Rice

Rice is extremely important to any meal served in Japan.  It is more than
the basic of a meal to which one sits down, but the taste of the rice
DEFINES the meal.  A bad tasting rice ruins the pleasure of the rest of
the food.

To choose your rice, you need to devide it into two main categories,
Shimamai, which is newly harvested rice that is eaten within three months
of the harvest, and Komai which is eaten after being aged for at least a
year.  In addition, where the rice is grown, which slope of the moutain it
was one, region it was grown, hight of the rice paddy, and temperature
conditions all affect the taste.  Rice of the same strain can taste
extremely different due to these differances, and you must read for these
on the package.  No proper rice is sold without all of this information.

The next important ingredient is the water that is being used.

While most homes will use tap water for convienience sake, water provides
many important highlights to the flavours of the rice.  Each sushi
restaurant that cares about their customers have perfected their own
combinations of water which come from many different parts of Japan.
Where it is taken, be it from stream, brook, spring, or artisin well, or
if it comes from a distillers, impacts upon the flavour of the rice.  For
rice tasting, 100% pure distilled water is used.  Shiping of this water is
always carried out in a glass container as metal and plastic containers
provide distasteful odours and flavours to the water.

Basically, Komai is cooked one cup of rice to one cup plus two tablespoons
of water and Shimmai is cooked one cup of rice less two tablespoons of
water.  To little water will make a rice that is dry and hard in the
centre.  Too much water will create more of a sticky rice or rice soup
which is the improper consistancy for most meals.  Cooking a proper pot of
rice takes much effort, and even with rice cookers, which have greatly
improved rice cooking, it is still an effort to cook it correctly.  For
the sake of everyone, please use a rice cooker with short grain rice.

To begin, you wash the rice one hour before you start cooking in a flat
bottom wooden vessel, rubbing all the grains against the bottom and the
sides to remove any remaining bran and polishing compounds that remain on
the rice.  Drain off all the water and add fresh water again, repeat this
step as many times as necessary yntil the water remains clear.  Drain the
rice and add water allowing it to sit for at least 30 minutes.  All the
water used in this must be the same compound of water that it will be
cooked with.

Combine the rice and the properly measured amount of water into the cooker
and let the machine do it's job properly.  Do not disturb it, and leave
the pot alone for ten minutes after it has finished cooking.

One hint, the more rice that is cooked, the better the taste and
consistancy of the rice.

NEVER add butter to the rice.

***

Hitomi

Ichinohei Hitomi
Hitomi@terminal.autobahn.mb.ca
http://204.112.189.3/~hitomi
"The beginings of wisdom is the ability to always ask questions."