Spring is here! It is time for a little celebration at home. My daughter loves these colorful sushi, clear clam soup with rice cakes inside, and five color sweet vinegar mix (lotus root, carrots, fried tofu, konyaku, shiitake). Rice cakes in soup are made of rice flour. The pink colors in many of the dish symbolizes spring time, sakura and other flower blossoms.
Vegetables such as bamboo shoot, rape blossom, clam, lotus root, pickled sakura & leaves, are commonly used in cooking this season.
Meanwhile I like chirashi sushi, just simple - a set of my favorite raw fish on top of sushi rice*, with thin sliced fried eggs and nori (dried seaweed) and avocado for toppings.
The more time consuming one to make is a complete dinner course consisting:
Freshly cooked brown rice with a sprinkle of salt and grind sesame (black recommended, but i used white).
Vegetable miso soup (thin sliced burdocks, Japanese radish/daikon, carrots and tofu)
Mackerel cooked in miso paste and broth (mackerel has lots of bones but taste great)
Fresh raw octopus or boiled ones pickled with seaweed and cucumber. (You can replace octopus with freshly boiled prawn or squid, or other fresh raw white fish. I won't recommend tuna.)
Fried tofu and vegetables (string bean and pumpkins)
Dessert is a very spring like, an easy to make non-egg pudding with salted sakura as toppings.
The dessert is made mainly of flour and sugar, about 60 gram each. First you melt the sugar in boiling water (150 ml) then add flour while continue to stir/mix well. Pour the mixture into a container through a fine strainer so that you get a finer consistency. Put container in the steamer and steam it for 15-20 minutes. Cut into slices, decorate with salted sakura* and put them in the refridgerator first if you like to serve it cold.
*salted sakura is usually available at a Japanese shop/market during this season
*sushi rice is seasoned using vinegar, sugar, salt and a little of soy sauce - ref. Chirashi sushi recipe in January
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