Festive chirashizushi
A large dish of warm vinegared rice "scattered" with colorful toppings: sweet omelette strips, vegetables, seeds, seaweed, fish or shrimp. Festive, generous, placed in the center for everyone to serve themselves — the festive cuisine of Japan.
A large dish of warm vinegared rice "scattered" with colorful toppings: sweet omelette strips, vegetables, seeds, seaweed, fish or shrimp. Festive, generous, placed in the center for everyone to serve themselves — the festive cuisine of Japan.
Today we don't eat hunched over drawings! We bring out the big dish. The rice, we vinegar it while still warm and fan it by hand so it shines — it's a two-person job, one pours, the other fans. Then we scatter the colors on top like composing a picture: the yellow of the omelette, the green, the pink, here and there, without too much order, because joy is not well ordered. Everyone helps themselves from the same dish. A work always ends around a table.
- •Cooked rice — one large dish (base)
- •Rice vinegar, sugar, salt — to season the rice (sushi-zu (vinegared rice))
- •Eggs in thin sweet omelette (kinshi tamago) — according to dish (sweet yellow garnish)
- •Simmered shiitake mushrooms — a few (umami garnish)
- •Lotus root, cucumber — thin slices (crunch and color)
- •Cooked shrimp or fish — according to occasion (festive garnish)
- •Sesame seeds, seaweed — to sprinkle (finish)
Festive chirashizushi
A large dish of warm vinegared rice "scattered" with colorful toppings: sweet omelette strips, vegetables, seeds, seaweed, fish or shrimp. Festive, generous, placed in the center for everyone to serve themselves — the festive cuisine of Japan.
Why this dish? When a film is completed after years of work, or when a change of season is celebrated, the Japanese table is adorned with a large dish of chirashizushi — colorful, generous, shared. For a craftsman like Miyazaki, attentive to the rhythm of the seasons and small collective joys, it is the dish that says "we made it, let's rejoice together."
Today we don't eat hunched over drawings! We bring out the big dish. The rice, we vinegar it while still warm and fan it by hand so it shines — it's a two-person job, one pours, the other fans. Then we scatter the colors on top like composing a picture: the yellow of the omelette, the green, the pink, here and there, without too much order, because joy is not well ordered. Everyone helps themselves from the same dish. A work always ends around a table.
Ingredients (period version)
- Cooked rice — one large dish (base)
- Rice vinegar, sugar, salt — to season the rice (sushi-zu (vinegared rice))
- Eggs in thin sweet omelette (kinshi tamago) — according to dish (sweet yellow garnish)
- Simmered shiitake mushrooms — a few (umami garnish)
- Lotus root, cucumber — thin slices (crunch and color)
- Cooked shrimp or fish — according to occasion (festive garnish)
- Sesame seeds, seaweed — to sprinkle (finish)
Ingredients
- Sushi rice — 300 g raw (base)
- Rice vinegar — 4 tbsp (acidity)
- Sugar — 2 tbsp (sweet roundness)
- Salt — 1 tsp (seasoning)
- Eggs — 2 (omelette strips)
- Shiitakes (fresh or rehydrated) — 4 (simmered in soy-mirin)
- Cucumber — 1/2 (freshness)
- Cooked shrimp — 8 (garnish)
- Sesame seeds + nori strips — to sprinkle (finish)
Method
- Cook the sushi rice; mix vinegar, sugar and salt, heat gently to dissolve.
- Pour this mixture over the hot rice, fold it in with a spatula using a cutting motion (without mashing) while fanning to make it shine.
- Beat the eggs, cook into thin crepes, roll and cut into fine strips (kinshi tamago).
- Simmer the sliced shiitakes in soy + mirin + a little sugar until absorbed.
- Arrange the rice on a large flat dish, scatter omelette, shiitakes, cucumber, shrimp on top.
- Sprinkle with sesame and nori just before serving at the center of the table.
How it was made : Chirashizushi descends from the vinegared sushi of celebrations; originally, vinegar was used to preserve rice and fish. Having become a celebratory dish (Hinamatsuri, seasonal festivals), it is made in each region with whatever is on hand — hence its "scattered" generosity, never fixed.
The contemporary twist : Present it in a large lacquered box and let everyone "compose their own frame" by picking — a nod to the storyboard, where each colored cell finds its place.
Hayao Miyazaki · Charactorium
