Videos

The following videos show some of the ways to make sushi rice:

From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kombu):

Kombu or konbu (Japanese: 昆布 IPA: [kombɯ]), also called dashima (Korean: 다시마 dasima), or haidai (traditional Chinese: 海帶; simplified Chinese: 海带; pinyin: Hǎidài), are edible kelp from the genus Laminaria widely eaten in East Asia.

Over 90 percent of Japanese kombu is cultivated, and most is harvested, in Hokkaidō. It is cultivated as far south as the Seto Inland Sea.

From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sushi_rice#Sushi_rice):

Sushi is made with white, short-grained, Japanese rice mixed with a dressing made of rice vinegar, sugar, salt, and occasionally kombu & sake. It is usually cooled to room temperature before being used for a filling in a sushi. In some fusion cuisine restaurants, short grain brown rice and wild rice are also used.

Sushi rice (sushi-meshi) is prepared with short-grain Japanese rice, which has a consistency that differs from long-grain strains such as India. The essential quality is its stickiness. Rice that is too sticky has a mushy texture; if not sticky enough, it feels dry. Freshly harvested rice (shinmai) typically has too much water, and requires extra time to drain the rice cooker after washing.

There are regional variations in sushi rice and, of course, individual chefs have their individual methods. Most of the variations are in the rice vinegar dressing: “the Tokyo version of the dressing commonly uses more salt; in Osaka, the dressing has more sugar.”

Nori (Japanese: 海苔) (Chinese: 海苔; pinyin: hǎitāi, Korean: 김, kim or gim) is the Japanese name for various edible seaweed species of the red alga Porphyra including most notably P. yezoensis and P. tenera, sometimes called laver ^[1].

The term nori is also commonly used to refer to the food products created from these so-called “sea vegetables“, similar to the Korean gim. Finished products are made by a shredding and rack-drying process that resembles papermaking. Japan, Korea, and China are the current major producers of nori, with total production valued at up to US $2 billion per year.

The avocado (Persea americana) is a tree native to Mexico and Central America, classified in the flowering plant family Lauraceae. The name “avocado” also refers to the fruit of the tree with an egg-shaped pit. P. americana has a long history of being cultivated in Central and South America; a water jar shaped like an avocado, dating to A.D. 900, was discovered in the pre-Incan city of Chan Chan.^[1]

The snow pea (Pisum sativum var. macrocarpon) is a legume, more specifically a variety of pea eaten whole in its pod while still unripe.

It is one of the earliest-known cultivated plants, with evidence of having been cultivated in a region that is now along the Thailand-Burma border, 12,000 years ago[1].

It is speculated that the name comes from the whitish tint reflected from the pods.

As with all legumes, snow peas host beneficial bacteria, rhizobia, that fixes nitrogen in the soil — this is called a mutualistic relationship — and are therefore a useful companion plant, especially useful to grow intercropped with green, leafy vegetables that benefit from high nitrogen content in their soil.

The green shoots can also be cut and served as a vegetable as is done in Chinese cooking. Especially stir-fried with garlic or shellfish such as crab.

Tofu, also toufu (the Japanese Romaji spelling), doufu (the Chinese Pinyin spelling often used in Chinese recipes) or bean curd (the literal translation), is a food of Chinese origin,^[1] made by coagulating soy milk, and then pressing the resulting curds into blocks.

There are many different varieties of tofu, including fresh tofu and tofu that has been processed in some way. Tofu has very little flavor or smell on its own, so it can be used either in savory or sweet dishes, and is often seasoned or marinated to suit the dish.

The production of tofu from soy milk is similar to the production of cheese from milk, although some tofu is made by processing non-soy products, such as almonds or black beans. The byproduct of the process is soy pulp (also called okara in Japanese).

Tofu originated in ancient China,^[1] but little else is known about the origins of tofu and its method of production. Tofu and its production technique were subsequently introduced into Japan in the Nara period (late eighth century) as well as other parts of East Asia. This spread likely coincided with the spread of Buddhism as it is an important source of proteins in the religion’s vegetarian diet.^[2]

Tofu is low in calories, contains beneficial amounts of iron (especially important for women of child-bearing age) and has no cholesterol. Depending on the coagulant used in manufacturing, the tofu may also be high in calcium (important for bone development and maintenance), and magnesium (especially important for athletes). However, tofu contains soy isoflavones, and the safety of consuming isoflavones is questioned.

The shiitake (Lentinula edodes) is an edible mushroom native to East Asia, which is cultivated and consumed in many Asian countries, as well as being dried and exported to many countries around the world. It is a feature of many Asian cuisines including Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai.

A scallion, also commonly known as spring onion or green onion, is associated with various members of the genus Allium that lack a fully-developed bulb. They tend to be milder tasting than other onions and are typically steamed and set in salads in western cookery and cooked in many Asian recipes.

Diced scallions are often used in soup, noodle, seafood, and sauce in eastern dishes, after removing the bottom quarter-inch or so of the root end.

The species most commonly associated with the name is the Welsh onion, Allium fistulosum. “Scallion” is sometimes used for Allium ascalonicum, better known as the shallot. The words scallion and shallot are related and can be traced back to the Greek askolonion as described by the Greek writer Theophrastus; this name, in turn, seems to originate from the Philistine town of Ascalon (modern-day Ashkelon in Israel). The shallots themselves apparently came from farther east.^[1]