A Chirashi Bowl is a Japanese rice bowl with assorted raw fish. I remember ordering this on my trip to Tokyo, and absolutely loving it. From the quality of the fish to the beautiful presentation, everything was perfect. Now that I'm back home, I've been craving it so I decided to make it myself.
Last October my wife and I went on a trip to Tokyo and we got chirashi bowls at a restaurant called Donburi Ichiba at the Tsukiji fish market. The quality of the fish was really good, and the food was cheaper than the other restaurants there. I still remember how sweet the sea urchin was, and I would definitely go back if I ever visited the market again.
Unfortunately, I could not find sea urchins for this recipe, but I'm still using a bunch of other raw fish. I'm using salmon, tuna, and ikura (raw salmon eggs). If you have a Japanese seafood shop in your area, I highly recommend going there to get your ingredients. Usually they have everything you need and in "sashimi-quality" too.
Key components
Sushi rice: I cooked my sushi rice in my rice cooker because I don't know how to cook it on the stovetop (shocking, I know 😱). My family has always had a rice cooker so I never learned how to make it on the stove. After you make the rice, you need to season it with rice vinegar, sugar, and salt.
Raw salmon and tuna: The salmon I'm using is the farmed salmon from Costco which I usually use for salmon sashimi. The tuna was gifted to me by my mom, and the packaging says it's Yellowfin tuna. Personally, I actually found Yellowfin tuna a bit too lean. Albacore tuna is my preference. I cut both fish into about ¼-inch thick slices.
Ikura (salted salmon eggs): It took me forever to find these. I had to go to a specialty Japanese frozen seafood shop. Try to find the ones that are a little bigger (about the size of boba). The small ones are OK but I really love the juiciness and texture of the bigger ones.
Tamago (egg omelet): I'll be honest, I hate making tamago. It's so annoying and time-consuming to roll the egg, and it never comes out looking as good as the restaurants. So for this, I just cooked it like a regular omelet and cut it into small pieces.
Can I add other fish?
I think this recipe is very basic in terms of a chirashi bowl. If you're looking for more variety of seafood, you can try adding squid/octopus, shrimp, amberjack, sea bream, scallops, shrimp, or even sea urchins. Just make sure it's "sashimi quality." If possible, go to a Japanese shop that specializes in frozen seafood. I've been to a few Japanese grocery stores/convenience stores, but they don't usually have much in terms of seafood.
Chirashi Bowl
Ingredients
Seasoned sushi rice
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups cooked sushi rice
Egg omelet (my easy version)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons water
- 2 teaspoons oil
Rest of toppings
- 2 large shiso leaves (optional)
- 12 slices salmon sashimi (I used farmed Atlantic salmon)
- 12 slices tuna sashimi (I used Yellowfin tuna but I actually recommend albacore which is more fatty)
- 4 tablespoons ikura (salmon eggs)
- sliced cucumbers
- wasabi
- pickled ginger
Instructions
Seasoned sushi rice
- In a small saucepan, heat the rice vinegar, sugar, and salt over medium heat until the sugar and salt dissolve.
- Mix with the cooked sushi rice.
Egg omelet (my easy version)
- In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, soy sauce, and water.
- Heat the oil in a small nonstick pan over medium heat. Add the egg mixture and cook for 1-2 minutes until the egg is almost set. Flip and cook for another 30-60 seconds until completely set.
- Transfer to a cutting board and chop into small pieces.
Assembling
- This recipe is designed to make two chirashi bowls.
- Divide the rice between two bowls and use a spatula to flatten the rice.
- For each bowl, add a shiso leaf and place 6 pieces each of salmon and tuna on top.
- Now in the rest of the empty space, add 2 tablespoons of ikura, egg omelet, cucumbers, wasabi, and pickled ginger. Enjoy!
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