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chirashi sushi


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For the uninitiated, chirashi sushi is usually a mix of raw fish on a bed of seasoned rice.

Tonight's dinner is chirashi sushi from a pan-Asian restaurant in midtown Manhattan called Fusha. I've had lots of chirashi from other places, but I think Fusha's version is one of the definitive versions. Most chirashi ranges from a boring mix of fish to mediocre selections -- tuna, salmon, yellowtail, octopus and mackerel being the mainstays. Fusha's selection included all of the above, along with striped bass, tamago omelet, unagi, salmon skin, ikura, shrimp, spanish mackerel, squid, fluke, nori tempura, radish pickles, lemon slices and toasted sesame seeds, along with the obligatory wasabi and pickled ginger.

Had any lately? What's in your favorite?

Soba

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Egad, Soba. Did all that fit onto a bowl of rice?

I like chirashe-zushi to be relatively simple as I regard it as a kind of common meal. Sushi rice (vinegared) with various tsukemono, tamago, and perhaps three kinds of seafood and some roe.

I'd be interested in something like Fusha's extravagant selection but wouldn't want it to define chriashe-zushi for me.

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Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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I think Fusha must be losing money on some of their selections. For instance, they offer a toro scallion maki roll for $7. Now, there might be different kinds of toro, but where I usually have it, expect to pay at least $10 or $15 for a piece of toro sashimi or sushi.

Getting back to their chirashe-zushi, it was a pretty large container. The radish pickles were carved into the shape of roses, the wasabi was a small-ish ball of paste, and we're talking at most, one or two slices of fish. Generous serving of ikura.

And this was had for less than $16, which is damn good for the amount of fish at that price. :blink:

Soba

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I agree that simple is better when it comes to chirashi-zushi.

I really like lotus root, shiitake, ikura, and abura-age. Shredded omelette and seafood like cooked shrimp or unagi are nice touches too; anything else is just there. Somehow I don't care for sashimi or pickles.

The very best chirashi-zushi I've ever had didn't come from a store, it was made by the woman who runs the English school where I teach. Now that I think about it, it's made me kind of picky about chirashi-zushi. I guess that's why I almost never order/buy it- it's never as good as the one my boss makes.

My eGullet foodblog: Spring in Tokyo

My regular blog: Blue Lotus

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I love chirashi zushi but I don't think I have ever ordered it at a restaurant or even take out. It is one of those dishes that I prefer te "homestyle" taste. Most of the ones yous ee in restaurants in Japan are just fish and maybe some egg, I like mine with a lot more vegetables. Especially renkon (lotus root), nanohana (broccoli rabe), shiitake, etc my favorite mix of fish is scallop, salmon and ikura. Like smallworld I guess I am picky about my chirashi, once you have had it really good it is hard to eat it anyway else.

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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  • 10 months later...

look what I had for lunch today :biggrin:

i8866.jpg

it set me back only 490 yen (($4.50) and as I bought it at Seijo Ishii, a very upscale market, the fish was incredibly fresh. It was wonderful on a hot humid day like today!

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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Stone:

Fusha

1065 First Avenue

New York, NY 10021

Tel.: (212) 752-8883

Their toro scallion roll is mediocre.

I usually get their chirashi (which has declined in quality) when I'm feeling lazy.

YMMV however.

Soba

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  • 8 months later...
so who cheats and uses chirashizushi no moto when making it at home?

My MIL always does and my the number of varieties available in the stores I assume many people do as well. I admit it is a time saver when making the gomoku style chriashi....

I often do that if I'm making chirashi-zushi just for me and my husband (my daughter won't eat rice that has vegetables mixed in, so she gets "plain" seasoned rice). More expedient than buying & cooking each individual ingredient.

SuzySushi

"She sells shiso by the seashore."

My eGullet Foodblog: A Tropical Christmas in the Suburbs

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I dunno, it would take me just as long to walk up to the supermarket and back to buy the instant stuff as it would to just make it from scratch! :laugh:

So what kind of hina-chirashi does everybody have planned for Doll Festival tomorrow?

We usually have clams (hamaguri) in clear broth with the hina-chirashi.

Hina-chirashi is probably the most elaborate chirashi-zushi I make at home all year. First comes a basic gomoku barazushi (sushi rice mixed with things dried shiitake, carrot, sesame seeds, kampyo (dried gourd strips), aburage (thin-sliced fried tofu, koya-dofu (chunks of freeze-dried tofu). The gomoku-zushi goes into a bowl, and some nori is torn up and sprinkled over it

Hina-chirashi is the only time I use that fluffy, pink cod (tara), which is put in clumps here and there on the gomoku-zushi, alternating with little piles of thinly shredded omelet. It's not that hard to make it yourself, and will turn a pale pink even without coloring...but I admit that I've only made it at home once or twice.

What you put on the final layer is up to you. I use simmered temari-fu (decorated balls of wheat gluten) if I can find them, koya-dofu otherwise. Pieces of crunchy vinegared lotus root. Pieces of simmered dried shiitake. Nanohana (rape buds) or broccoli rabe or snowpeas. Cubed thick-baked egg (atsuyaki-tamago) to please son2, prawns to please son1.

Since hina-chirashi is a type of bara-zushi rather than Edo-mae chirashi, raw sashimi isn't traditional, but slices of colored kamaboko (steamed fish paste) are common. A few salted cherry blossoms added to the rice (cut the salt in the rice seasonings a little) or scattered over the finished sushi look pretty.

When my kids were in kindergarten, I made chakin-zushi "dolls" (a ball of sushi rice inside a thin omelet, folded to look like a kimono, topped with a quail's egg head) for their lunchboxes.

We don't put up dolls, since we have boys, but they insist that we need to eat the traditional foods for the day!

Sorry for all the unnecessary info for old Japan hands...hoped it might be of interest to others!

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In the supermarket today I noticed a heap of packs of fresh mixed herbs "for your hina-chirashi".

I've seen quite a few summer herb chirashi-zushi, especially with edible flowers, but this was a surprise - looked like Italian parsley, chervil, chives, and I didn't really see what else was in there!

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I usually like mine to have a fairly simple selection of fish as well. But the version Soba is describing sounds tasty enough and for $16.00 it's definately worth a try.

I make it at home and I order it when I go out.

At home I make it with tuna or yellowtail, chiffonade of lettuce, kaiware sprouts, finely julliened carrot and finely jullienned cucumber, garnish with tobiko row. Sometimes I dress it with soy and wasabi. Sometimes with Kochujang thinned down with

Rice vinegar.

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Made a gomoku (5 flavored) chirashi last night.

First I cooked the rice in a rice cooker with some sake and a strimp of kombu (kelp).

Then I made sushi rice my mixing it with vinegar, sugar and salt.

Earlier I had simmered some kampyo (dried gourd) with dashi, soy,sake and sugar and separately simmered some dried shiitake, aburage (tofu pockets), and carrots. These were then combined together and mixed to the rice along with a bit of the leftover simmering liquid.

gallery_6134_549_28586.jpg

it was then topped with (all separately seasoned) lotus root, anago slices, shrimp, egg shredsd and nanohana (broccoli rabe)

gallery_6134_549_46213.jpg

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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My first-ever attempt at Chirashi-Zushi:

My method of making the rice almost exactly the same as Kristin's (above post).

I soaked the rice for an hour with a strip of Konbu, then removed it, added some sake and cooked it. Then I mixed in rice vinegar and sugar.

I boiled some shrimp and used the boiling water as my "dashi"-base, plus some sake, mirin, shoyu, and sugar. I simmered shiitake, koya-dofu, gobo, kanpyo, and carrots in it, then mixed it into my cooked rice. I also had a few shiso leaves (from my baby shiso plants :biggrin::biggrin: ) that I chopped up and mixed into the rice.

My rice mixture ended up looking similar to Kristin's (forgot to take a picture).

I topped the mixed rice with tamago (egg) strips, kaiware (daikon sprouts), the shrimp, Unagi (that I kinda burnt in the broiler), and tobiko roe (since I like tobiko better then Ikura, and it was cheaper).

Taadaa!!!!

ChirashiZushi.jpg

It came out pretty good, except that i burnt my Unagi, and next time I will also add some of the simmering liquid to the rice like Kristin did.

Also, I forgot all about adding shredded nori, or eating it with ginger. :sad:

By the way, how do I know how many "flavors" it has????

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By the way, how do I know how many "flavors" it has????

Very nice! Congratulations!

The "flavors" mean the number of toppings. "Five flavors" (gomoku) is a good-luck number in Japan. (Conversely, four and eight are bad luck because the sounds of the words contain homonyms for death.)

SuzySushi

"She sells shiso by the seashore."

My eGullet Foodblog: A Tropical Christmas in the Suburbs

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so who cheats and uses chirashizushi no moto when making it at home?

My MIL always does and my the number of varieties available in the stores I assume many people do as well. I admit it is a time saver when making the gomoku style chriashi....

I often do that if I'm making chirashi-zushi just for me and my husband (my daughter won't eat rice that has vegetables mixed in, so she gets "plain" seasoned rice). More expedient than buying & cooking each individual ingredient.

I think I might be able to find this at the store mentioned in the link. Can someone clarify the instructions?

I'm not quite sure how to cook the egg.

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I think I might be able to find this at the store mentioned in the link. Can someone clarify the instructions?

I'm not quite sure how to cook the egg.

What, you mean you didn't understand the instructions in the link? :

"Prepare for 1 egg. Beat the egg totally, and bake them on a flying pan.(Thinner texture like crepe would look nice) After baking, slice it into thin species." :wacko:

What you're basically making is thin egg crepes. Beat 1 or more eggs (depending on how much egg you want). You can add few teaspoons of water to the egg to thin it, or a few drops of soy sauce for flavor. Heat a lightly greased or nonstick skillet or crepe pan, then pour in a very thin layer of egg and swirl to cover the bottom of the pan. Cook just until set (it shouldn't brown). If the top still looks runny, you can flip the crepe over to cook the other side for a few seconds. Remove to a plate or cutting board and repeat with the remaining egg. When all the egg crepes are made, fold each one up (like folding a letter, or in fours) and slice into thin, noodle-like strips. ("Pieces" is what the author of the linked article meant!) Use this to garnish the cooked rice. :smile:

SuzySushi

"She sells shiso by the seashore."

My eGullet Foodblog: A Tropical Christmas in the Suburbs

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  • 11 months later...

I made a chirashizushi last night in honor of Hina Matsuri (Girl's Day) it included anago (conger eel), myoga (ginger buds), shiso, and kaiware (daikon sprouts)

gallery_6134_2590_34461.jpg

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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  • 10 months later...
Does any one know what the white gooey-ish thing is? I'm assuming its fluffed up egg white,  :blink: regretted not asking if I could taste that !

Looks like tororo (grated yamaimo -- mountain yam) to me. Slimy textured, right?

A dish like this is usually called "maguro no yama kake".

maguro = tuna

yama = yama imo (mountain potato or yam)

It has nothing to do with chirashi.

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  • 1 month later...

For yesterday's Hina Matsuri I made a simple chirashizushi with a packaged mix :blink:, nanohana (broccoli rabe), egg shreds, maguro and scallops.

gallery_6134_4148_698105.jpg

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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  • 1 year later...

I found this chirashi picture in my imageGullet album and it doesn't look like I ever posted it...

It was very good by the way, with salmon, broccoli rabe and egg

gallery_6134_5519_347263.jpg

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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