Salmon Nigiri

Recipe: "Master Recipe for Sushi Rice" and "Sushi Vinegar Dressing" from "The Sushi Experience" by Hiroko Shimbo.
Rating: Great.
Status: Made several times.

Since I had some left over ingredients, I made sushi for lunch today.  Here is a video of Hiroko Shimbo explaining how to make nigiri.

In the past few days of sushi dinners, I've tried a few variations of sushi rice.  On the first night, I soaked the rice for 30 minutes before cooking it and it made a soft plump rice.  I used a newly bought rice which is a short grain rice grown in Japan.  In the sushi in the picture above, I used my normal rice (Tamaki Gold) which is a Japanese type of short grained rice grown in California and didn't presoak it.  And on the third night, I used the Japanese rice but didn't presoak it.

I like all of them.  The soaked Japanese rice has soft very sticky plump grains.  When it isn't presoaked, the Japanese rice still has plump grains but it has a bit more bite to it.  The Tamaki Gold when it isn't presoaked is a bit firmer and a bit less sticky.  William prefers his sushi rice to have some bite to it, so he prefers the sushi rice with no soaking; I think he likes the Tamaki Gold best, though he said that the un-soaked Japanese rice was fine.  The soaked Japanese rice was too soft for him.

Also, after I wrote the above information, I read in "Hiroko's American Kitchen" by Hiroko Shimbo that she suggests that if you have a modern rice cooker with "sensors, computer controlled functions or induction heat technology, omit the soaking step".  I have a fuzzy logic rice cooker, so it appears that soaking is not necessary for my rice cooker.

This is the Japanese rice I was using: