In this video, I am showing how to make Chirashi Sushi (actually pronounced Chirashi-Zushi), a type of Sushi often made at homes for festivals, especially in "Hina-matsuri" (雛祭り), a festival for girls, where we decorate the house with "Ohina-sama" (お雛様, this→🎎), a special set of traditional dolls. In Japan these are also topped with raw fish or Ikura (raw salmon eggs). I am showing in this video an easy version of this.
In my Channel, I show step by step of alternative but authentic Japanese home cooking, which can be made with the ingredients that are easily available outside of Japan.
Ingredients for Chikashi Sushi: Sushi rice for Chirashi Sushi: - Japanese sticky rice 1 Cup - Water 1 Cup - Kombu kelp 2.5 g - Sugar 1 Tbsp - Vinegar 2 Tbsp - Dried Shitake 2-4 - Carrot 1/2 - Sugar 1 Tbsp - Vinegar 1 Tbsp
Welcome to Taiji's Kitchen.
Today, I'm going to show you how to make Chirashi Sushi.
So in Japan, almost every month, we have some kind of traditional festivals.
In March 3rd, there's a special festival called Hinamatsuri.
And this is a celebration for all the girls.
And we have these special traditional dolls called Ohinasama.
They represent all noble family, possibly emperor and empress.
It could be presented as a pair, but also it sometimes have a whole gathering of servants.
Because I have a little sister, we decorate the house with this every year.
And evening on the March 3rd, we ate this Chirashi Sushi.
Chirashi Sushi is a very typical thing to eat at this Hinamatsuri, but also in other festivals.
So Chirashi Sushi is another type of sushi that is often made at homes.
Chirashi means to scatter around or open.
For Chirashi Sushi, you don't need any particular special skills for it.
So this may take a little more steps than other of my recipes,
but the steps are quite easy and it's very difficult to fail.
So this may be an alternative way to make sushi.
And this is also something that is very unwell-known outside of Japan.
So I thought I'd be interesting to show you this.
Then, let's get started.
Here are the ingredients for Chirashi Sushi.
So we're going to first make the sushi rice with regular Japanese sticky rice,
a strip of kombu kelp, sugar, and rice wine vinegar.
If you don't have these Japanese rice wine vinegar, then you can also use apple vinegar instead.
And for the topping, I have shrimp, an egg, avocado, a carrot,
roasted sesame seeds, and also dried shiitake.
So this has been soaked in water for a couple hours now.
You want to do this prior to cooking.
If you don't have dried shiitake, you can dry it yourself and make your own dried shiitake.
Somehow, dried shiitake is more flavorful than just regular raw shiitake.
You can also use other mushroom instead if you don't have shiitake available.
Then, let's start cooking.
So the first thing is preparing the rice.
So before cooking this, we need to rinse this.
So in a pan, I'm going to put a cup of rice and give it a little bit of water to it.
And then we're going to rub the rice grain against each other, just like this.
Then we're going to drain this and put this back in the pot.
And then whisk one more time.
And rinse it one more time.
Then we're going to leave it like this for a minute or so and let the water drain.
So after a minute, as you can see, the water is very clear.
Throw this away.
Then we're going to put the rice back in the pot.
And here, I'm going to put one cup of water.
Normally, when we cook Japanese rice, we have the ratio of rice to water 1 to 1.2.
For the sushi rice, we're going to mix in later the vinegar mixture.
So we want to cook the rice a little bit firm.
So we're going to cook 1 to 1 ratio.
If you want to know more in detail of how to cook sushi rice,
please watch my other video on how to make sushi rice that I made a while back.
Then here, I'm going to put in a strip of kombu kelp, about 2.5 grams.
And then we're going to let this sit for at least for an hour or so
and let the rice and the kombu kelp soak in the water.
So an hour has passed.
So as you can see, the kombu kelp has soaked in the water and has grown.
And also the rice has soaked up the water.
Then let's cook the rice.
Put the lid on and turn the heat to high and bring this to boil.
Once this has come to a boil, I'm going to turn the heat to simmer
and set the timer to 10 minutes.
Then cook and simmer for 10 minutes like this.
So 10 minutes has passed.
I'm going to turn the heat off.
Let this sit like this for at least 10 minutes and let it steam on its own.
Now while we're waiting on the rice to be cooked,
let's make the vinegar mixture for the sushi rice.
So in a small pot, I'm going to put in 1 tablespoon of sugar.
And then here, I'm going to put in 2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar.
I'm going to turn the heat to medium.
Just keep mixing and just heat it until the sugar will be dissolved.
So all the sugar is dissolved.
Turn the heat off and put it to the side and let this cool off.
Now let's prepare the rest of the ingredients.
So I'm going to first cut up the carrot.
I probably just need half of this.
So and then kind of take out the kind of dark parts.
Then you can make small strip of this, but I'll be lazy and use this grater.
It works just as good.
Now the dried shiitake mushroom.
First, you want to take off this bottom part because it's a bit fibery.
I'm also going to cut this in small pieces.
And next, I'm going to cut up the avocado.
I'm just going to cut this in strips.
Let's finish for cutting up the ingredients.
And let's cook these two together.
So in a small pot, I'm going to put in the carrots and the shiitake mushroom as well,
with this water that was soaking the shiitake mushroom as well.
And here, 1 tablespoon of sugar.
Then also 1 tablespoon of soy sauce.
We're going to turn the heat to medium and bring this to boil.
Then we're going to cook like this in medium heat until there's no liquid left of this.
So after cooking like this for 2 minutes or so, there's no liquid left.
So I'm going to turn the heat off.
I'm going to put this to the side and let this cool off.
Now let's prepare the prawns.
So in a boiling water, I'm going to put in about a teaspoon of salt.
Then we're going to cook like this for 2-3 minutes, depending on the size of the prawns.
After 2-3 minutes, I'm going to take out the prawns in cold water.
Then I'm going to peel the prawns.
We're going to use these prawns as decoration, so we're going to cut these in half.
So by cutting this in half, you may find a little bit left over in the intestines like this.
These you definitely want to get rid of because they'll give a really bad odor or bitterness to the flavor.
So let's finish for the prawns.
So the last thing to prepare is the eggs.
I'm going to first crack this open.
Then in this, I'm going to put in about 1 teaspoon of sugar.
Then we're going to mix this thoroughly.
Then we're going to let this sit for a minute or so, so the sugar will be dissolved.
Then we're going to heat up the frying pan with medium heat.
So once the frying pan has been heated,
I'm going to put in here about a teaspoon of sesame oil or any regular frying oil.
Then we're going to put the egg in here.
And in here, I'm going to turn the heat off.
In here, I'm going to put the lid on and let it cook like this for about a minute or so.
So after about a minute or so, it's all cooked through.
And the back side looks also good.
Then we're going to cut this in thin strips.
Then this is finished for the eggs.
So these are called kinshi tamago, meaning gold string eggs.
These are often used as condiments for different dishes.
Now, let's finally make the sushi rice.
So to make a sushi rice, it's ideal to have these kind of wooden flat bowls.
These are called handai.
But if you can't get hold of these, you can just use any bowl, preferably wood.
But you can also use just regular metal or ceramic bowls.
And also, if you want to know more in detail of how to make sushi rice,
please watch my other video on sushi rice.
When using a wooden bowl like this, you want to make sure you wet this.
Otherwise, all the rice will stick to it and we're going to lose a lot of the rice.
So we're going to do that first.
So like I said, you want to wet this, but at the same time, you don't want it soaking wet.
So I'm going to take off the extra water.
So this wooden handai should be moist.
Then this, I'm going to put in the rice.
Make sure you also wet the spatula.
So from here, it's very important to do this quickly.
So I'm going to put in here the vinegar mixture.
And you want to try to spread out this vinegar mixture thoroughly.
And you want to try to do it like doing like this,
cutting the rice through like this with a spatula.
And ideally, you should have a second person fanning from the side.
Once this has been mixed thoroughly,
I'm going to put in these cooked carrots and the shiitake mushroom.
We're going to mix this in.
When you're doing this, make sure you don't smush the rice grains.
And instead, you want to just kind of mix like this by cutting through.
Then this has been thoroughly mixed.
Let's put this on a plate and assemble with the rest of the ingredients.
Let's decorate this with the rest of the ingredients.
First, I'm going to cover it with this eggs.
I'm going to put some avocados.
I'm going to put some prawns.
I'm going to sprinkle some sesame seeds.
Then this is finished. Let's eat.
Okay, let's eat. Itadakimasu!
So of course, you can just eat directly from this,
but I'm going to put it in a separate plate.
Oh, finally. Itadakimasu!
With avocado.
Oh, this is so good.
The combination of these flavors is just really fine.
Very subtle, but at the same time, very rich.
So you have the cooked shiitake and carrots,
which is pretty much the same flavor as teriyaki,
but somehow more subtle.
And due to that comes this very fine sourness from the sushi rice.
And the shrimp gives this saltiness to it.
And avocado, this creaminess.
And the sweetness from the egg is also such a great combination.
This just reminds me of the spring festival in Japan.
Of course, it's a girls festival,
but because I have a sister, we all kind of celebrate together.
You may be wondering what I have here.
This is called osuimono.
It's made of dashi stock and a couple of ingredients inside.
It's a very subtle soup of dashi.
If you don't know how to make this,
please watch my other video on how to make dashi.
I'm explaining exactly how to make it.
And it's really savory, really deep flavor.
If you make a scratch with kombu kelp and bonito flakes.
Please excuse me for slurping.
Oh, this deep flavor.
This dashi stock is just so amazing.
Oh, this is so delicious.
That was so delicious.
So totally savory.
That was so delicious.
So as you saw, making chirashirushi is a bit of work, I must say.
But it's definitely worth it.
It kind of brings out this festival atmosphere.
And so I make this quite often when I'm invited to a party or like a birthday.
Many people seem to enjoy this.
So I hope to give this a try someday.
So we usually make this with prawns and eggs.
But if you cut up the prawns, it's vegetarian.
If you cut up also the eggs, it's also strictly vegan.
That's also definitely possible if you have a strict diet.
If you enjoyed what you saw, I'd love it if you give me the like button.
So that this video can be spread out to many people.
And I'll be also so grateful if you could share my channel and my videos with your friends and families who might be interested.
If you have any feedbacks, please feel free to write anything in the comments below.
Otherwise, I look forward to seeing you in the next video.
Bye.
