Scattered sushi cooked in Donabe 炊き込み寿司

This is a variation of scattered sushi "chirashizushi or chirashi sushi" ちらし寿司. Scattered sushi can have many different toppings including raw fish (in that case, it is called nama-chirashi 生ちらし or kaisen-chirashi 海鮮ちらし) but the most original form is made with mostly vegetables such as shiitake 椎茸, kanpyou 干瓢, renkon 蓮根, and gobou 牛蒡. The common way to make chirashizushi is to make white rice first, dress it in sushi vinegar and mix in or top with the seasoned cooked vegetables, other items, and garnish. 

In this version, I cooked rice and seasoned vegetables together as though I was making flavored rice. After the rice was cooked, I dressed the rice with sushi vinegar and garnished. There is not much difference between this and usual method but this tastes more like flavored rice than classic chirashizushi. I decided to make this after I made "ganmo" since there was excess dried shiitake mushroom and a last bit of gobou remained.

The following amount is for 2 Japanese cups of rice (360ml). The first thing I did was  "mis en place" as you can see on the left of the image below. The black thing is "me-hijiki" 芽ひじき about 1/3 cup after hydration, hydrated and sliced shiitake mushrooms (3-4 medium in size), shredded carrot (1/3 medium), gobou (1/4), and abura-age or deep fried tofu pouch (one regular size, cut in small strips).

I first put dark roasted sesame oil (1 tsp) in a frying pan and sautéed all the ingredients for one minute and added the soaking liquid from the shiitake mushrooms (about 1/2 cup), mirin (2-3 tbs), sake (2-3 tbs) and soy sauce (2 tbs) and simmered it for 20 minutes. I then separated the solids from the liquid (right in the image above). Whatever liquid I collected in the bowl below, I added water (or dashi broth) to make it 400ml.

Meanwhile, I washed the rice (2 Japanese cups, 1 cup=180ml) until the water was no longer turbid and strained it with a strainer.

In Kamado-san donabe rice cooker (or you could use an electric rice cooker), I put the washed rice, the seasoned vegetable mixture and seasoning liquid plus water (400ml) and mixed. As per the instructions that came with the donabe rice cooker, I set the inner and outer lids properly and cooked for 14 minutes on medium flame, turned off the flame and let it stand from 20 minutes without opening. 

While I was waiting for the rice to steep, I put about 1/2 cup of sushi vinegar (from the bottle) in a Pyrex measuring cup and heated up by microwaving. After 20 minutes of steeping, I mixed the rice, remove it to a mixing bowl, and dressed it with the sushi vinegar (use as much as the rice could absorb without getting too wet). I let it absorb for 5-10 minutes and served. I made thinly sliced cucumber (American mini-cucu, salted, kneaded and extra moisture squeezed out) and scrambled egg (for two small servings you see here, one large egg seasoned with salt). I also used thin strips of nori as a garnish. On the side, I served asazuke  浅漬け of cucumber, daikon, and carrot.

This was a nice ending dish for the evening.  The rice was still warm and has many more flavors in the rice than the regular scattered sushi. I used the leftover rice for lunch boxes the next. Even so, we have a lot left. (Just a head-up that you may be seeing more of this rice in the near future.)