Takikomi gohan

An everyday pot of rice cooked in dashi, folded through at the end and never crusted.

Chicken, Fish. Not vegetarian — contains chicken, fish.

Ingredients

• 400 g Japanese short grain rice
• 440 ml dashi
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons mirin
• 1 tablespoon sake
• 1 aburaage, rinsed and in strips
• 1 carrot, in fine matchsticks
• 4 shiitake, sliced
• 100 g burdock, shaved
• 100 g chicken thigh, in small pieces
• 2 spring onions, sliced

Method

1. NO CRUST, AND THAT IS THE DIFFERENCE. The kamameshi on this site is cooked in a small iron pot and finished with a hard burst of heat specifically to brown the base. This is the everyday version, made in whatever pot or rice cooker you have, and the bottom is meant to be as soft as the top.
2. So there is no final flame, no listening for the crackle, and no scraping. If a crust forms, the heat was too high.
3. FOLDED THROUGH AT THE END. Kamameshi is served from the pot with the ingredients still sitting where they cooked; this is turned over with a cut-and-lift motion so everything is distributed, and it is eaten from a bowl.
4. THE SEASONINGS ARE PART OF THE 440 ml, not added to it. Measure the soy, mirin and sake into the measuring jug first and top up with dashi.
5. Rinse the rice until nearly clear and soak 30 minutes.
6. RINSE THE ABURAAGE IN BOILING WATER first to strip its frying oil, as on the inarizushi page. Oil floating on the water makes the rice greasy.
7. Burdock into water the moment it is cut.
8. Rice and liquid in, ingredients laid ON TOP without stirring. Stirred in, the rice cooks unevenly.
9. Lid on, high heat to a boil, then LOW for 12 minutes. Do not lift the lid.
10. Heat off, 10 minutes to steam, then fold through gently and scatter the spring onion.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Japan · All recipes