Chirashi Sushi to celebrate Doll Festival or Hinamatsuri in Japan

March 3 is the Doll Festival or Hinamatsuri in Japan.  In other word's "Girl's Day".  What a wonderful tradition to wish and pray for the happiness of your daughter.  To celebrate, a special display of dolls or Hina dolls is set up and of course as in any culture, there is special food. 

Chirashi Sushi garnished with seafood and in this case tiny dolls. The seasoning mix and the pink coloured seasoned codfish, Sakura denbu could not be found so I used crab meat for the pink color.

Prepare sushi rice 

1 1/2 c sushi rice
2 c water

Wash the rice until the water runs clear. This does take a few rinses.
Add rice and water to pot, bring to boil, reduce heat to simmer. Simmer for 12 minutes covered.  Remove from heat, let stand for another 10 minutes, without opening the lid.

1 T rice vinegar
1 T sugar
salt

Add rice to a large plate and spread out,  sprinkle rice vinegar mixture over top and mix

Mix half of the rice with the crab meat. I used a can of crab for this.  

Some of the recipes had added 1 -2 T of chopped beets to get the pink coloring in the sushi rice.  Chopped cucumber was added to color the rice green.

These cakes can be decorated with shrimp, caviar and shredded nori. 

Although the sushi was packed with veggies and seafood, this did not show up in the layers. Pushing the layers to the edge of the mould might help.

Use a mould to shape these cakes.

Layer the crab and sushi rice mixture

Next a layer of nori cut to fit the mould

Wild Alaskan Flavored Pollack

Drizzle of Horseradish Flavored Mayo

Layer of the plain sushi rice

Slices of thinly sliced cucumber

Layer of Kinshi tamale or shredded egg crepe garnish 

Other vegetables can be added, diagonally sliced pea pods, avocado and shredded carrots! 

Recipe for the Kinshi tamale or shredded egg crepe 


3 eggs
1 T Sake
1 tsp cornstarch
sugar can be added
salt and pepper

Mix the cornstarch with sake first
Beat eggs until mixed well
Add cornstarch mixture, whisk until mixed with the seasonings

Heat cast iron over medium heat
Oil pan well, pour about 1/3 of mixture, tilting pan until pan is covered with the egg.  watch closely to not burn, take off heat when bottom has solidified. Lift crepe off pan and reheat pan again

Roll the thin crepes and cut into thin julienned strips for the garnish. 

I had saved a small amount to make a cape for the dolls which doesn't show up that clearly on the sushi, I would use a thin slice of cucumber or carrot next time.  
The hair and eyes were quickly and poorly made out of nori as my son was going out the door and I could have spent more time here!