Recipe

Nigiri-zushi

24 pieces (2–3 servings) · prep 60 min · cook 20 min (rice)

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• lunch
• dinner
• japanese
• pescatarian

Authored by the maintainer; Edomae method scaled to a home cook with no sushi knife and a fishmonger they trust.

Ingredients

the rice

• 400 g short-grain Japanese rice (Koshihikari) — Niigata Koshihikari farm
• 440 ml cold water (1.1 × the rice by volume)

the su

• 60 ml rice vinegar
• 30 g sugar
• 10 g fine sea salt — Trapani salt pans

the fish

• 200 g sushi-grade akami (lean tuna) or chu-toro — Oma bluefin tuna fishery
• 200 g sushi-grade salmon — Norwegian salmon farm
• 150 g sushi-grade hamachi (yellowtail)

the build

• Fresh wasabi root if available, or a good tube of wasabi paste

the serve

• Light shoyu for dipping
• Pickled ginger (gari) for cleansing the palate between pieces

Method

1. Rinse the rice in a sieve under cold water, swishing with your hand, until the water runs almost clear. About 4–5 changes. · 3 min
2. Drain rice for 30 minutes. This step matters — wet rice into the pot makes mushy rice. · 30 min
3. Combine drained rice and measured water in a heavy pot with a tight lid (or a rice cooker). Bring to a boil, then drop to the lowest possible simmer. Cover. Cook 12 minutes. · 12 min
4. Off heat, leave covered for another 10 minutes — do not lift the lid. · 10 min
5. Meanwhile, warm the vinegar, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan just until the sugar and salt dissolve. Do not boil.
6. Spread the cooked rice in a wide wooden bowl or tray. Pour the seasoned vinegar over a spatula held above the rice (so it disperses). Cut and fold with the spatula — never stir — while fanning to cool. The grains should be glossy, separate, and slightly warm. About 5 minutes. · 5 min
7. Cover the seasoned rice with a damp cloth and let it rest while you cut the fish.
8. Trim the fish blocks: identify the grain direction. Cut against the grain at a 30° angle, with a single drawing motion of a sharp knife — never sawing — into 3 mm × 25 mm × 60 mm slices. About 8 g each.
9. Build: wet your hands with vinegar-water. Pick up 15 g of rice. Cup it loosely into an oval — not pressed, just shaped. Smear a dab of wasabi on the underside of a fish slice. Drape the fish over the rice. Press once with two fingers on top, once with two fingers on the side. The rice should hold together but fall apart at the chopstick. Place on a wooden board.
10. Serve immediately — sushi waits for nobody. Soy in a small dish, gari to the side. Dip the fish side, not the rice side, into the soy.

Notes

Sushi is a fish-and-rice dish where 50% of the work is rice and 50%
is fish, and the rice often loses in home versions. The rice is the
difference between a passable plate and a great one. Use new-crop
Koshihikari if you can find it.

Don't pre-prep. The rice firms within 20 minutes of being seasoned;
the fish loses its bloom within an hour of being cut. Sushi is the
ultimate à-la-minute dish, even at home.

The fish list above is the gateway nigiri set. Once you trust your
fishmonger and your knife: hirame (flounder), saba (mackerel),
kohada (gizzard shad — cured), tako (octopus), uni (sea urchin),
ikura (salmon roe).