Chirashizushi in honor of my mother



New Version

My mother's version

Today was the annual Fort Worth Japanese Society New Year Party, a day when over 100 society members gather to celebrate the New Year, share Japanese food in a pot luck, win raffle prizes, and see old friends.  My mother always loved to go and tried to talk me into going with her.  I usually said I was too busy with church, children, or something.  Now that I'm on the board of directors I go to almost all the events and seeing her old friends, all the little 80 something year old Japanese ladies, I smile to myself and know that my mother would be so happy that I'm involved.  Whenever my mother went to pot lucks she had some often requested favorite dishes.  I watched her make her version of Chirashizushi, scattered sushi, many times.  Today I made two versions, one with brown rice, shrimp, salmon, and imitation crab, the other exactly like my mother's, with vegetables only.  Truthfully, parts of her version were much better, and some elements of mine were better, so I have combined the best of both parts for this recipe.

Chirashizushi Recipe

2 1/4 cups Japanese Rice
1/4 cup sushi vinegar (seasoned rice vinegar)
8 dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated in 2 cups of warm water
1 T soy sauce
1 T sugar
1 tsp mirin
3 eggs
1/2 T sugar
1 cucumber, julienned (1/8 by 2 inches)
1/2 lb. sushi grade salmon
1/2 lb. sushi grade tuna
4 ounces lump crab
2 sheets of nori, toasted and cut into thin strips, julienne size
1 avocado, diced

Prepare the Japanese rice by washing it well with cold water.  .Place rice and 2 1/2 cups water in a rice cooker, or pan and soak for 30 minutes.  If using a pan, bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes or until rice is cooked.. 
Spread the hot rice in a large bowl  and add the vinegar.  Fold the rice gently with a rice spatula and fan it until it cools off.
Meanwhile remove stems from the shiitake and slice thinly.  Heat 2/3 cup of the water used for rehydrating shiitake in a medium pan.  Add shiitake and soy sauce, sugar, and mirin.  Simmer shiitake on low heat until liquid is almost gone.  Set aside.
Beat eggs in a bowl and add 1/2 T sugar, a dash of salt and a dash of soy sauce.  Oil a medium skillet and pour a ladle of egg mixture into the skillet and made a thin omelet-like a crepe.  Turn over, remove to a plate.  Make several of these thin omelet sheets and then cut into thin strips.
Cut the salmon and tuna into uniform, thin slices.  Break the crab meat into uniform pieces.
Cut the avocado into 1/2 inch squares.
Spread the rice in an attractive serving bowl.  Artfully arrange the shiitake mushrooms, fish, crab, cucumber, omelet strips and avocado.  Top with strips of nori.

Feel free to use any type of fresh fish, cooked shrimp, or even stips of teriyaki chicken for your chirashizushi.  If you order this dish in a sushi restaurant the chef will prepare it with a wide variety of fresh sashimi, some vegetables, and egg.  I order it at Sushi Axiom and Japanese Palace and it's always wonderful.