|
|
Post by Jembru on Oct 25, 2013 18:25:30 GMT
Well, I boil the rice like normal (but I use the white rice, since I didn't know until much more recently where I could find Japanese rice in my town), then I make a mix of white vinegar (in place of sushi vinegar?), sugar, and salt. It always comes out a little bit salty, but the mixture helps keep that pesky white rice together. I think it tastes good, but I don't think that it is very Japanese, per se. I've never made a proper onigiri with regular rice, although I'll shape it when I use it in a bentou. Without anything added, regular rice doesn't keep shape at all though. I tend to use sushi rice even if, like tonight, I have simply cooked it without adding anything, as it is still fairly adhesive. (My bento rice tonight is in the shape of a cat with spinach stalk whiskers and chopped olive eyes and nose. lol: people at work think I'm mad, but it gets lonely on night shift so I do all kinds of little 'comforters' like this to keep me from losing my mind). In my opinion, when it comes to the perfect sushi-meshi, having made A LOT of onigiri before getting it 'kanpeki-perfect' (as JP says), I really believe that the timing is crucial. Especially how long you let it stand and then how quickly you cool it. We place a flat dish in the freezer compartment on a fridge and transfer it to that to start cooling it. Then I flip it, while JP blasts it with a hair-dryer on 'cool'. This seems to ensure it is light and fluffy, while still adhesive enough to form into whatever we want to make. Does anyone else like making decorative bento boxes? I mentioned it on the old forum and may have some photos kicking about (although I always take them from work, just before I eat them and the lighting isn't very good there, so they never look as nice on the pictures). Has anyone tried using cookie cutters to make pressed sushi? This is sooo cute. I have a pooh bear cutter set as well as all kinds of animals and shapes. Another tip is to get those decorative hole-punches you get for papercraft and you can use them to cut shapes out of nori to decorate your bento or sushi, with flowers, stars, butterflies or whatever (I'm sure others have done this, but I thought of this one myself). I cut shapes from sliced cheese and vegetarian ham sometimes too (you can also cut Japanese omelette, although this is too time consuming for me to prepare before work so I've never tried it). You can do the same with sugar or rice paper too. I often mix sweet and savoury tastes for the sake of being decorative (I've even drawn details onto my rice with cupcake chocolate pens ^^, and it's always subtle enough not to spoil anything. Oh and if anyone has any cool ideas for onigiri fillings that are vegetarian, please let me know. I've tried some pretty crazy things including peanut butter (interesting, but I don't recommend it and wouldn't do it again^^), but so far I can't find anything that beats a simple kaisou. Anyway, I had better leave this here before you all think I'm crazier than you already thought I was. |
|
|
|
Post by MidoriAbby on Oct 26, 2013 18:44:28 GMT
I make onigiri the way my counselor at Japanese camp taught me- I use saran wrap so that the rice doesn't stick to my hands, and I put the rice on the saran wrap, then the fillings on top of that and then mold it into that triangle shape with my hands using the saran wrap so it doesn't stick. Then I take the finished rice ball out of the saran wrap and put on the nori and sometimes soy sauce (although I don't usually actually use soy sauce anymore since most Japanese people don't really use it that much) We tend to just cover our hands in rice vinegar to stop it sticking, It's amazing how magicaly this works, but we've used cling film quite a lot too! I'm assuming 'saran wrap' is what cling film is called over the pond? Cling film? Huh, I never heard that. Yeah, we call it Saran wrap. It comes from the name of one of the most popular brands of the stuff. It's kind of strange, as Americans take brand names and generalize them to the whole thing, like we call tissues 'kleenex' a lot, and we call most window spray cleaner 'windex', and plastic bags with the zipper 'ziplock' even when we're using other brands of the same thing. Same with saran wrap. Yep, I'm familiar with the rice vinegar method, but my parents usually don't have any around the house so I just go with the other method. |
|
|
|
Post by Jembru on Oct 26, 2013 19:53:49 GMT
But if you have no vinegar, how do you make sumeshi? Or do you just use sushi rice without vinegar? I do like how it tastes on its own. Like I said before, I use it in my bentos for work so I can form the rice into shapes without it collapsing by the time I get to work. I then just mash it up with my chop sticks when I come to eat it. That wouldn't work if I'd used sumeshi (and it might taste weird with some meals, like when I make curried vegetables). I heard water works to stop it sticking to your hands too, although I haven't tried that yet.
I was going to try making a lazy version of vinegared rice tonight, but forgot to wash and soak it before I went to bed this morning. I'm going to just take it off the heat and leave it to stand then put it on a plate and leave it to cool slowly, to see what happens. I've heard others do it this way and that it's not terrible. If it works, it will take the most annoying step out of making sushi, so I'm really keen to give it a go.
Oh the brand thing, we sometimes do that too, although maybe not so much. The main one is calling any vacuum cleaner a Hoover. I've heard you do that too though. Oh and of course, sellotape! How can I forget that one?
|
|
|
|
Post by MidoriAbby on Oct 27, 2013 20:18:58 GMT
I usually just use the sushi rice without the vinegar. When we have the vinegar, I use it.
Water sort of works, but I just stick with cling wrap.
|
|
|
|
Post by Jembru on Oct 27, 2013 21:31:10 GMT
I hope we are still friends when you live in Japan. I want to remind you, when the addiction for sushi rice grasps you, that we had this conversation.. I will.. when you least expect it.. when we're video skyping in Japanese and you're telling me how you can't walk past a Sankusu without popping in for a konbini onigiri. I'll tell you then... 'but you used to make it without vinegar!!!' lol
|
|
|
|
Post by naitorii on Oct 28, 2013 23:26:07 GMT
We tend to just cover our hands in rice vinegar to stop it sticking, It's amazing how magicaly this works, but we've used cling film quite a lot too! I'm assuming 'saran wrap' is what cling film is called over the pond? Cling film? Huh, I never heard that. Yeah, we call it Saran wrap. It comes from the name of one of the most popular brands of the stuff. It's kind of strange, as Americans take brand names and generalize them to the whole thing, like we call tissues 'kleenex' a lot, and we call most window spray cleaner 'windex', and plastic bags with the zipper 'ziplock' even when we're using other brands of the same thing. Same with saran wrap. Yep, I'm familiar with the rice vinegar method, but my parents usually don't have any around the house so I just go with the other method. When someone calls breakfast cereal "con fley"(corn flakes) here I have to stifle my laughter. |
|
|
|
Post by MidoriAbby on Oct 29, 2013 1:29:34 GMT
I hope we are still friends when you live in Japan. I want to remind you, when the addiction for sushi rice grasps you, that we had this conversation.. I will.. when you least expect it.. when we're video skyping in Japanese and you're telling me how you can't walk past a Sankusu without popping in for a konbini onigiri. I'll tell you then... 'but you used to make it without vinegar!!!' lol xD I'm sure we'll still be friends when I live in Japan. What's a Sankusu? I'm sure that's EXACTLY what will happen, knowing how quick I am to adapt, I'll probably have Nihonjin-rashii food cravings, habits, etc within months. |
|
|
|
Post by naitorii on Oct 29, 2013 1:36:31 GMT
I hope we are still friends when you live in Japan. I want to remind you, when the addiction for sushi rice grasps you, that we had this conversation.. I will.. when you least expect it.. when we're video skyping in Japanese and you're telling me how you can't walk past a Sankusu without popping in for a konbini onigiri. I'll tell you then... 'but you used to make it without vinegar!!!' lol xD I'm sure we'll still be friends when I live in Japan. What's a Sankusu? I'm sure that's EXACTLY what will happen, knowing how quick I am to adapt, I'll probably have Nihonjin-rashii food cravings, habits, etc within months. I thought sankusu was a stance... Or senkusu... |
|
|
|
Post by Jembru on Oct 29, 2013 6:35:54 GMT
Oh sorry, SUNkus(u) not san sun.. it's a convenience store. EDIT: Wait.. no I just checked, サンクス was right, it's just how the Japanese say it. The ENGLISH is Sunkus.  I don't know how true it is, but I was told by a colleague at NOVA, that it was meant to say 'Thanks' but was misspelled. I hope it's true, because it's a very funny story if it is. I don't know how widespread the stores are, but there were quite a few around Kanagawa and Tokyo at least. |
|
|
|
Post by Jade on Oct 29, 2013 7:09:37 GMT
I saw those every now and then around Nagoya. 丸K and 7-11 were a lot more common though.
|
|
|
|
Post by Jembru on Oct 29, 2013 19:38:23 GMT
It was the opposite for me, sunkus was more common than circle K (the Japanese called it サークルK in Tokyo), but I think they're both part of the same franchise, so the food available was probably the same. Btw, on the subject of konbini, did you ever try kirin brand Chu-hi? The ones where when you opened the can, the little diamonds went 'pop'? I LOVED that. Not really so much for the taste, although the apple.. oh and peach.. yummy! I just found them so satisfying to open. On my way home from work I'd always swing by the Odakyu Ox (I'm pretty sure that's only in Kanagawa, being that we were on the Odakyu sen) and pick up a can of chu-hi and a stack of 3 cartons of nattou. Then I'd sit in front of the TV watching a man with a guitar sing to kids, and not understand a word of it, while I ate all 3 cartons of nattou, washed down with a chu-hi. I had amazing skin from all that nattou. I couldn't read labels and was vegan back then (I only stopped being vegan because I was struggling to eat enough in Japan, and I just never went back to it when I came home). Besides fruit and veg, I lived on boiled lotus root, rice, tofu and nattou almost exclusively for the first 3 months I was there. LOL  |
|
|
|
Post by MidoriAbby on Oct 29, 2013 19:46:48 GMT
Ah, I see. Thanks for the info!
|
|
|
|
Post by Jembru on Oct 29, 2013 19:50:50 GMT
Wait, on second thought, you were at school when you went to Japan, right? Never mind then, I most sincerely hope you didn't try any kind of chu-hi while you were there. ^^
|
|
|
|
Post by Jade on Oct 29, 2013 21:23:04 GMT
Wait, on second thought, you were at school when you went to Japan, right? Never mind then, I most sincerely hope you didn't try any kind of chu-hi while you were there. ^^ I was the legal drinking age and could drink as much as I wanted. It's not like they ask for ID outside of clubs so... Also the legal drinking age is 18 in Aus so I've been able to drink legally for a while. So yeah, I've had chu-hi multiple times. Us study abroad students used to go the conbini, buy drinks, and then take over parks at night when no one else was there. Was good sometimes, but it stopped once it got colder and no one started it up again. I kinda miss chu-hi, it was one of the few alcoholic drinks I could tolerate lol |
|
|
|
Post by Jembru on Oct 30, 2013 1:05:23 GMT
Ah I don't know why I thought you had been there during high school. Sorry about that. No kidding that stuff was like drinking regular soda (or pop as we Brits like to say ^^). I really miss it too. I wish at least one of the FOUR oriental supermarkets in Newcastle, would import it. Unless it's considered too 'fun' and might cause underaged drinking so is on the banned imports list (I wouldn't be surprised to be honest). Last time I was there, I made a video of myself opening on, so when I missed that sound I could play it back. My laptop died though and I didn't have a back up copy of that video. I guess I'll just have to wait until next time I'm there...
酎ハイ恋しいなぁ〜 (;_;)
|
|
