Learning how to make sushi rice is a fundamental skill for those looking to explore Japanese cooking. Once you've mastered perfectly seasoned and fluffy rice, the world is your oyster.

Begin by washing and soaking your rice – do not skip this step! Washing the rice helps to remove excess starch, which will give your rice a lovely light texture and avoids a claggy texture. Once cooked, you should take care when combining the sushi vinegar with the rice – cutting it into the rice with a paddle will help to avoid broken grains. You want your rice to be as whole as possible at the end of the process.

The recipe below makes approximately 500g of sushi rice, which is plenty to play with when making a variety of sushi from our Great British Chefs Academy sushi series. If you want to make more or less, simply scale down the recipe to suit.

Leftover sushi rice will keep for a day or so, and can be served cold wrapped in lettuce leaves with grilled meats or vegetables with some spicy sauce.