Chef Saito’s Chirashi Sushi Cake [Japanese Cooking] – Dining with the Chef
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Spring is here! So let’s make some colorful spring dishes: Chef Saito’s Chirashi Sushi Cake, and Crystal-clear Cherry Blossom Jelly.
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(1) Chirashi Sushi Cake
Ingredients (Serves 2)
– 200 g smoked salmon
– 30 g tobiko (flying fish roe)
– 1 avocado
– 1 cucumber
– 1/2 lemon
– 8 stuffed olives
– 3 eggs
– 1 sheet nori
– Salt, sugar, vegetable oil, daikon radish sprouts, as needed
– 540 ml rice
– 1 piece kombu kelp (3 cm square)
– 600 ml water
For the sushi vinegar:
– 100 ml rice vinegar
– 50 g sugar
– 7 g salt
Directions
1. Cook the rice vinegar, sugar and salt in a pot over low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Set aside to cool.
2. Cook the rice, water and kombu in a rice cooker. After it has cooked, immediately mix the rice well with sushi vinegar. Mix the rice, cooling it down rapidly with a spatula and a hand fan.
3. Prepare the toppings:
– Cook the scramble eggs with salt and sugar.
– Cut half of the smoked salmon slice into bite-sized pieces and roll up the other half into a flower shape to decorate the top of the cake.
– Cut the avocado into desired sizes and drizzle with lemon juice to prevent discoloration.
– Cut the cucumber into thin strips.
– Cut stuffed olives in half.
– Tear the nori into small pieces.
4. Pack the rice into a mold, sandwich the salmon and cucumber slices, topping with nori and egg. Remove from the mold.
5. Decorate with the salmon, tobiko, avocado, stuffed olives and daikon radish sprouts and serve.
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(2) Crystal-clear Cherry Blossom Jelly & Matcha
Ingredients (Serves 2)
– 10-15 salt-pickled cherry blossoms
– 700 ml water
– 20 g agar powder
– 100 g granulated sugar
– Matcha, as needed
– 50 ml water
Directions
1. Add the agar and sugar to a pot. Stir in the water little by little and mix well. Place over medium heat and stir until it starts to clear. Remove from heat.
2. Empty into a bowl and cool in an ice bath. Pour it into plastic cups and place the cherry blossoms inside. Pierce the air bubbles, cool to room temperature and refrigerate to set for 3 hours.
3. Use a sterile, sharp-pointed object to poke a hole in the container to release the jelly.
4. For the matcha tea drink – strain the matcha powder through a tea strainer into a tea bowl and add 80 degrees Celsius hot water. Whisk to make it froth.