Nigiri Sushi

sushi in its Edo form: a hand-pressed finger of vinegared rice under a slice of raw fish, wasabi hidden between the two

Origin: Tokyo & the Kantō Plain

From the journey of Rice.

Sushi means the rice, not the fish. The word is an old adjectival form meaning sour, and it belongs to a preservation technique: narezushi packed gutted fish in cooked rice and left it to ferment for months, the lactic acid preserving the flesh whilst the rice was discarded. Everything since has been a compression of that timescale. By the Muromachi period cooks were eating the rice too, part-fermented; by the Edo period they had replaced fermentation with rice vinegar and cut the wait to nothing. Nigirizushi is the end of that line and it was fast food. Hanaya Yohei is generally credited with the form in Edo around the 1820s, selling hand-pressed fingers of vinegared rice topped with fish from the bay at a street stall, to be eaten standing and with the fingers. The pieces were considerably larger than they are now. What made it possible was the vinegar, which did in minutes what fermentation had done in months, and what made it popular was that Edo Bay was on the doorstep: the term Edomae, in front of Edo, still marks the style. The technique concentrates almost entirely on the rice. It is cooked firm, cut with a seasoned vinegar whilst hot, cooled to body temperature, and then formed with a pressure that has to be judged rather than measured: firm enough to lift, loose enough to fall apart in the mouth. A chef's hands are the tool, and the count of grains, around twenty in a piece, is a thing apprentices are actually tested on. The conventions around eating it are worth knowing because they are not fussiness. The fish side, not the rice, goes into the soy, since rice dipped in soy disintegrates and oversalts; wasabi is already between fish and rice and adding more is a comment on the chef; and ginger is eaten between pieces rather than on them. Nigiri is meant to be eaten within moments of being formed, which is why a counter exists at all.

Ingredients

Rice

  • 400 g Japanese short-grain rice
  • 440 ml water
  • 1 piece kombu, 5cm square

Seasoning

  • 80 ml rice vinegar
  • 40 g caster sugar
  • 1.5 tsp fine salt

Topping

  • 400 g sashimi-grade fish: tuna, salmon, sea bream or yellowtail

To assemble

  • 2 tsp wasabi paste, preferably fresh grated
  • 200 ml water with 1 tbsp rice vinegar, as hand water

To serve

  • 4 tbsp soy sauce, to serve
  • 40 g pickled ginger, to serve

Method

  1. Rinse the rice in several changes of water until it runs almost clear, then drain it in a sieve for thirty minutes.
  2. Cook it with the measured water and the kombu, which is lifted out as the water comes to the boil. Steam and rest as usual, then leave it covered for ten minutes.
  3. Warm the vinegar, sugar, and salt together until dissolved. Do not boil it.
  4. Tip the hot rice into a wide non-metallic bowl, pour the seasoning over a spatula so it distributes, and cut it through the rice with slicing strokes rather than stirring.
  5. Fan the rice as you cut. The fanning is not decorative: it drives off surface moisture and gives the grains their gloss.
  6. Cool it to body temperature and keep it covered with a damp cloth. Cold rice makes hard, tight nigiri, and this is why sushi rice is never refrigerated.
  7. Slice the fish against the grain at a slight angle into pieces about 7cm by 3cm and 5mm thick, using one long drawing stroke of the knife rather than sawing.
  8. Wet your hands in the vinegared hand water and shake off the excess, or the rice will stick to you and to itself.
  9. Take about 20g of rice, roughly a heaped tablespoon, and roll it lightly in your right palm into a loose oval.
  10. Lay a slice of fish across the fingers of your left hand, dab a very little wasabi onto its centre, and set the rice on top.
  11. Press once with the thumb to seat the rice, then turn the whole piece over and press the sides and the top with two fingers to shape it. Three or four movements in total, no more.
  12. The piece should hold together when lifted and collapse the moment it is eaten. Serve at once, and dip the fish side only in soy.

Notes

Everything depends on the rice being at body temperature and on a light hand. Overworked nigiri is dense and the commonest home fault; aim for three or four presses and stop. Use genuine short-grain Japanese rice, since long-grain will not hold, and never refrigerate seasoned sushi rice. Buy fish from a supplier who will tell you it is intended to be eaten raw, and keep it very cold until the moment of slicing. Fresh wasabi and the tube product are different things, and if using the tube, use less. The rice should be seasoned assertively enough to taste of vinegar on its own, because the fish will mute it.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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