Eating out at one of the local sushi restaurants is a great treat, but, when I’m strapped for cash, I make my own.
There are many rolled and shaped types of sushi but this version is one of the easiest to make and requires no special equipment or rolling skills. And nori (seaweed) is not needed.
You can serve/assemble this dish in whatever container you’ve got … a special sushi bowl, a bento box or just a pretty bowl that’s large enough to hold your rice and toppings.
Chirashi or “scattered” sushi starts with a bowl of sushi (seasoned) rice and is topped with an assortment of ingredients. Of course, you may use raw fish (dip in soy sauce before eating) or other items traditionally found in sushi rolls.
Chirashi Sushi – serves 2, 1 1/2 cups of cooked rice per person
1 cup raw sushi rice**, Calrose, Nishiki and Kokuho Rose are what I’ve tried
Cook according to package directions and then season with two to three tablespoons of seasoned rice vinegar. Each cup of raw sushi rice will give you three cups of cooked sushi rice.
** Note: This amount of rice is enough to make 4-6 sushi rolls
I decided to cut back on the rice serving size, to one cup (instead of 1 1/2), so that I could make three different sushi dishes.
Toppings
raw ahi tuna
blanched shrimp
hard boiled egg, sliced into wedges or rings
sliced avocado
sliced green onion
Condiments
wasabi
soy sauce, for the raw tuna
pickled ginger
If you can find wasabi powder, make it fresh ( 1 1/2 heaping teaspoon of wasabi powder with 1 tsp of cold water stirred in) for each sushi meal as the heat lessens as it stands. Store the powder in the freezer to keep it fresh.
Garnishes
shredded nori
masago (capelin or flying fish roe)
Ochazuke or “rice with green tea” is a great way of using up leftover cooked sushi rice, odds and ends from making sushi rolls, grilled fish and blanched fresh or pickled vegetables.
Ochazuke – serves 1
1 cup leftover cooked sushi rice (unseasoned), reheated in the microwave
1 cup of hot green tea
toppings ie furikake (rice seasoning)
If you stir your raw fish into the hot tea, it will poach quickly.
And with my third cup of sushi rice and the last of the raw ahi tuna I had thawed, I made these two traditional sushi rolls. The spicy tuna roll was topped with masago (capelin roe) while the other roll just had strips of the tuna and avocado so that the flavour of the tuna could be appreciated ‘naked’.
Cooking is Fun ... Really!! 
Lovely maki sushi! I haven’t made them for ages… I must start doing it otherwise all the nori I brought from Japan will lose its crispiness (I hope it’s the right word!).
I always think making sushi is a good idea. I understand that if you take a sheet of the nori in a set of tongs and wave it briefly over a hot gas or even electric burner it will ‘toast’/recrisp it again. I’ve never tried it myself. I keep my bag of sushi half sheets in a freezer bag with one of those desiccant packages in it. I’ve had this package for a couple of years and it’s not bad. Not as good as when I first opened it, of course.
Wow, it’s been ages since I’ve stopped by! I have some catching up to do. I think your sushi rolls look great! I have some nori to use – I have a young friend who has wanted to learn. We went out and got everything and then kind of forgot about it – until today!
I bought a package of 200 half sheets of nori so I feel guilty and want to use it up. Make hand rolls. 🙂
Great, needed this to actually try and make sushi by myself. Thanks a lot
Have fun.