Chirashi Zushi (Garnished Sushi)

Sushi is like summer…just when you get used to it, it changes

note:I must remember to take this line out because it looks like it belongs on a coffee cup

There are a short list of sushi favourites that appear on the menu of every sushi restaurant worldwide.  I would like to bet that this isn’t one of them.  In fact a lot of people wouldn’t recognise this as sushi at all, but it is.

Chirazu-zushi is basically sushi rice with an assortment of goodies on top.  It ends up looking like a rice salad if you are not careful with presentation (as you can see from the photo), but the taste is undeniably sushi.

It all starts with the rice:

Cook the rice in stock made with Konbu (wide kelp) instead of water.  Make the stock by soaking a dried piece of konbu in water for about an hour.  Remove the konbu and use the same proportion of the stock as you would usually use of water.

Make a vinegar mix of 1/4 cup rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Sprinkle this over the cooked rice as it is flipped and turned to cool.  Fan it if you like but the aim is to rapidly bring it to room temperature.  The rice should be slightly sweet and glossy from the vinegar mix and should be sticky but not gluggy.

The garnish: 

I think it is legitimate to garnish the sushi with whatever you want, but I will stick to Japanese classics here. 

• Try some snow peas, lightly boiled in salted water 
• Some carrots sauteed in stock, sugar, mirin and sake to taste
• Some prawns cooked, shelled and de-veined
• Shredded omelette
• Mushrooms cooked in sake, mirin and soy 
• Anything else that you think would work in nicely

Serve the rice into either one large or a couple of individually sized plates or containers with sides .  Arrange the garnish on top, trying to use your artistic talents to create a beautiful scene (either this or turn the lights down so it doesn’t matter). 

The dish is served as soon as possible and is eaten at room temperature.  This rule can be broken if you would like to take the food as an obento (lunch box) on a picnic.  This is the perfect excuse to get outside, find a nice spot under a tree and eat your Chirashi-zushi in peace.