Spring sea bream grilled with cherry blossom fragrance, saimaki prawn temari sushi, bamboo shoot in sansho-leaf dressing

1. For the cherry-blossom sea bream grilled with cherry fragrance (sakuradai sakura-ka-yaki): cut the sea bream into small skewer-sized pieces (20g each), wrap them in salt-pickled cherry leaves, and let them sit for 24 hours to take on the fragrance and saltiness. Salt them before grilling.

2. Peel the taro into a six-sided cut (roppo-muki) and parboil it in the water used for rinsing rice. Cut the kabocha squash into squares to match the size of the taro, bevel the edges, and parboil it. Rub the octopus legs with rice bran to remove the slime, tenderize by pounding with daikon, and marinate in daikon juice for 1 hour. Afterward, give it a quick blanch in tea (chaburi) to bring out its color. Simmer the octopus slowly in water, sake, sugar, and soy sauce until tender. Let the taro and kabocha squash each soak up flavor in dashi separately. Cut the octopus to match the size of the taro and kabocha squash pieces. For the cherry-blossom powder (sakura powder): remove the salt from salt-pickled cherry blossoms, dry them, and grind them into powder in a suribachi mortar.

3. For the saimaki shrimp temari-zushi (ball-shaped sushi): skewer flat about 15g of saimaki shrimp, boil in salted water, let cool, then split it open along the belly and shape into temari-zushi. Finish by brushing on a blended vinegar thickened with kudzu starch.

4. For the bamboo shoot dressed with kinome (kinome-ae): parboil the bamboo shoot with rice bran, and cut it into small dice. Let it soak up flavor in dashi. Make a kinome (Japanese pepper leaf) miso, and toss it with the bamboo shoot.

5. For the cherry-blossom lotus root (sakura-renkon): peel the lotus root, keeping the joint whole, into a cherry-blossom shape, parboil it in vinegared water, and let it cool while soaking in water. Bring a red coloring liquid to a boil and tint the surface of the lotus root cherry-blossom pink. Slice it and marinate in sweet vinegar.