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Home style sushi

I had delicious food at Tortoise's special dinner event  the other night.  One dish I liked in particular was the chirashi zushi.  When I got home, I wanted to eat  more sushi, so I made my own the next day. The sushi that Torotoise served had pieces of snapper sashimii scattered in the sushi rice. I only had vegetable ingredients at home so the sushi I made is vegetarian except for the egg.  

Chirashi-sushi is vinegared rice that can be topped with a variety of vegetables, tofu, and seafood.  It's much simpler to prepare than nigiri-zushi and it is by far the most popular sushi to make at home.   

When mixing the vinegar dressing, using a cutting motion

to mix the rice to keep the grains from getting mushy.

The dressing for the sushi rice is made of rice vinegar, sugar and salt.  They are combined with the rice while the rice is hot. Use the paddle to toss the rice or more like cut the rice.  Be careful not to mash the grains.  Some people fan the rice while tossing to cool the rice down as it is mixed.

A variety of toppings

The topping for this chirashi sushi are blanched carrots, sliced cucumbers, marinated age-tofu, egg, shiso leaves and ginger.  Toss the ingredients into the vinegared rice or use as topping like I did with the strips of egg. 

Serves 2-3

2 cups rice

2 1/4 cups water (if using new crop of rice, use equal amount of water to rice)

1 piece of kombu, about 2 inches long

Mitsuba leaves for garnish (optional)

1/2 carrot, julienned and blanched

2 egg crepes, sliced thinly

2 seaasoned Age- Tofu (deep fried tofu pouches), sliced thinly (here is the link for the recipe)

1 cucumber, sliced thinly

5 shiso leaves, sliced thinly

3 tsp peeled and chopped ginger

1-2 Tbls roasted sesame seeds 

Vinegar dressing:

4 bls rice vinegar

4 tbls sugar

1.5  tsp salt

Cook the rice.  Mix the vinegar dressing and add to the rice. Toss lightly.

Prepare the vegetable and the egg.  Mix the toppings with the vinegared rice,

except for the egg.  Use the egg to decorate the top.