Chirashi-don / Kaisen-don (Seafood Bowl)

First step is to start making sushi rice or just white rice if making kaisen-don.  While the rice cooks, you can move on to prepping the toppings.  Making sushi rice will take approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes.  Make the Perfect Sushi Rice

Depending on how you purchased your seafood you may be ready to skip to plating. If you need to slice the fish into sashimi pieces then follow my How to Cut Sashimi post here. 

For this recipe, the amaebi is peeled with the head still intact. To do this, simply peel the shell starting right under the head and work your way to the tail, but leave the tail on.                                                                                         

Using your hands or a shamoji (rice paddle), place sushi rice in the bowl and gently flatten the top.                                                           

Place the tsuma first. This is a garnish and should be placed in the background; it also helps stand the ingredients up.                                                               

Next, lay the shiso leaf on top of the tsuma. The bright color of the shiso leaf makes for great contrast but shouldn’t be the focal point. Lay these under a bright-colored fish and have the top partially sticking out.

I lay the amaebi right in the middle since we only have one piece of it. Also the “amaebi no atama,” or the head of the sweet shrimp, can be used for great decorative purposes. You cannot eat these as is, but you can deep-fry them either in a tempura batter or simply on their own.

The maguro goes on next, toward the back partially against the shiso and daikon. Fish with bold colors like maguro can be in the back but still stand out thanks to its rich color.                                                       

Salmon has a bright color as well and is placed on the other side.

Lighter-color fish like hamachi is better placed in front of other bold-color fish.

Tako doesn’t have much color except for the skin, so place it in a way the skin side can be seen.                                                                                           

Smaller ingredients like uni or ikura are versatile and can be placed really anywhere. In this case the uni is rather large so I placed them all the way in front, which contrasted the colors nicely.                                             

Spoon the ikura in the center, add some wasabi and ginger, and serve with a side of soy sauce.