SHOPPING LIST: Cooking Skills: Rice 2, Chapter 1 (Sushi Rice and Onigiri)

Specialist items: short-grain Japanese (sushi) rice, plain rice vinegar, nori, and an umeboshi if you want one are in a supermarket world-foods aisle or an Asian grocer. Rice vinegar is not the same as rice wine, so check the label.

Plain Japanese rice (2 portions)
[ ] 150 g short-grain Japanese rice (sushi rice)
[ ] 190 ml cold water

Seasoned sushi rice (2 portions)
[ ] 150 g short-grain rice, cooked as in the plain Japanese rice recipe (about 400 g cooked)
[ ] 2 tbsp plain rice vinegar
[ ] 2 tsp caster sugar
[ ] ½ tsp salt

Onigiri (4 rice balls)
[ ] 1 batch batch of plain Japanese rice (about 400 g cooked), warm or cooled, not vinegared
[ ] 1 nori sheet, cut into 4 strips
[ ] ½ tsp fine salt, for your hands
[ ] 20 g hot-smoked salmon (flaky, ready to eat), flaked
[ ] ½ tsp reduced-salt soy sauce
[ ] ¼ ripe avocado, mashed
[ ] ½ tsp sesame seeds
[ ] 1 tsp lemon juice
[ ] 2 tbsp tinned tuna in spring water, drained
[ ] 1 tsp light mayonnaise or natural yoghurt
[ ] 1 umeboshi (pickled plum), stoned and finely chopped (optional, very salty)

Onigiri bento box (1 portion)
[ ] 2 onigiri from the previous recipe
[ ] 1 medium egg, hard-boiled for 10 minutes
[ ] 5 cm cucumber, cut into sticks
[ ] 50 g edamame beans (frozen, boiled for 3 minutes and cooled)
[ ] 4 cherry tomatoes
[ ] 1 insulated lunch bag and a frozen ice pack

For the experiments
[ ] 150 g short-grain rice (three lots of 50 g, for rinse and soak)
[ ] A little extra rice vinegar, sugar and salt (the dressing again)
[ ] A pinch of salt and a bowl of water for your hands