Vegetable Sushi Rice Salad
Here’s a simple Japanese way with cooked rice that Hiroko Shimbo showed me when I asked her one day what she would do with leftover rice. It’s called sushi salad because it’s made with sushi rice. As Hiroko points out so persuasively in her book The Sushi Experience, it’s the rice that makes it sushi, not all the various garnishes or tasty bits that are wrapped—or, in this case, tossed—in the seasoned rice. This is one of those dishes that are subject to variations depending on the season, but it’s hard to improve on the following intoxicatingly delicious summer version.
Hiroko, of course, uses short-grain sushi rice, but you can use medium-or even long-grain rice.
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
The rice should be warm when you mix it with the dressing, so if it is cold from the refrigerator, pour boiling water over it in a strainer or zap it briefly in the microwave. Turn the rice into a bowl (preferably wooden), and break up any lumps. Whisk the vinegar, sugar, and salt together, and pour this dressing over the rice. Mix well. Toss the zucchini, corn, and pepper together with the oil. Heat a skillet or a wok, and when it is hot, stir-fry the vegetables over high heat until they are crisp-cooked, 1–2 minutes. Toss everything together in a serving bowl with the pickled ginger, and eat warm or at room temperature, using chopsticks.
Variation
Step 2
For a winter salad, Hiroko’s vegetables would be cauliflower, string beans, carrots, and perhaps a winter green such as Russian kale
