Sushi Rice

Sushi rice (serving 4):

Premium japanese short grain rice  3 cups (540ml) 
3 cups of water (540ml)
Konbu (10cm) (optional, but due to its high content of umami, it will enhance the tast of the rice)
Rice vinegar 5 table spoons
Sugar 3 table spoons
Salt 1 level table spoon

1. Wash rice (polish) 
Measure rice precisely (it is very important to do so to obtain a perfect result) and put it into large bowl. Add plenty of cold water into the bowl and stir with hand. Drain water and stir with hand again without water this time. Then put cold water and stir again. Then drain water completely by using a fine mesh strainer. Leave it for about 20 minutes.

2. Cook rice
Put rice into a pot with lid (ideally a heavy cast iron pot, e.g. le creuset) and add water (measure precisely!) and Konbu. Soak the rice in the water for about 30 minutes.
Start cooking with high heat. Once it starts boiling (don't open the lid, but judge by sound or steam...) turn down the heat down to medium (level 4 out of 9) and simmer for 12 minutes. Turn up the heat to high for 1 minute then remove from heat. Leave it for another 10 minutes without opening lid (have a bit of faith and don't open lid before finishing the steaming process)
* if you use an electric kitchen, it is difficult to adjust the heat level immediately. I recommend to use 2 heaters and prepare the low heat already In advance.

3. Prepare the sushi vinegar
Mix the vinegar, sugar and salt well while cooking rice.

4. Mix rice with vinegar
Now you can open the lid finally. Put the rice to a large bowl**, add the sushi vinegar (from step 3) and mix it carefully with a spatula (circular move "scoop and cut"). When you mix the rice, cool it quickly by using a handfan (you can also you a piece of cardboard) to avoid that the rice gets too sticky and it will make the rice shinny.
** if you have wooden bowl called "sushioke", it is the best to mix rice with vinegar. It takes out excess water and cools down the rice quicker.