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What You Need:
(To Serve: 6)
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6 cups sushi rice
2 rounds of canned sliced renkon (lotus root)
1 1/3cups niban dashi
1 teaspoon rice vinegar, or substitute 1 teaspoon mild white vinegar
3 tablespoons plus 1½ teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
MSG
1 medium-sized carrot, scraped and sliced thin
1 whole canned takenoko (bamboo shoot), scraped, quartered and sliced thin
2 teaspoons sake (rice wine)
1 ounce (about 2 tablespoons) shelled green peas
4 shiitake (dried Japanese mushrooms)
Vegetable oil
A 2-ounce piece gobo (burdock), shredded and soaked in cold water
3 tablespoons Japanese all-purpose soy sauce
3 eggs
6 medium-sized shrimp (16 to 20 per pound)
3 ounces canned crab meat, picked over to remove any bones or cartilage, and then flaked
GARNISH
1 sheet nori (dried laver)
1 to 2 pieces bottled beni shoga (red pickled ginger)
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Translate this recipe:
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| How To Cook: |
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1. Peel the lotus root rounds and cut them in half horizontally. Slice them crosswise into 1/8-inch-thick slices. In a 1-quart saucepan, bring 1cup of water to a boil. Drop in the sliced lotus root, boil for 10 seconds, then transfer the lotus root to a sieve and drain.
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2. Combine 1/3 cup of the niban dashi, 1 teaspoon vinegar, ½ teaspoon sugar, 1/8 teaspoon salt and a few sprinkles of MSG in the saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat and add the lotus root. Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly, then drain again and set the lotus root aside.
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3. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil, add the thinly sliced carrot and bamboo shoot and boil briskly, uncovered, for 3 minutes. Transfer to a sieve and drain thoroughly.
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4. Combine ½ cup of the niban dashi, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1/8 teaspoon salt, a few sprinkles of MSG and 2 teaspoons of sake in the saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat and add the bamboo shoots and carrots. Boil uncovered for 3 minutes, and drain through a small sieve set over a mixing bowl. Set the bamboo shoot and carrot aside in a bowl. Reserve the cooking liquid.
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5. Bring 1 cup of lightly salted water to a boil and drop in the green peas. Boil for about 20 seconds, then drain in a sieve and add the peas to the reserved bamboo-and-carrot cooking liquid.
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6. Place the shiitake in a bowl and cover with 2 cups of cold water. Soak for at least 1hour. Remove the shiitake from their soaking water, and reserve the water. Trim and discard the hard mushroom stems, squeeze the mushrooms dry and chop them fine.
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7. In a small skillet, heat 1tablespoon of vegetable oil over moderately high heat. Add the drained, shredded gobo and stir for about 1 minute, then add the mushrooms, ½ cup of their soaking liquid, ½ cup of the niban dashi and 3 tablespoons of sugar.
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8. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently, and then stir in 3 tablespoons of soy sauce. Reduce the heat to moderate and cook. For about 15 minutes, or until all of the liquid in the pan evaporates. Remove the pan from the heat and cool to room temperature.
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9. THE OMELETS: In a mixing bowl, beat 3 eggs thoroughly with 1/8 teaspoon salt and a few sprinkles of MSG. With a pastry brush or a paper towel, lightly coat the bottom and sides of an 8-or 9-inch skillet with oil. Heat the pan over moderate heat until a drop of water flicked across its surface instantly evaporates. Pour in just enough of the eggs to coat the bottom of the pan lightly. Cook for about 30 seconds, then turn the omelet over with chopsticks, a spatula or the tips of your fingers-and cook for another 10 seconds, or until firm. Slide the omelet onto a flat dish and cook 5 or 6 more omelets in the same fashion, lightly oiling the pan each time. As the omelets are done, pile them one on top of another. Then with a large, sharp knife, slice the omelets into the thinnest possible shreds.
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10. Shell the shrimp and devein them by making a shallow incision along the top with a small, sharp knife and lifting out the white or black intestinal vein with the tip of the knife. Wash the shrimp quickly under cold running water and pat them dry with paper towels.
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11. Bring 1 cup of lightly salted water to a boil and drop in the shrimp. Bring back to a boil, and boil uncovered for 3 minutes. Drain and set aside.
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12. Pass the sheet of nori over a flame (or candle) on one side only, to intensify its color and flavor, then slice into fine shreds.
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13. Have the previously prepared sushi rice, shiitake, gobo, bamboo shoot, carrot, lotus root, shredded omelets, peas, shrimp, crab meat, pickled ginger and nori within easy reach.
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14. With a wooden spoon or a fork, gently but thoroughly stir the shiitake, gobo, carrot, lotus root, bamboo shoot and crab meat into the sushi rice. Divide the mixed sushi into 6 equal portions.
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15. Firmly pack them into 6 small, round bowls or small, square tins just large enough to hold them. Unmold onto individual plates, and garnish each portion with strips of the egg pancake, a whole shrimp, a few peas, a few slivers of beni shoga, and shredded nori.
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To make FUKUSA ZUSHI, a variation of mazezushi:
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1. Chop all the shrimp coarse and add them, along with the peas, to the ingredients as described in the previous paragraph. Instead of shredding the omelets, however, place them on a cutting board.
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2. Trim the omelets into squares, and place a mound of the mixed sushi in the middle of each. Lift up the sides of each omelet and fold them into the middle to make a neat package.
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3. Then carefully turn the package over to conceal the seams. Lay a thin strip of the noria cross the middle of each, thus decoratively "tying" the package, and decorate with small circles of beni shoga.
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4. Serve mazezushi or the more elaborately presented fukusa zushi as a one dish meal-for lunch or a light supper-perhaps with miso soup and pickles.
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