　Cooking Utensils

Rice Cooker

99% of the Japanese must use rice cooker at home for cooking rice. At home it is almost impossible to cook rice for sushi without rice cooker. Nowadays many Japanese families have an electronic rice cooker. An advantage of the electronic rice cooker is to be able to keep rice for hours or days very fresh as if the rice was cooked right now. Electronic rice cooker is very much more expensive than simple electric rice cooker. Electric rice cooker which you can buy between 50 € and 100 € must be sufficient for your occasional Japanese cuisine.

Mould for Pressed Sushi

To fix Oshi-Zushi which are popular in Osaka area, there is useful utensils. You fill the rice and ingredients into the box which can be separated each side, put it upside down and press. You can make fairly good formed sushi without effort. Tradidionally it is made by wood, but the one made with synthetic resins are higienic and rice does not stick.

Maki-Su　巻きす

Without the Maki-Su it is impossible to fix Maki-Zushi. In other words with this one Maki-Su you can make all kinds of Maki in any size. And it is not expensive. Tip: put an foil beween rice and maki-su, so that the rice does not stick directly on the maki-su. You find inexpensive koreanmade nori with quite a good quality. So just practice and practice.

Hocho - Kitchen Knife

Japanese kitchen knife became well known for their quality. When you prepare the Japanese meals at home you don't need necessarily Japanese hocho. However when you are getting Japanese cooking expert it may be time to consider some Japanese hochos, then first choice should be Sashimi-Bocho, which is long and sharp to be able to cut raw fish without crushing the flesh.

Hangiri　半切り

Wooden tub for cooling cooked sushi rice. If you buy Japanese rice with acceptabel quality, measure the right amount of water, cook the rice with rice cooker, you hardly make mistakes. However the most critical thing at the preparing sushi rice is that the cooked rice can be muddy at the mixing with vinegar and cooling rice. Hangiri helps to avoid that the rice will be muddy, because wood soak the moisture. It is recommended for sushi lover, but it is not essential.

Japanese Cuisine