I'm thinking the soggy nori is the key difference between your sushi and the professional. I don't know why you don't want the rice to cool completely but it should. Also, the nori sheets should be toasted. Do you toast them?

Ji

I use a standing fan when I stir the rice so that I use my hand for stirring the rice instead of fanning. There is nothing wrong with using an electric fan - in fact, it is preferable. However, when possible, I buy the shari rice at my local Japanese market, and then I don't have to make it at all. The only times I make it are when the market is out. It's very cheap to buy the rice already cooked, and it saves so much time. Do you have a Japanese market close to your house? Either way, the rice should be completely cooled before using. You may also need to adjust your recipe.

There are various grades of nori, and they will have different textures. No matter what I buy, I still toast it myself, and this helps remove moisture. What size diameter are you making your rolls? If they are too large, there may be too much moisture inside.

Here's the recipe I use for Shari rice:

Shari Rice (for sushi)

Ingredients:
2 cups Japanese pearl rice
1 tbsp dried kelp (konbu)
2-1/3 cups water

Seasoning

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Wash the rice and drain it in a colander. Place the rice in a heavy covered saucepan and allow to sit for 1/2 to 1 hour.

Add 2-1/3 cups water to the pan, along with the kelp in a teaball. Place the pan on medium heat, and when the water begins to boil, remove the teaball. Cover the pan and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let rice cool for 10 minutes without removing the lid.

Heat the rice vinegar, sugar, and salt until everything dissolves. Allow to cool.

Place the rice in a large bowl, add the seasoning liquid, and stir with large wooden spoon, fanning all the time I use a stand fan, but a ceiling fan works also, although not as well.

Keep rice covered until ready to use.

I don't add Mirin to my rice.

Lars

1) Nori softens with rice, it's inevitable. Even the toasted sheets will eventually soften. That's why you don't make it more than a couple of hours in advance.

2) Fanning the rice is to make it SHINY. I consider it a waste of time and don't bother any more. A sushi chef can obsess about perfect appearance; I only care what it tastes like, LOL.

3) Never use mirin when making sushi rice! In fact, traditionally you don't use anything when making sushi rice, you just cook it and form it. Because Japan has a hot, muggy summer climate, people started using salt or vinegar to help preserve the rice longer - rice spoils really, really fast when it's hot outside. Or another trick - sticking a 'umeboshi', a small pickled plum-like fruit in the middle, which also helped keep the rice from spoiling. I loathe umeboshi but most of my family loves it; my niece even makes her own from scratch.

Although kombu is delicious and adds a nice taste to rice, again it isn't traditional. White rice, all by itself, is a tremendous delicacy to Asians. The whiter, the better. Brown rice was for peasants, no matter how much healthier it might be. Spring rice, with its amazing floral fragrance, is especially prized, although you wouldn't use it for sushi.

When I make rice for sushi it's the only time I ever measure both the rice and water. I was taught to make the rice on the dry side, 1 more cup water than rice. Bring to a boil, cover and steam for 20 min., let sit for 10 more min.

Then I take a (rice)vinegar-sugar syrup - equal amounts of both, no salt - and pour in 1/3 cup syrup to 3 cups rice, cooked. Mix well, and form as fast as possible. Having a bowl of cold water for your forms and hands is essential. I wrap rolls in plastic wrap and cut when cool, if I'm making them ahead of time.

Personally I prefer inarizushi, and usually it's the first type of sushi that disappears! It surprises me how many people haven't had it or don't think of making it. The aburaage in cans was what everybody in the JA community used, nobody ever made it themselves. Inarizushi is one of the easiest to make in quantity and definitely one of the tastiest.

Really, just do whatever works for you! Sushi, despite all the fuss people make about it nowadays, is something I grew up with as picnic food - the equivalent of potato salad and hot dogs. Traditionally, it wasn't restaurant food at all, it was 'travel food' that you took with you when traveling, wrapped in leaves to keep it fresh.

I always thought that fanning the rice was to dry it out and make it stickier? Inarizushi, I've been dying to make this at home. I would love to hear variations of fillings that you use, or do you simply fill it with rice?

Also, I'd love to hear input on the original poster's metal bowl question, does anyone know the answer?

I learned to make sushimeshi (vinegar rice for sushi) at a Japanese restaurant where I worked for about 8 years. They always used an electric fan. It wasn't really about making the rice shiny, though it did, it was about helping the water in the vinegar evaporate so that the rice wouldn't be soggy, leaving only the flavor behind. You mix the rice vinegar, sugar and salt in with very hot rice, turning it over and over with the shamoji (rice paddle) or a wooden spoon so that the breeze from the fan blows the rising steam away from the rice and all the rice grains dry evenly. I cannot give you the proportions of rice wine vinegar, salt and sugar, because I've never measured them, we always just did it to taste, sprinkling them on individually (we didn't make a syrup) while we tossed.

If you have made the rice correctly, the nori doesn't get soggy, although it does of course get soft fairly quickly after rolling.

When making the rice, I wash it well after measuring. Yeah, I know they don't coat it with talc anymore, and you're meant to be able to skip washing it. But the flour (or whatever it is) that they coat it with now still absorbs water and keeps the rice from developing that perfect texture. My Japanese second Mom would have had a fit if she caught me not washing the rice until the water ran perfectly clear.

I use equal portions of rice and water, usually adding just a little bit extra water. It's hard to say exactly how much...rice differs in moisture content, there's a "feel" to it. For example, if it is "new crop" rice, very little extra water is required, if it has been on the shelf for a while, it will need more. At a guess...say an extra 1/4 cup water per 2 cups rice?

You end up with better rice if you let it sit in the pan soaking for at least an hour before you cook it, but it isn't essential.

Cover the pot, bring to a rolling boil...do NOT leave to go do something else...it can go from a simmer to overflowing in less time than you think. Then turn it down to low, simmer 15 minutes, remove from heat. After 2 minutes or so, open the lid, quickly turn the rice over to fluff it a bit, return the lid and leave it be for 10 more minutes. Then make your sushimeshi.

Inarizushi is easy to make and almost everyone likes it. We always made it buying the fried tofu puffs from the market, cutting them in half and simmering them in the sauce. I've never used the canned kind. I haven't made it since I moved here, as there is no Japanese market closer than 2 hours away. I'd forgotten about the canned kind, maybe I will pick up a few cans next time I go to Sac and try them!

The filling was mostly just the vinegar rice, with any extra inside scraps from the tofu wrappers and a few simmered carrot slivers and maybe a bit of shiitake mushroom. I have played around a bit at times, adding some shredded chicken, katsuo boshi (dried bonito flakes) or some of the sweeter types of tsukemono (pickled veggies.)

I don't know about the metal bowl...except that I generally avoid using metal with vinegar. It seems somehow to pick up the taste of metal. I've always used a large, rectangular tupperware or glass baking dish, 'cause that's what we used at the restaurant. Spreading the rice out as you fan, sprinkle and turn it helps the air to circulate so that it dries off more evenly.

Sorry, just realized none of us answered your question about the metal bowl.

Metal has a distinct taste but the prejudice is mostly against aluminum bowls. Especially if you use vinegar, the acid tends to 'eat' at the aluminum. I have stainless mixing bowls and use them for my sushi rice.

We don't use dipping sauces with our sushi. With seasoned rice you really don't need it. Since sushi restaurants use plain rice with a dab of wasabi that's why the clientele uses soy sauce (shoyu in Japanese; see yau in Cantonese) for a salty kick.

If you like citrus, you might want to try ponzu, a mixture of citrus juice and shoyu. Tart and refreshing, especially in summer.

Japanese food tends to have a massive sodium and sugar content - I don't think we know how to cook without lots of salt and sugar, LOL - but my DH loves wasabi so I let him mix it with low-sodium soy or tamari. I eat mine plain, my MIL loads up on the sliced pickled ginger since she loves anything sweet.

Adding to what jkom said, if you want to try ponzu, you will find two different products. Ponzu itself is a sauce made with one of several (or a combination) of citrus juices, generally combined with a mixture of mirin, konbu (kelp), katsuo boshi (dry bonito flakes)and rice vinegar. More often in the US, you will find ponzu-shoyu, which is a soy sauce with a ponzu flavoring added. If you can find the first, you're better off as you can mix it with soy yourself, to taste.

If you make the little rolls, wrap your bamboo sushi wrapper in plastic wrap and put scotch tape on the back side. I've made California rolls a few times, and they were good (cut each piece of nori in half). They're a bit of trouble for me because I'm the only one in my family who likes them.

Wow, this is very interesting! Thank you all for your informative posts.

Jim, my nori is roasted. Honestly, rice is not my favorite food (I know it's strange, coming from a Chinese from Hawaii) let alone cooled rice.

Lar, I am so relieved to know that I don't have to fan with one hand and toss the rice with the other. I will use a standing fan or just let it cool completely in the future. I always use mirin for convenient purpose. Sounds like homemade is better so I definitely will give it a try.

Jkom51, As kids, we always ate sushi as snacks, not a meal. In fact, I had never seen anything use sushi as a meal until I moved to Canada. Or it could be just my husband! LOL Back in Hawaii, my Japanese friends ( plenty of Japanese there) made sushi like an art. Even they used pretty much the same ingredients we do, their preparation and presentation had to be perfect. I never have the desire to make "perfect" sushi. As long as I don't have to struggle with the nori when eating sushi I will be happy to make more using my stainless steel bowls! :-)

Savorytv, I too thought fanning the rice was to rid the rice of moisture and make the rice sticky. LOL

Rachelellen, I get a headache trying to figure out rice varieties! LOL As a non rice eater, I don't know how to make rice without a rice cooker. Good thing nobody watches me when I cook rice! :-) Ponzu sauce eh? Don't believe I have seen it before. Of course, I never pay attention to the Asian sauce aisle; only go there for soy sauce. I will look for it when I go to the store next time.

Carrie, I have watched some video clips on youtube.com. Plastic wrap was what they used when making California rolls. Once I get a hang of making regular sushi I will give that one a try. :-)

Thanks again everyone. I've learned a lot just from reading your answers. I will continue to try making sushi for my two boys. They will love my sushi even more and they will love you too, all my cooking forum friends!

Al

>>fanning the rice was to rid the rice of moisture and make the rice sticky>>

Short-grain rice (I've used medium in a pinch, I admit) is naturally more glutinous than medium or long-grain. Don't ever use sweet rice, though, that's the really pasty stuff! People either love it or hate it, we love it but my MIL hates it. The Chinese use sweet rice, I've never seen a Japanese recipe for it although I admit I've not looked very hard.

Letting the rice sit for 10 min. without uncovering, after cooking, takes care of excess moisture. That's why I said sushi rice is the only time I measure the water and rice.

It's very seldom one finds true spring rice any more. When I'm making sushi (which isn't often, I admit - we're really trying to keep the salt down in our house) it helps when opening a new bag of rice, to cook 1 cup of it and see how much moisture it has. But it's not very often I run across high-moisture content in rice, although we live in the SF Bay Area where there's a whole lot of rice being eaten daily by the millions of Asians, SE Asians, Latinos, and everybody else who lives here.