How to make floral sushi rolls

Around spring you can find some of the cutest recipes for foods here. Most of the time they are designed for hinamatsuri in March, so little boy and girl doll shapes, or they are for children’s day which is coming up in May. Both of these are celebrating children and in spring so there are tons of cute childish motifs. For hinamatsuri, my mother’s education group had a few members get together and we learned how to make sushi rolls that have a flower in the middle when you slice them. They were a bit trickier than I first thought, but I got there in the end. 

What you will need

Ingredients:

Large nori seaweed sheets

Cooked sushi rice (this is cooked rice with sushi vinegar mixed in)

Scrambled eggs

Boiled leafy greens ( we used a mix of spinach, komatsuna, and some other green thing that was growing in one of the members yards)

optional

Sakura Denpu (this is the pink fishy powder used in a lot of display sushis)

You will also need either a sushi roller or saran wrap. 

1. Start by laying a piece of seaweed on top of your nori roller/saran wrap. Spoon a small amount of rice and spread it out the best you can. This can be hard, so have a small bowl of water to wet your fingers to keep the rice from sticking to them. 
2. Next you are going to make two little mountain ranges of rice. The valley between them will be where the egg and denpu goes and this will form the bud of the flower. Tall mountains are best. 
   
3. Before you add your eggs, lay a layer of seaweed covering your mountains. This layer will give more definition to your flowers. Sort of tuck the seaweed under the mountains on the outside, the opposite side of the valley. 
4. Then cram your eggs in the valley. If you decide to use the sakura denpu, you will need way more than you think in order for it to have any impact on the color. The peaks of your mountain ranges will need to touch later so make sure your egg is crammed level with the mountains. 
5. Now you need to put the greens along the other sides of the mountain ranges. I tried several different rolls and found that tucking the greens as close to the base of the mountains made the best leaf shape. 
6. Finally you will roll the sushi. You want the peaks of your mountains to touch, this becomes the stem of the flower. The greens will sort of wrap around everything and form the base of the flower.

Now you can slice your roll and you should get a nice spring flower bud in your sushi. These would be perfect for a little picnic somewhere. Or just enjoy them at home. They are easy for kids to make as well, so if you are stuck for something to do, make lunch.

Here is an unedited video of when we made them.