How To Store Cooked Sushi Rice

Store Cooked Sushi Rice

Ask someone to name food from Japan and they will almost always name sushi. With good reason too, sushi is an extremely popular food worldwide. Popular as it is you will find there is split on whether or not people enjoy sushi. Many cite the raw seafood varieties of sushi as a reason to stay away from it though many sushi recipes are completely vegetarian and also ones that do not contain raw seafood. Sushi is one of those things that you can make at home and it’s best to use uruchimai, commonly referred to as sushi rice. If you have some leftover rice from making sushi and want to know how to store it you need to understand the qualities of uruchimai and how it is treated so you can store it properly.

Contents

Uruchimai

Uruchimai can also be found under the names of Japanese rice or Japonica rice. It is short-grained translucent rice that has a very sticky texture when cooked. The term Japonica rice is a grouping for many short-grained varieties of rice that are indigenous to Asia. That sticky texture enables the rice to be easily eaten with utensils like chopsticks. It is widely referred to around the world as sushi rice because of the popularity of sushi but it is the same variety of rice that is used to make sake. In sushi, the rice is further treated after cooking with a mixture that includes rice vinegar, sugar and salt. The rice is used in sushi in a cold state which makes it even more sticky. So how do you store sushi rice for later use?

 

Things to consider

Uruchimai is short-grain rice and this comes with many qualities that many may not be familiar with. Short grain rice is very starchy for the most part compared to long-grain varieties we regularly encounter such as Thai, Jasmine and Basmati. Another short-grain variety that is popular the world over is Arborio which is notoriously starchy and sticky. These rice varieties tend to dry out in storage. So one of the things you will want to guard against when storing sushi rice is a loss of moisture. When making sushi the rice is used in a cold state for best results, primarily because traditional sushi recipes used cold ingredients such as fish and vegetables but also because sushi rice is best workable in a cold state. For this reason, reheating the rice is not a concern as it would be in most other applications. Finally, because the rice is used in a cold state we also need to be aware of the risk of bacteria associated with sushi rice and its storage.

 

Refrigerating Sushi Rice

The first thing you need to know is that you must refrigerate your sushi rice within 30 minutes of using it. Traditionally food should be refrigerated after 2 hours but with sushi rice, it is cooled or even refrigerated before use so you have a smaller window of opportunity. Bacteria grow rapidly at temperatures between 4 and 60 degrees Celsius. Any time your sushi rice is out of the refrigerator you run the risk of accelerated bacterial growth. It is very important to adhere to this as sushi rice does not keep for long. We will discuss this in-depth a little later.

 

Materials

The best material to store your cooked sushi rice in will be some sort of airtight plastic containers. The best would be resealable freezer bags as they lock in the moisture in the package. You can use regular freezer bags as well. You can also look to Tupperware or any other non-metal containers to store your cooked sushi rice. While you may not always have the option of them being airtight any containers that are non-metal are good enough for storing cooked sushi rice. The thing that you have to guard against vigilantly is a loss of moisture and you will need to follow a simple but effective method to achieve this.

 

Preparation

To get storing cooked sushi rice right you will need to use a simple kitchen towel method to keep as much moisture in the sushi rice as possible. You will need two kitchen towels and water to make this work. Firstly wet both kitchen towels then wring out any excess water. The kitchen towels should be moist and an easy to test is to make sure that the sushi does not stick to them easily. Now in your chosen non-metal container, you should place one of the kitchen towels. Put the cooked sushi rice on the towel and then cover with another wet kitchen towel. Once this is done wrap the entire package with cling wrap and make sure it is airtight. Alternatively, you can place the package or container inside a resealable freezer bag. The wet kitchen towels will help maintain the moisture in the sushi rice.

 

Duration

If you’ve followed all the instructions leading up to this point you will have your cooked sushi rice ready to refrigerate without the risk of moisture loss or hardening. You’ll be able to keep this sushi rice in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days. You will, however, find its best to use the rice within 2 days for best quality. Sushi rice deteriorates in quality rapidly in storage so you will not have very long to use it when stored in the fridge.

 

Can you freeze Sushi rice?

The question is inevitable as you may not want to use your cooked sushi rice in 3-5 days. The good news is that you can freeze cooked sushi rice successfully. The shorter the rice grain the more moisture it holds and therefore the better freezes and thaws. You can freeze most foods indefinitely though you will start to lose texture after 3 months. Make sure to freeze the rice in airtight bag or container to avoid freezer burn. It should be thawed in the refrigerator overnight for best results.

 

Storing cooked sushi rice is much easier than one would think. The most important thing is to use wet kitchen towels to wrap the rice and then place in an airtight container. You can refrigerate and freeze cooked sushi rice if you need to.

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