Seafood on rice

Seafood H8RZ, my intention is to convert you. 

Cold seafood on warm rice. The sauce is hoisin diluted with water. 

The seafood items are things I had on hand in the freezer. The pieces were thawed and then cut into bite-size segments. A small amount of water is brought to a near-boil, say, two cups to 200℉ /93℃ then removed from the heat source. The cut pieces are placed in the water that is not boiling. The temperature drops, but that is okay. The fish pieces cook almost immediately, the shrimp takes a minute or two longer. The heat must penetrate the shrimp's shell and then work its way into the center. So the fish pieces were removed before the shrimp. 1/4 cup kosher salt is whisked vigorously with a few cups of water in a deep bowl. The cooked fish pieces are transferred to the salt water. A tray of ice cubes tops the fish pieces and chills the water. The shrimp is finally added. 

Now the seafood is sitting there in the ice brine and you can go off and do something else. Within 10 minutes or so you will find the shrimp peels quite easily because it had been brined after it was cooked. Drain it all. The seafood will carry a very pleasant sea-like salted overtone. No further seasoning is necessary, certainly not soy sauce, which is salty. If the salt flavor is too heavy then the whole batch can be rinsed in fresh water to reduce the salt content using the same bowl. 

The rice is plain white short-grain rice. 

Let me describe what Sueko, our housekeeper, showed me when I was 10 years old living with my family in Tokyo. Sueko used Japanese rice that is unavailable in the United States. The rice had to be rinsed ritualistically 7 times. That is, fill the pot with the rice in it to the brim, drain it out entirely 7 times. The water never does clear completely, there is always a little cloudiness from surface starch, but most of it is gone. That is the part I did not like. I just did not have the patience to fill a pot 7 times, but I always obeyed because Sueko insisted that was part of the deal. Now, using California or Texas grown rice, it can be rinsed quickly under water held in a strainer. There is a lot less surface starch. 

Sueko used the index finger knuckle-joint-method method (1 inch/2.5cm ) to measure the amount of water above the amount of rice in the pot. You can see how the index finger knuckle-joint-method used with a broad low pot will produce different results than with a narrow tall pot. Or if you were a 6'7" man doing the finger knuckle-joint measuring compared to a 5'3 woman. There has to be a better way. Rice will absorb 1.5 X  to 2X it's measured volume of water. This rice was 1 cup rice to 1.75 cups water. 

Bring the water to a boil. Dump in the rice. Stir until it returns to a boil. Now the steaming action is initiated. Start the timer to 25 minutes. Cut the heat to low. Continue to stir to assure the residual heat will not burn or stick the rice to the bottom of the pot. The rice is rapidly absorbing the liquid and that will cause it to stick to the bottom. Keep stirring until that hazard is passed, then clamp on the lid and do not remove it even when the timer goes "ding".  Twenty-five minutes later the timer goes "ding". Reset the timer to 10 minutes. Cut the heat off completely and allow the rice to sit there inside the steamy pot for an additional 10 minutes without ever opening the lid. The timer goes "ding" a second time. Remove the lid and fluff the rice. 

Assess the rice and pot bottom situation. Did it stick to the bottom? Then the heat was too intense. Was all the water absorbed? If not, then obviously too much water. Keep these setbacks in mind for the next batch and adjust accordingly. This method works only for short-grain white rice, like sushi rice. All other rice types take a different approach. When steamed correctly, the rice will be a little bit sticky. This makes it possible to lift with chopsticks and to press into oblong balls for nigiri sushi and to spread for futomaki sushi rolls.