Spring Sushi for Hina-Matsuri girl’s festival | & spring detox tips! (EP267)
Japanese Girl’s festival “Hina-Matsuri”
I want to share with you, cute little spring sushi balls.
The 3rd of March is the Japanese girls festival “Hina-Matsuri” to wish girls’ health and happiness.
We have only a boy, so I don’t have Hina dolls to display, but I want something related to the day.
It’s maybe out of date, but the Japanese girls festival has more than 1,000 years of tradition, we should take over to the next generation.
What is canola blossom, exactly?
As you might know, canola is a beautiful yellow flower spread like a carpet in spring.
They usually start blooming at the same time with ”Sakura,” so the contrast of yellow and pink looks so beautiful.
Canola flowers are edible when it is very young.
We use it in many spring meals, like this Sushi, stir-fry or salad.
The bitterness in the canola blossom or any other spring vegetables contains Isothiocyanate which improves blood circulation.
And it is said that the spring vegetables work for detox your body.
How to cook canola blossom
Buy very fresh one with no flower blooming.
The plant should soon lose its freshness so I recommend soak in water for un hour to two.
The plant will revive and cook soft.
But be careful if you leave there for more than 3~4 hours; probably the flower will bloom and be stiff to eat.
Branch it quickly in salty boiling water, and drain.
If you want to keep the bright color and the crunch, release in icy water to stop cooking and discoloring.
I don’t want to lose its wild taste, so leave it on the strainer as it is and use fan to cool it down.
It’s up to you which way to cook!
Spring Sushi
Equipment
- rice cooker (or heavy-bottemed pot) bowl, pot, frying pan, plastic wrap
Ingredients
Sushi rice
- 2 rice cups Sushi rice (Japanese short grain rice) 360ml
- 2 rice cups water 360ml
- 1 piece kombu kelp
- 80~100 ml Sushi Vinegar
Sushi Vinegar
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 tbs sugar
- 200 ml rice vinegar
- 1 piece kombu kelp
Canola Blossom
- 1 bunch canola blossom or broccoli rabe
- 1 ts salt for branching
- 1 ts Mentsuyu for seasoning (the link above)
Shrimp
- 6 pieces shrimp
- ⅓ ts salt
- 1 tbs Sake ( or white wine)
Chicken Soboro
- 300 g ground chicken
- 1 tbs Mirin
- 1 tbs sugar
- 1 tbs soy sauce
Egg Soboro
- ½ ts salt
- 1 ts sugar
- ½ ts vegetable oil
Instructions
Sushi Rice
- Start cooking 2 cups of rice in a rice cooker or heavy-bottomed pot.
- Toss in Sushi Vinegar to freshly steamed rice. ※To make 10 to 12 Sushi Balls, toss in 3 tablespoons of Sushi vinegar to about 2 cups of cooked rice.
- While still warm, make small sushi rice balls.Do not squeeze too hard.The rice should be crumbled in your mouth easily.It should not be bigger than a ping-pong ball.
Canola blossom
- Cut off the stem of the canola blossoms and release them into the water to revive the plant.
- Bring a pot of water to a boil and start boiling from the stem for one minute, and boil whole plant for another 1 to 2 minutes.Pinch the stem and it is soft to touch but still has some resilience, it’s OK to finish cooking.You can quench in the cold water, but I love the aroma of its own, so I just strain in the mesh strainer and leave it until it comes to room temperature.
- Cut into 2-inch lengthwise and divide the stem into 2 to make it easy to chew.We are using the leafy part and blossom, keep the stem part for other dishes. Finish using in a couple of days.
- Squeeze out the excess moisture and put it in the container.Sprinkle a small amount of Mentsuyu to season.
Shrimp
- Take the vein off with your toothpick and steam in the small pot for a couple of minutes, and then set aside until used.
- Peel the shell from the shrimp and slice it into two.
Chicken Soboro
- Put the ground chicken into a medium-size pot and pour in a tablespoon of sake.Break up the ground chicken with 3 to 4 chopsticks.
- start heating on medium heat.Cook until heated through.The liquid in the bottom has an uncomfortable smell for me, so discard the liquid. If you don't mind it, keep cooking.
- Put it back in the pot, add in grated ginger, sugar, and soy sauce.Cook on medium heat until almost all of the liquid is gone.
Egg Soboro
- Crack 2 eggs into a measuring cup and add a pinch of salt and a half teaspoon of sugar.Beat well until egg yolk and white well combined.
- Grease lightly and pour in the egg while Then it still warm.What we are going to do is cook it slowly and crumble it up and make a scrambled egg.Break up the egg into very small pieces.It should not be too dry, so stop cooking while it’s still moist.
Assemble
- 〈Shrimp〉Place the shrimp on the center of the plastic wrap, and put the sushi rice ball right on top, and squeeze to put together.
- 〈canola blossom〉place the canola blossom on the center, and put the sushi rice ball on top. Squeeze and put it together.
- 〈Chicken and Egg Soboro〉Chicken soboro and egg soboro.And top with the canola flower.