Hotate Takikomi Gohan 帆立ご飯 Scallops and Rice

Takikomigohan is rice steamed with different ingredients. It can be as simple as green peas or as complicated as several different ingredients such as a gomokugohan. Gomokugohan would have five different ingredients in the rice pot with the rice like chicken, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, hijiki, and gobo, for example. The rice is steamed with water, sake, mirin, and soy sauce.

As Shinji is a fishmonger we often make our takikomigohan with seafood. If you are working with raw fish like a whole sea bream or a filet of salmon, the fish needs to be salted and grilled before adding it to the rice pot. If the fish is not grilled the rice will be very fishy. I made the mistake once and will never do it again.

This is a very simple recipe. The scallops are pre-cooked. The amount of liquid to rice is still one to one, as when steaming white rice. The only difference is that a bit of sake, mirin, and soy sauce is added to the cup before being topped off with water. Steam as normal.

Takikomigohan

Scallops

Japanese Rice

Zakkokumai 雑穀米

Brown rice was featured in a blog on the New York Times recently. Here is the link:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/15/eating-brown-rice-to-cut-diabetes-risk/

Whole grains are naturally more nutritious than white rice. I tried eating just brown rice for several months while living in Japan but was often disappointed. A great alternative for me was to add zakkokumai (a variety of grains) to the rice pot when steaming white rice.

In this blog is a photo of Kagayaki 6-Grain Rice, premixed zakkokumai. I just added a Tablespoon of this to one cup of uncooked white rice and steamed it together and the results are in the rice bowl. The six grains are black rice, purple barley, hull-less barley, rye berries, MG red rice, short grain brown rice.

Following is a list of zakkokumai ingredients popular in Japan:

Zakkokumai 雑穀米 are beans, grains and millets that can be added to a pot of rice before it is steamed. The result is colorful flecked and spotted rice, but most importantly, essential vitamins and minerals are added. These grains can be purchased separately or already pre-mixed. Following are some of the popular zakkokumai ingredients:

Amaransu – amaranth
Awa – foxtail millet
Azuki – dried azuki beans
Daizu – dried soybeans
Hadaga mugi - rye
Hato mugi – Job’s tears
Hie– Japanese barnyard millet
Kibi – common millet
Kinia - quinoa
Kuromame – black beans
Maru mugi – uncracked grains of barley
Mochi – sticky rice
Oshi mugi – rolled barley

Japanese Rice

Kaisen Donburi 海鮮丼

It's a good day when Shinji brings home work, literally Japanese seafood. One morning we had kaisen donburi for breakfast. Kaisen can be translated as "fresh seafood" and donburi is any large bowl of rice with toppings.

This kaisen donburi has ikura (salmon roe), katsuo (bonito), and kani (crab).

Ikura

Bonito

Shinji's Bento 進児の弁当

Braised pork over rice. Side dishes are:
steamed asparagus
namasu (pickled daikon and carrots)
cucumbers and wakame in an umeboshi vinegar dressing
dashimaki tamagoyaki (Japanese omelet)

Umeboshi

Tamagoyaki

Shinji's Bento 進児の弁当

The rice is steamed with scallops, sake, mirin, and light colored soy sauce.

The side dishes are:
steamed green beans
steamed bean sprouts tossed with sesame dressing
dashimaki tamagoyaki (Japanese omelet)
simmered hijiki, carrots, and green beans

Scallops

Bento Box

Shinji's Bento 進児の弁当

Braised pork on rice. Side dishes are:

bean sprouts with a sesame dressing
simmered hijiki with carrots and green beans
steamed broccoli
dashimaki tamagoyaki (Japanese omelet)

Bento Box

Shinji's Bento 進児の弁当

Since our move to NYC it is definitely harder to come up with more traditional Japanese side dishes. Here is a good example of three side dishes made with ingredients that are easy to find in any USA supermarket. Hard-boiled eggs provide for a variety from the more popular Japanese omelet (dashimaki tamagoyaki). Broccoli can be steamed and then topped with some mayonnaise. And, finally, pickling cucumbers with some salt or if you prefer sweeter, with a mixture of rice wine vinegar and sugar. Dried shiso leaves, either red or green, is easy to find, and I always keep some in our pantry. It adds a nice dimension to the pickles.

Teriyaki pork over rice. Side dishes are:
hard-boiled egg
cucumbers pickled with salted and dried purple shiso
steamed broccoli with mayonnaise
simmered hijiki, carrots, and green beans

Bento Box

Shiso