to volunteer, and I was assigned the sushi station. We went to a quick training session on Monday, where they showed us how to make the sushi rolls. They gave us a recipe for sushi rice, asked us to finely slice a million bits of carrot and cucumber, and sent us home. So, last night found me making rice, which I mixed with rice wine vinegar, a bit of sugar, and a touch of salt. The instructions said, “DO NOT REFRIGERATE”, and the person teaching us how to make the rice said it was fine to leave it out overnight. So I did.

But then this morning, while I was walking the dog, I started thinking about bacteria, and what it might do in a big batch of warm, slightly damp rice overnight. So I panicked, picturing 30 kids with diarrhea tonight, coming to school tomorrow and telling Maya, “Your mom tried to poison me!” So off to the store I ran to buy rice and sugar (I was out), and I made a fresh batch of rice this morning. I have a rice maker, which I don’t generally use. I usually just cook rice on the stove top. But with getting Maya to school, getting myself showered and dressed and so on, I decided to use the rice maker, which seemed much easier and required a lot less attention than the stove top way. Thankfully, it worked out, and I cooked the rice, mixed it with the vinegar, sugar, and salt, cooled it enough, sorted it into bags, and ran off to the school. I got there with at least 3 minutes to spare, and I felt safe that I wasn’t going to kill or even abuse any children with my rice. Whew!

I told my story to the other sushi mom, and she said that the vinegar prevents bacteria from attacking the rice, so it would have been fine to leave it out. Anyone know if this is true? Anyway, our sushi was inside out rolls with just a bit of veggies, no fish. The people in the class before us had crab in theirs, but it didn’t occur to me to bring crab or anything fancy like that, so we just had what I was told to bring.

The kids had a great time, and were surprised at how tasty the rolls were. Someone brought some soy sauce and wasabi for the kids. I wish I could have taken pictures of the kids tasting wasabi for my blog. It was hilarious, with bright red faces and lots of laughter and fanning of mouths. I’m glad I was able to volunteer.

In case you’re interested, the recipe for the rice is as follows (this makes enough rice for 30 kids to each make one small roll)

Ingredients:
6 cups short-grain Japanese rice (Calrose Rice)
2/3 cup rice vinegar
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions on the stove top:

1. Rinse the rice 5 times and place it in a colander to drain.
2. Place rice in a heavy covered saucepan and allow to sit for 1/2 hour.
3. Add 7 cups of water.
4. Place the pan on high heat and when the rice begins to boil, let boil for 2 minutes, lid off.
5. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook for 15 minutes.
6. Remove from heat and let the rice cool for 10 minutes, lid on.

Directions in a rice cooker

1. Rinse the rice 5 times and place it in a colander to drain.
2. Place rice in rice cooker.
3. Add 7 cups of water.
4. Turn the rice cooker on and let the rice cook.
5. When the rice is done, let it cool for 10 minutes, lid on.

Once the rice is cooked, both versions:

1. Mix the rice vinegar, sugar, and salt until everything dissolves.
2. Pour liquid onto rice, and stir with a wooden spoon, fanning all of the time.  This is easier if you move the rice into a wider container, as your goal is to cool the rice while you mix.
3. Stir and fan at the same time for about 3 minutes.  You can use an electric fan or blow drier to fan the rice while you are mixing (I skipped the fan, just mixed, using a folding technique that I thought would cool the rice faster than a regular stir.)  The faster you can mix the liquid in and cool the rice, the better.
4. The rice is now complete.  Keep it in the pan under a moist towel.  DO NOT REFRIGERATE.

Now it’s time to roll your inside out sushi, with whatever ingredients you decide you want.  I found a useful tutorial here.