Sushi Dinner

Recipe: "Master Recipe for Sushi Rice", "Sushi Vinegar Dressing", "Salmon Roe and Sea Urchin Decorated Sushi (Zeitaku chirashi)", "Thin Roll with Cucumber (Kappa-maki)", and "Fish Stock Preparation (Dashi)" from "The Sushi Experience" by Hiroko Shimbo.
Rating: Tasty
Status: Made once.

Dinner tonight was 5 pieces of nigiri sake (salmon), 2 Kappa-maki (cucumber rolls), miso soup, and salmon roe and sea urchin (uni) decorated sushi (zeitaku chirashi).  Made with 2 rice cooker cups of rice.  This was a good amount for two people for dinner.  I'm not sure why there are only 5 pieces of nigiri; I meant to make 6.

Instead of the dashi recipe that I normally use from "Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art" by Shizuo Tsuji, I tried out Hiroko Shimbo's dashi recipe.  I made 1/3 the quantity, which makes 1 quart of dashi; I boiled the kelp since I didn't plan ahead enough to soak the kelp overnight.  I also liked this recipe and the dashi seems flavorful enough; the main difference between the two recipes is that Hiroko Shimbo's recipe uses about half as much konbu and bonito.  The second difference is that Hiroko Shimbo has you keep the bonito in the hot water for longer (2 minutes and 10 seconds); this gives the dashi broth a smokey flavor, which William noticed in the miso soup and said that he liked because it reminded him of being warm and cosy in front of a fireplace.  I added some cut up pieces of dried wakame seaweed to the hot dashi, and simmered for a about five minutes until soft, and then added some miso which was disolved in some dashi to taste.

I left out the pickled ginger in the chirashi since I didn't have any, and I didn't garnish one of the chirashi bowls with seaweed since I wasn't sure if it looked pretty.  I also just used plain soy sauce as the dipping sauce.

In this video, Hiroko Shimbo explains how to make chirashi; the chirashi bowl in the video is different than the one that I made tonight, but her book "The Sushi Experience" gives more details on the cutting techniques and recipes mentioned in the video.

Miso soup with wakame seaweed