✿ Peach Festival (桃の節句)

In Japan, today is Hinamatsuri, which is known as the Doll Festival or Girl’s day in English.

It's a special day to celebrate the health and happiness of young girls. The dolls are dolls that ward off impurities and bad luck from children, and are considered to be like guardian deities for their owners.There are different types of Hina dolls sets such as a large set consists of many layers (steps) to smaller one just a couple of dolls with some decorations.

On that day, we have some traditional food such as “Chirashi zushi” （ちらし寿司）and Sakura mochi （桜餅）..etc.

The kanji for "sushi「寿司」" is derived from the Japanese character for "longevity「長寿」," which means "govern longevity," so it is eaten on celebratory occasions, and chirashi sushi in particular is very visually appealing.

Today, I made my favourite chirashizushi with smoked salmon, scrambled egg and sliced lettuce.

I also added organic homemade cherry blossom flakes in it. On top of it, decorate with sliced kanikama (crab sticks) and nori (seaweed).

How to make chirashizushi:

1.      Cook steamed rice.

2.     Add sanbaizu (*) in steamed rice and mix it. (*) Mix soy sauce, vinegar, and mirin in a 1:1:1 ratio. Just an idea. You might want to adjust ratio for your preference. I normally add less sugar (or mirin)

3.     Also add your favourite ingredients. Different colour and textures might be good. e.g. Salmon (pink), Scramble egg (yellow) and edamame (green)When you add fresh seafood, rice should be cool down in advance.

4.     You can also add sliced fried egg and nori (seaweed) on top of the chirashizushi on top. :)

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What is “Sakura Mochi”?

A Japanese sweet associated with cherry blossoms, made by wrapping mochi in cherry blossom leaves.

I will skip how to make it because I do not have a salted Sakura leaves for now but I am planning to make some later…I have to wait for my other Cherry trees to produce leaves.

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It has been changing how to celebrate Hinamatsuri and adults celebrate and enjoy Hinamatsuri for wishing one’s own happiness.

In Japan, we have children's day (boy's festiva) in May. Kabuto and Koinobori are decorated. Traditional food are such as Kashiwamochi and Kusamochi...etc.

With appreciation