Chirashi sushi (scattered sushi)

Chirashi sushi is a traditional sushi bowl combining seasoned rice, sashimi, shredded omelette and more. It's colorful and elegant but also easy and delicious. Perfect as a celebratory dish or as an alternative to rolls etc for sushi at home.

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I'm not sure quite how it came to be the case, but my kids are now somehow fans of raw fish but less so cooked version. Sushi is a favorite meal at home and often requested for birthdays. So you can imagine they were in heaven and requested it daily when we visited Japan last year. 

When we have sushi at home usually, I typically make a mix of some California rolls or similar and some sashimi. I appreciate making rolls can seem a little daunting, so this more sushi bowl is a great alternative for an easier sushi at home experience, without just eating fish or takeout.

Yes, it's traditionally a little more composed, but it only needs to be as pretty as you choose. You can adapt the toppings to what you have and prefer. The difference in making your own rice is well worth the effort and it's a dish that can easily set you up to impress, too. 

What does chirashi sushi mean?

Chirashi means "scattered" so chirashi sushi means scattered sushi. Sometimes it goes by kaisen chirashi sushi, or just chirashi. You can adapt the dish a little to taste, but it has a few typical layers.

The base is a layer or seasoned rice which you then top with strips of omelette. On top of that, you add your main toppings which generally include sashimi and some vegetables. You often include other seafood elements such as shrimp, sticky eel (unagi) and/or fish roe. The vegetables can vary but snow peas, lotus root, shitake and carrots are common.

While the name means "scattered" in reality it's much more composed. You might scatter the omelette but the top layer is generally arranged in a pattern.

Is chirashi sushi the same as kaisen-don?

The dishes are similar but there's a key difference: the rice. Kaisen-don or donburi is simply sashimi over plain cooked rice. The rice is not seasoned. For chirashi sushi, the base is like the rice you find in maki and nigiri where you add seasoned vinegar to the cooked rice. Also the rice in kaisen don is hot while in chirashi sushi, it's room temperature.

Donburi is the general term for a rice bowl and you can have many different types, like katsu don (with pork or chicken katsu on top). Sashimi is a common topping for an easy rice bowl, and you'll find it in many non-sushi restaurants in Japan.

Chirashi sushi is more typically sold is sushi restaurants only as it's that bit more involved and uses the seasoned sushi rice. The toppings tend to be a little more elaborate too, and go beyond seafood, like the omelette strips and vegetables.

Components and variations

As mentioned above, this dish has a few components, with some being a little adaptable to taste. The ingredients I have used here and ways you can adapt them are:

• Sushi rice - the typical rice for sushi is a Japanese short grain variety, which you can normally find sold simply as 'sushi rice' in most supermarkets.
• Rice vinegar, sugar and salt - these form the rice seasoning.
• Egg omelette - most typically, you make kinshi tamago which is essentially a very thin egg crepe. The egg crepe can take a little practice to make it look pretty, but even a less-than-perfect one (as mine here!) will be just fine once cut into strips. As an alternative, you can add slices of tamagoyaki which is a thicker sort of omelette and usually seasoned.
• Sashimi - be sure to use fresh, good quality sushi-grade fish for this. Here I used tuna but you can use other fish such as salmon and hamachi/yellowtail.
• Other seafood - here I added cooked shrimp for a bit of variety but you can skip it, add more sashimi, or add other seafood instead. Other common additions are unagi (a sweetened cured eel) or crab/imitation crab.
• Fish roe - traditionally you use either tobiko (flying fish roe) or ikura (salmon roe), but you can use what you can find though I suggest a yellow/orange roe. The texture is a lovely contrast and it adds to the decoration.
• Vegetables - these help to add more pops of color to the dish as well as variety in texture and flavor. Here I used just snow peas, but as mentioned above carrot, lotus root and shitake are also common. Blanch or otherwise cook the vegetables until tender and cut in small slices or as with the snow peas, cut diagonally.

How to serve chirashi sushi

You'll find two main ways to present this dish. The first is as an individual serving, which if you get it eating out can be a square dish rather than a bowl. At home, you more typically use a bowl, as I have here.

The other way is as a larger platter (called a hangiri) which you then serve to smaller plates. This way is often more decorative as it's common for celebrations such as Hinamatsuri (girl's day) and children's day.

For both, you make your layers in the dish then serve. Other than seasoning the rice, you don't add any sauces or other seasoning to the dish. Instead, as with maki and nigiri, you have your own small dish with soy sauce on the side. You take some of the rice from the bowl and dip in the sauce before eating.

Chirashi sushi is such a pretty, elegant dish but easier than you might think to make. Yes, you have a couple things to prep, but then it all comes together quickly and the result is a feast for your eyes. And it tastes great, too.

Try these other rice-based dishes:

• Nam khao (Lao crispy rice salad, with herbs, spice and a lovely mix of crunch and softer rice)
• Nasi goreng (Indonesian fried rice that's easy to make with a tasty seasoning)
• Hoedeopbap (Korean sashimi rice bowl, with some similarities to kaisen-don but a mix of sashimi and more salady ingredients and a punchy sweet-spicy sauce)
• Plus get more Japanese recipes and seafood recipes in the archives.

See some of my favorite cooking tools and ingredients in the Caroline's Cooking Amazon store. 

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