I found this - not sure how much it helps -
Japanese rice is short grain rice and gets slightly sticky when it is cooked. Long grain rice isn't proper for sushi because it is drier and doesn't stick together.
Ingredients:
•3 cups Japanese rice
•3 1/4 cups water
•1/3 cup rice vinegar
•3 Tbsp sugar
•1 tsp salt
Preparation:
Put the rice in a large bowl and wash it with cold water. Repeat washing until the water becomes almost clear. Drain the rice in a colander and set aside for 30 minutes. Place the rice in rice cooker and add water. Let the rice soak in the water at least 30 minutes. Start the cooker. When rice is cooked, let it steam for about 15 minutes.
Prepare sushi vinegar (sushi-zu) by mixing rice vinegar, sugar, and salt in a sauce pan. Put the pan on low heat and heat until the sugar dissolves. Cool the vinegar mixture.
Spread the hot steamed rice into a large plate or a large bowl. Please use a non-metallic bowl to prevent any interaction with rice vinegar. It's best to use a wooden bowl called sushi-oke. Sprinkle the vinegar mixture over the rice and fold the rice by shamoji (rice spatula) quickly. Be careful not to smash the rice. To cool and remove the moisture of the rice well, use a fan as you mix sushi rice. This will give sushi rice a shiny look. It's best to use sushi rice right away.
Tips for cooking Sushi Rice
Good Sushi Rice has several contradicting qualities, which make it difficult to cook:
It has to be (very) sticky. (Otherwise you won't be able to produce Nigiri Sushi).
It mustn't be too soft. (We don't want rice mush. The single rice corns should be identifiable.)
It mustn't be too hard. (We dont't want to hear or feel a "Crunch" while eating.)
After several not very successful attempts to cook good Sushi Rice I finally found a way to get a decent result without spending too much time. (A sushi master probably won't find it adequate
).:
Use short grained sushi rice. (Long grained rice won't work, because it doesn't get sticky enough.)
Wash the rice until the washing water starts to get clean. (You can wash the rice in a sifter or in a big pot. If you use a big pot, you have to pour off the water several times; if the pot is big enough this can be done easily without spilling rice. Most people recommend that you drain the rice for one hour... but it seems that this it not very important for the final result.)
To cook the rice use about 15% more water than sushi rice measured in volume. (So if you use 1 cup of sushi rice, use a little bit more than 1 cup of water.)
Bring the water to boiling point without the rice. (You can add some salt if you want - this depends on your personal taste.)
Put the rice into the boiling water and continue to boil on the highest heat level of your oven. To prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of your pot, stir the rice several times while it boils. (This is important! Otherwise a thick layer of rice will stick at the bottom of your pot.)
After 2-3 minutes turn the heat down to lowest level. (The water should barely continue to boil. If you have an electrical oven, you can put the pot away from the heat until the plate gets colder.)
Put a lid on the pot and let the rice simmer for about 10-15 Minutes. (There mustn't be to much heat! Otherwise the lowest layer of rice will stick to the bottom of the pot.)
As soon as the rice has absorbed the water, put it away from the oven and let it rest within the pot covered by the lid. Wait for about 15-20 minutes. (This also seems important! If you don't wait, your rice probably will be too crunchy.) After that you can add sushi vinegar (see below) and stir the rice.
Usually you put the rice in a special wood bowl and mix it there with the vinegar, to avoid chemical reactions with your metal pot. Another solution is to put the rice into a ceramic baking pan.
Spread the rice in the baking pan (or somewhere else) so that the rice cools down quickly. Cover the tray with a towel to prevent the rice from drying out. (Sushi rice should be used when it is cold. If you are working under time pressure warm rice will also work.)
That's it
In my experience the two most important points are the boiling time at full heat and that you let the rice rest after it simmered: If you boil the rice too short it won't get soft, if you boil it too long it will get too soft or it will burn. 2-3 minutes seems to be the right time, but it might vary with different rice brands. Let the rice rest for at least 15 minutes. The last time I didn't let it rest, the rice was very soft (mushy) on the outside and still crunchy at the core...
One middle sized cup of rice (approx. 0.2 litre) seems to be enough for 4 rolls of maki sushi, if the rice is spread thin on the nori mats. Four rolls of maki sushi usually is enough for a meal.
Sushi vinegar is made by mixing rice vinegar with sugar. The amount of sugar and vinegar depends very much on the personal taste. Some people use a 1:1 ratio between sugar and vinegar (which is too sweet in my opinion) others a 1:3 ratio (1 part sugar 3 parts vinegar). Some people add salt (which can also be added to the cooking water directly). Approximately 5 tablespoons of rice vinegar are used for 1 Kg rice, but of course this also depends on your taste.
How to cook perfect rice
How to select and cook the rice
How to prepare and season your rice
Ingredients & Utensils
2 cups of short grain rice
A large bowl to wash your rice
A heavy medium-sized pot with a tight fitting lid
Choose the right rice!
All sushi recipes require short grain rice. Don’t even think about grabbing that big bag of Uncle Ben’s converted rice sitting in the cupboard.
You know you have the correct type if the grains are uniform in size and somewhat transparent.
Wash your rice
This may seem like a chore, but it is necessary to remove talc and starch.
Carefully measure 2 cups of raw short grain rice.
Yields approximately 5 cups of cooked rice
Wash the rice in a large bowl of cold water. Gently rub the grains together with your fingers. The water in your bowl will quickly turn a milky colour.
Carefully tip your bowl to drain off the cloudy water.
Fill your bowl with fresh water and repeat the process above until the water is almost clear.
Place the rice in a sieve and let it drain for about an hour.
How to cook the rice
Place 2 cups of washed rice into a heavy saucepan
Add 2 cups of water
Make sure to put on a tight-fitting lid and bring to a boil on high.
Never remove the lid!
Turn heat to low and let your rice simmer for 15 minutes
Remove pot from heat.
Lift the lid and stretch a tea towel over the pot. Replace the lid and let the rice finish steaming for another 15 minutes.
While you are waiting for the rice you can prepare your sushi-zu. This is the seasoned rice-vinegar solution used to flavour your sushi rice.
