A kind of sushi

Chirashi Zushi
This is apparently also sushi. Most often it has some kind of raw fish on it but obviously we've used veggie toppings. You can put anything on top of the Japanese rice but here we've used -

Thinly sliced courgette that's lightly cooked in a frying pan with a little water
Thinly sliced radishes
Lightly cooked asparagus, cut into chunks
Japanese sweetened omelette
Toasted sesame seeds

Sweetened omelette

Beat 3 eggs in a bowl and then mix in 1 tablespoon of sugar. Cook omelette and roll up whilst cooking so it sticks together. There is a technique to this which I haven't mastered yet, I'll let you know if I crack it. Cut the rolled omelette into chunks and layer with everything else on top of the rice. You can also cook the omelette normally and cut it into shreds. I'll be trying that another time.

Dressing for rice

1 cup/200ml rice vinegar

3 and a half tablespoons sugar

Heat in a pan until the sugar dissolves.

Then add 2 teaspoons of salt and a third of a teaspoon of Kombu Cha Powder (this is apparently ground Kombu seaweed that is used to make tea) we didn't have this so I used the same amount of Kombu stock powder. I don't think it's a necessity though.

This dressing should be dribbled onto the cooked rice (about 70-100ml for 320g of uncooked rice) then mixed in.

This recipe is adapted from Harumi's Japanese Cooking.

We served it with some soy sauce and wasabi. We had leftovers and I'm thinking of adding fresh mint and basil for my lunch box tomorrow.