This homestyle sushi turned out so beautifully I printed the image and hung it in my kitchen to remind me to make it again. Chirashi is said to be homestyle because it doesn’t require mad sushi rolling skills or molds- but it is one of the tastiest forms of sushi around and is usually featured as an item on the menu of most sushi restaurants as well. Build yourself a serving of chirashi-zushi as follows:

Layer some sushi rice in the bottom of a bowl (For chirashi, I like to mix a small amount of minced Shiso [Perilla] leaf into the rice) and layer your ingredients on top. Well made sushi rice is the cornerstone here, so take time to properly prepare your japanese short-grain rice as follows:

Rinse several times, followed by a minimum of 30 minutes soaking time. Depending on your rice, use 1:1 rice to water (a scant amount more water for US grown varieties) and cook covered over med. high heat until the water boils, then reduce heat to low for 10 minutes and then allow the rice to rest, still covered for an additional 10 minutes before dressing.

For the dressing, use an aproximately 4:2:1 ratio of rice vinegar, sugar and salt, adjusting the ratio to your taste. ‘Cut’ the rice (I use a chopstick for smaller quantities) as you apply the dressing (proper technique also demands a second person to fan the rice as you do this step- just blow on it). Allow the rice to cool before use.

Once you have the rice down, layer your ingredients. For my chirashi I used (clockwise from top), julienned cucumber, spicy radish sprouts, sweet soy cooked shitake, butterflied shrimp, salmon, tamago, albacore tataki, hamachi, perilla leaf and mirin cooked lotus root slices.

Fortunately for me, I’m a short distance from Uwajimaya, but if you have trouble finding sashimi quality fillets in your area, check out the mail order service available from Catalina Offshore Products.