My Home-Made Chirashi Sushi

Even though the name implies a 'sense of randomness' these dishes can be considered as works of art.
Each restaurant produces their own art piece and I will always order a Chirashi-zushi if it is on the menu  and compare these edible masterpieces.

• Purchase a variety of sashimi grade fish and seafood at your local fish markets. I purchased salmon, tuna and kingfish sashimi, seaweed and and a jar of salmon roe at the Sydney Fish Markets in Glebe. (If you havent been to Sydney Fish Markets it really is worth the visit!) 

• Cook sushi rice as per instructions on the packet. Once cooked, place in a non-metalic bowl and sprinkle over Japanese powdered vinegar onto the rice, fanning and turning until rice reaches room temperature. Cover until ready for use

• Using a very sharp knife, cut fish into even sized strips and place on a board ready for assembly.

• Mix three eggs with some salt, sugar and mirin. Beat eggs well. Cook omelet in a non-stick pan. Fold the egg as it sets. Once cool slice into thin strips.(The Japanese use a special rectangular pan for this).

• Heat a sheet of Nori over a gentle flame, this will make the nori nice and crisp! Cut into thin strips. At this stage all your ingredients for your Chirashi-zushi should be ready for assembling.

• The trick to Chirashi-zushi is to have a balance between fish and rice. There should be a good combination of flavours, textures and colour. I placed the vinegared rice in the bottom of each bowl and topped it with a combination of the fish, seaweed, egg and finally topping with the luscious looking salmon roe and crispy nori.

Most of my family live overseas, scattered across different islands and areas of Greece. My grandmother is a very inspirational and wonderful woman. I don’t get to see her much except through the occasional Skype dates that we try to set up. Last year, however I was able to go to Greece to visit her and spend some time with my distant relatives.

INGREDIENTS 3 bunches of fresh spinach 1 onion (chopped finely) 6-8 spring onions (chopped) 150g feta cheese 35g freshly grated parmesan   1 tablespoon fresh dill (chopped) 1 generous pinch of nutmeg 1/2 cup fresh parsley (chopped) 12 sheets of filo pastry (thawed) 3-4 tablespoon unsalted butter (melted) + some olive oil

METHOD 1. Trim the stems of spinach and clean them well in cold water. Drain. Roughly chop them and place in a steamer. 2. Steam for 5-8 min or until the leaves are wilted 3. Drain. Squeeze out the excess water from the spinach. 4. Take a skillet and heat 1 tsp of olive oil and sauté the onion until tender. 5. Add the spring onion and cook for another 2-3 min. 6. Remove from heat and then add spinach, herbs, cheeses and nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper if required. 7. Preheat oven to 180C. Place the 3 sheets of filo at a time. Mix the butter and 2 tbsp olive oil in a small bowl. Brush each sheet with the butter mixture and lay on top of another. 8. Cut into equal thirds lengthwise. 9. Spoon a little filling on an angle at the end of each strip. 10. Fold the pastry over to enclose the filling to form a triangle. 11. Brush the top lightly with the butter mixture. 12. Place triangles on a baking tray to bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown

Hello everyone!

The fourlittlefoodlings are back with another restaurant review! Today's review is about one of my favourite japanese restaurants in Sydney, Busshari Authentic Japanese Restaurant. Located along the main roads of Potts Point and about 5-10 minutes walk from Kings Cross train staion, it is not exceptionally hard to find.

When you enter the dimly lit restaurant, you are greeted warmly by the hospitable staff who are ever so nice and friendly. The restaurant is fairly small and the chef quitely slicing the sashimi and preparing sushi at the sushi bar.

The staff there were very helpful and the waiter still remembered us from 2 weeks ago which was rather impressive. Having been here before, we sort of knew what we wanted and wanted to try new items. Busshari has a daily special menu which was rather interesting and excellent if you are a frequent customer and want to try new and seasonal dishes.

The first item we ordered is a definte must try, the Seafood Sashimi and Seasonal Vegetable Salad. It has to be one of the best salads I've ever had and I'm not kidding! The vegetables in the salad are fresh and crisp and the sashimi slices in the salad are thick, succulent and fresh and with over 4 kinds of seafood in the salad. The salad dressing is the main lead in the salad which ties everything together, its refreshing, tangy and nutty, an excellent and mouth-watering dish to start the meal with!

Next up is the Chef's Sashimi Selection Plate which is highly recommended as well! The sashimi is so wonderfully fresh and thick and has to be one of the best and freshest sashimi selection I've had in a while. My friend commented that the chef's slicing skills is really good and clean too.

Spider Sushi Roll, was a wonderful dish. The soft shell crab was crispy and tasty, wrapped with avocado and cucumber and red tobiko on the outside. The combination made this dish suprisingly appetising and craving for more. The only down side of this dish was the rice which was overly sticky and soft and it fell apart as soon as you bite into the sushi.

Next is the Grilled Eggplant topped with Miso Paste. This dish has a very interesting concept, with one side of the eggplant topped with black miso paste and the other side with another type of miso paste, the "black and white" concept was appealing and appetising and was suprisingly delicious and the eggplant was juicy and the combination with the miso paste tied in really well. Both of the miso paste were different in taste and texture, thinking about it now makes me crave for more.

We also ordered Beef Tataki Salad, which is thinly sliced beef topped with grated daikon and spring onions. The beef was wonderfully made and it was made just nice. It was very light and refreshing and it went pleasantly well with the soy based dipping sauce that came with the dish.

This next dish was a daily special that day and because I loved scampi, it was something I just had to try! This is the Pan-fried Scampi topped with special mayonnaise made by the kitchen, the outer bowl which contained the scampi was like a cracker, very crunchy and tasty just that it was too oily for my liking, the scampi was pan-fried nicely however it lost the special texture and sweetness you get when eating raw scampi and so this dish was a miss for me.

After going through all those dishes above, my friends and I were still itching for some food so we decided to give the Rainbow Sushi Roll a shot, in the menu description, it was tuna, king fish, ocean trout, king prawn, cucumber and avocado so my friends and I were expecting a beautiful sushi roll and all kinds of different fish wrapped in rice so we were rather disappointed when this dish arrived. The taste was rather expected and it was nothing special, so this would be a miss for me as well.

And lastly to end our wonderful meal at Busshari, we had desserts!

We ordered a Dessert Platter where we got to pick any 3 desserts in the dessert menu and were in smaller proportions, something like a sample platter which for us we got the black sesame ice cream, roasted green tea ice cream and sesame tart. I have to say that I really enjoyed their dessert! Everything in the dessert platter was suprisingly lovely and was not overly sweet nor bland. Both the ice creams managed to retain their original flavour without it being too sweet and the sesame tart has to be my favourite in this platter, it was not too sweet and had a strong sesame taste to it which was something of my taste.

The three dishes above were full size desserts, the Roasted Green Tea Ice Cream and my favourite dessert of the night Mont Blanc aux Marrons which were all served with Warabi Mochi.
The Mont Blanc aux Marrons is chestnut puree with vanilla mousse where the outer layer of the tart is chestnut puree which was pleasantly sweet and a nice creamy texture with vanilla mousse in the middle of the tart which was light, airy and slightly bland just right to even out the sweetness from the chestnut puree with a crunchy tart at the bottom when put together makes a wonderful combination and just the thing to end the night beautifully.

Overall I really enjoyed my meal at Busshari, the winners for the night defintely had to be the Seafood Sashimi and Seasonal Vegetable Salad and the Chef''s Selection Sashimi Plate. I absolutely adored these two dishes and wished I could bring home these two dishes to savour at home. I wished I stayed near Busshari so I could have these two dishes everyday! It has to be one of the best japanese restaurants I've been to in a long time.
Price: $50-$70 per person

Busshari Authentic Japanese Restaurant
119 Macleay St Potts Point 2011 
Opening Hours: Mon-Sat 6pm-11pm

Tel: +61 02 9357 4555
Website: www.busshari.com.au
Reservations: reservations@busshari.com.au

Hope you guys like this restaurant review!
Have a great week ahead!

Foodling 3

5-6 whole black peppercorns

Roast the dry ingredients of the marinade and grind them together. Add ginger and garlic until you get a thick paste

Other Ingredients

1kg boneless chicken fillets
800g tomato puree
200g butter
400ml fresh cream
200g plain yogurt
3-4 sticks of cinnamon
1 teaspoon red chilli powder (optional)
salt to taste

Recipe

Cut the chicken into cubes

Mix the yogurt with 4-5 tablespoons of the marinade and marinate the chicken in the mixture. Add salt to taste

Allow the chicken cubes to marinate for at leaste 6-12 hours.

Grill the marinated chicken on a very hot barbeque or under the grill or in a wok. Do not overcook as it should be juicy.

For the sauce add butter to heavy based pan. Add the cinnamon sticks and saute lightly. Do not allow the butter to burn.

Add the tomato puree and simmer gently for five minutes.

Add the chilli powder and salt to taste.

Finally add the cream and cooked chicken pieces and simmer for five minutes. Save some cream for garnishing the dish just before serving.

Serve hot with naan bread or basmati rice.