How to use Tamanoi Sushinoko to make sushi rice
What is sushi rice?
Sushi rice isn’t just rice you make in the rice cooker and voila you get sushi rice: it’s seasoned after it’s cooked by letting it cool down to room temperature then adding and mixing with rice vinegar, salt, and sugar. There’s some variation of this, but this is generally how it’s done.
What is sushinoko?
I like to skip having to make the sushi rice vinegar altogether. I’ve gotten great results with just using a powder called sushinoko that lets me:
- Forego waiting for the rice to cool down to room temperature
- Avoid making a mistake in the sushi rice vinegar recipe
- Avoid accidentally getting the rice too wet (and not sticky enough for sushi)
- Make a large amount of rice and season only small batches at a time as I need more
- Try different amounts of sushinoko with each batch to match my preferences
Making sushi rice is a whole lot easier with this handy powder
For a little sushi party at home, I can’t always predict how much rice we’ll be using, as we vary our recipes between temaki sushi, nigiri sushi, or sashimi. So I just make a large amount of rice (about 4-5 cups/masu).
When we’re ready to make sushi rice, it’s incredibly convenient to be able to simply scoop out some rice from the rice cooker, sprinkle on some sushinoko and mix it up to make another batch of sushi rice. The unused/unseasoned rice can then be used for other meals (fried rice? yum).
Where to get Tamanoi Sushinoko?
Tamanoi Sushinoko is the only sushi powdered vinegar I know of. I don't think any alternatives exist!I love their description on their website:
Even the rice warmed again does a quick change in delicious vinegared rice. So it doesn’t need to cook rice to strengthen it for vinegared rice.
If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, here are my recommendations for where you can pick up Tamanoi Sushinoko, quality sushi grade fish, and an assortment of other goodies for your own sushi party:
- In San Francisco: Nijiya Market in Japantown
- In the East Bay: Tokyo Fish Market in Berkeley
- In the North Bay: Anna’s Seafood in Petaluma
Online, you can find Tamanoi Sushinoko at:
How to use Sushinoko
Things you’ll need:
- A big mixing or salad bowl (we’ve got a great one we love from IKEA)
- Cooked rice
- Tamanoi Sushinoko
- Optional: rice paddle
Time for some instructions:
- Cook rice.
- Scoop hot/warm rice into big mixing bowl.
- Sprinkle sushinoko on top of rice.
- Tamanoi recommends 35g of sushinoko per 2 cups of rice.
- I prefer a bit more zing in my own rice, so I’ll vary between 1tbsp to 3tbsp of sushinoko. Try different amounts to see what you like.
- Mix it all up with rice paddle, be sure not to mush the rice (if you don’t have a rice paddle, you can really just use your hands). You don’t want to make mochi. You want the rice grains to be separate and maintain their shape and structure at the same time you want them sticking to each other.
- Enjoy! Yum!
A couple notes
- No, you don’t need to add salt
- Each 75g package of Tamanoi Sushinoko makes about 4 cups of sushi rice
- Each 150g package of Tamanoi Sushinoko makes about 8 cups of sushi rice
How much Sushinoko should you use?
From Tamanoi’s website:
35g (for about 2 cups of rice)
75g (for about 4 cups of rice)
150g (for about 8 cups of rice)
Used-by date: 2 years from the manufacture day (Unopened)
Preservation method: Avoid the place of hot and humid.
Thus:
| Rice | Rice mL | Rice g | Sushinoko | tbsp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 cup | 180mL | 145g | 17.5g | ~1.4tbsp |
| 2 cups | 360mL | 291g | 35g | ~3tbsp |
| 4 cups | 720mL | 583g | 75g | ~5.8tbsp |
| 8 cups | 1,440mL | 1,166g | 150g | ~11.7tbsp |