Sake-zushi (Layered Sushi Rested with Local Sake)
Quick answer
- Active time
- 180 min
- Waiting
- See the steps
- Level
- Hard
- Servings
- 10 servings
- Ingredients
- 20
About this dish
Instead of sushi vinegar, the rice gets a generous amount of akumochizake, Kagoshima's ash-treated local sake, and is layered with separately cooked dried daikon, shiitake, butterbur, bamboo shoot, sea bream, shrimp, and fish cakes.
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Traditional versions use raw cured bream and rest for half a day at room temperature; this home version cooks all the seafood through and rests the covered sushi in the refrigerator for 6 to 8 hours so the aromas meld. Because the sake is never heated, its alcohol stays in the dish, which makes it adults-only and unsuitable for pregnancy, children, or anyone driving afterward.
Ingredients
Instructions
- 1
Rinse 5 cups rice and cook it with 5 cups water and 1 piece kombu.
Discard the kombu, spread the rice 2cm deep on sanitized wide trays, and turn it gently for rapid cooling. Bring it below 21°C within 2 hours and refrigerate at 4°C or below if it is not used immediately.
- 2
Soak 30g dried daikon and 5 shiitake separately, and boil and peel 5 fuki stalks.
Simmer the daikon with 15ml sake, 1.5 tsp sugar, and 3 tsp light soy, then cut to 1cm. Simmer shiitake with 15ml sake, 3 tsp sugar, and 2 tbsp dark soy until dry, then shred.
- 3
Cook the fuki with 7.5ml sake, 1 tsp light soy, 1/8 tsp salt, and enough water to cover, then cut to 1.5cm.
Simmer 150g bamboo shoot with 15ml sake, 1 tsp sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, and a little water, then cut to 1cm. Cut 75g carrot into thin batons and cook with 7.5ml sake and 1/8 tsp salt.
- 4
Beat 4 eggs with 15ml sake, 1.5 tsp sugar, and 3/4 tsp salt.
Cook thin omelets fully to at least 72°C at the center and cut into diamonds. Cut 100g satsuma-age and 150g kamaboko into 1.5cm batons, blanch for 1 minute, drain, and cool. Cool and refrigerate all the cooked daikon, shiitake, fuki, bamboo shoot, carrot, egg, and fish cakes, and take them out just before layering.
- 5
Keep 300g sea bream refrigerated, season it with 1/4 tsp salt for 20 minutes, and pat dry.
Steam or bake until the center reaches at least 63°C, then coat with 1 tbsp rice vinegar and 1.5 tsp sugar. Spread on a wide plate and cool to 4°C or below within 2 hours.
- 6
Peel and devein 10 raw shrimp, straighten them on skewers, and boil.
When opaque and at least 63°C at the center, drain and butterfly them. Coat with 1 tbsp rice vinegar, 1.5 tsp sugar, and 1/4 tsp salt, then cool to 4°C or below.
- 7
Sprinkle 600ml sake and 1 tsp salt gradually over the fully cooled rice and fold without crushing the grains.
Sprinkle the remaining 25ml sake in a sanitized deep sushi tub. Add a 2cm to 3cm rice layer, scatter daikon, carrot, and fuki, then add another rice layer and distribute shiitake, bamboo shoot, egg, and fish cakes.
- 8
Arrange the cooked chilled sea bream, shrimp, and 10 kinome leaves on top.
Cover with parchment and a sanitized plate for light pressure, then immediately rest at 4°C or below for 6 to 8 hours. Lift portions vertically to preserve the layers and serve cold. Discard any portion left out over 2 hours and eat leftovers the same day.
References checked
These references were consulted when this page was prepared or corrected. A source check does not mean the recipe was independently kitchen-tested.
- 일본 농림수산성 うちの郷土料理
「郷土の味」（鹿児島県食生活改善推進員連絡協議会） · Checked: 2026-08-11
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