Gomoku sushi

Gomoku Sushi is another kind of “special rice” in Japan. Mrs Narita from Kashiwa, Japan gave me this recipe. She brought it to a pot lunch that we both were at, and kindly shared her recipe with me. Gomoku loosely translates as five flavours. Vegetables are added to the rice during cooking, and then the vinegared flavourings of sushi rice mixed in. Toppings are added decoratively, to serve.

3 cups rice

3 cups water

 

2 cups finely chopped vegetables; shiitake mushrooms, carrots, lotus root and burdock (gobo)*

100ml (3 fl oz) white vinegar (or rice vinegar)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt

toppings:

3 eggs, made into omelettes see recipe below
small handful snow peas, trimmed
nori seaweed sheets, snipped

*Any mushrooms can be used, and any hard vegetables. I used fresh flat mushrooms instead of shiitake, and parsnip and celery instead of lotus root and burdock (gobo), in the pictured recipe. Fresh or dried shitake can be used, but dried ones need to be soaked for ½ hour beforehand.

1.       Wash (rinse) rice and place in rice cooker with 2 cups water, add vegetables, stir, put lid on cooker and start.

2.       Meanwhile, combine vinegar, salt and sugar to make sushi vinegar. Set aside.

3.       Make egg omelettes.

4.       Boil, steam or microwave the snow peas until just cooked, and refreshed under cold water and slice diagonally.  

5.      When the rice is done, spread it out in a large bowl, pour over the vinegar mixture and mix in quickly, ideally fanning it to encourage evaporation and absorption of the vinegar into the rice. Place rice into a serving bowl or bento box.

6.       Add the topping of egg, snow peas and nori decoratively.

Japanese Style Thin Omelettes

3 eggs

1-2 teaspoons cornflour (corn starch)

1-2 tablespoons water

Beat two eggs well and add a pinch of salt. Mix together the cornflour* (corn starch) with water and mix it with the eggs. Lightly grease and heat a fry pan. Test by dropping a little egg in the centre. It should sizzle. Pour ½ of the egg mixture into the pan and tilt or swirl to ensure a thin layer spreads quickly over the base. Cook over a mediun-low heat, and when surface of egg mixture is dry, remove from pan and roll up on a dry chopping board to cool. Regrease pan and make another omelette. When cool slice thinly with a sharp knife. Use the cut egg “curls” to top the gomoku sushi.

*Note that the corn flour can be omitted, which is good for those on gluten-free diets.