Salmon and Sushi Rice

I wouldn’t be able to tell you how many suppers are built around a bowl of rice in my house. But then, I have a rice cooker (and am forever extolling its benefits) which rather issues an open invitation to such meals. And while I never actually cook sushi rice often, I adore its comforting stickiness and the way it offers itself up so sweetly to sharpness and heat and even — when the simplest of sauces feels like too much — nothing but the intense saltiness of soy sauce.

This, however, is a proper meal, though easy enough to throw together, and is as sumptuous as it is simple: the salmon only just cooked, so that it is still soft and coral-coloured (though do cook it for longer if you wish); the sauce full of fire and sharpness, the perfect foil to the sweet rice and rich fish. If it helps, you can make up the sauce a day ahead and leave it covered in the fridge, though do remember to take it out in time for it to come to room temperature.

And it’s easy enough to make without a rice cooker, I assure you. For each cup of rice (which should weigh 200g) you need a cup and a quarter of water. So, for the 400g of rice below, proceed as follows: rinse the rice well, drain it and tip it into a saucepan that comes with a very tightly fitting lid. Pour over two and a half cups or 625ml cold water and bring to the boil over high heat. Immediately clamp on a lid, turn the pan heat down to the very lowest it will go, and leave to cook for 15 minutes, by which time the water should be completely absorbed and the rice cooked. Turn off the heat, but leave the pan on the hob. Remove the lid, cover the pan with a clean tea towel, clamp the lid back on top, and leave to steam for 10 minutes. And it will sit happily like that for a good half an hour.

Please read the Additional Information section at the end of the recipe before proceeding.

For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

I wouldn’t be able to tell you how many suppers are built around a bowl of rice in my house. But then, I have a rice cooker (and am forever extolling its benefits) which rather issues an open invitation to such meals. And while I never actually cook sushi rice often, I adore its comforting stickiness and the way it offers itself up so sweetly to sharpness and heat and even — when the simplest of sauces feels like too much — nothing but the intense saltiness of soy sauce.

This, however, is a proper meal, though easy enough to throw together, and is as sumptuous as it is simple: the salmon only just cooked, so that it is still soft and coral-coloured (though do cook it for longer if you wish); the sauce full of fire and sharpness, the perfect foil to the sweet rice and rich fish. If it helps, you can make up the sauce a day ahead and leave it covered in the fridge, though do remember to take it out in time for it to come to room temperature.

And it’s easy enough to make without a rice cooker, I assure you. For each cup of rice (which should weigh 200g) you need a cup and a quarter of water. So, for the 400g of rice below, proceed as follows: rinse the rice well, drain it and tip it into a saucepan that comes with a very tightly fitting lid. Pour over two and a half cups or 625ml cold water and bring to the boil over high heat. Immediately clamp on a lid, turn the pan heat down to the very lowest it will go, and leave to cook for 15 minutes, by which time the water should be completely absorbed and the rice cooked. Turn off the heat, but leave the pan on the hob. Remove the lid, cover the pan with a clean tea towel, clamp the lid back on top, and leave to steam for 10 minutes. And it will sit happily like that for a good half an hour.

Please read the Additional Information section at the end of the recipe before proceeding.

For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.