GOHAN Japanese rice, A to Z

RICE

The most important ingredient of Japanese cuisine is rice. Japanese rice are of the japonica style, they are round and firm. Outside Japan, you can get some sushi rice, or Italian arborio that are of japanica cultivar too. Sticky rice is a different type, it’s called mochigome in Japanese. Rice has different names in Japanese. Kome, okome, the plant. Gohan, meshi when it’s cooked…

how to cook Japanese rice (without a rice cooker)
genmai brown rice(healthier)
sticky rice

The bowl of unsalted, unflavored but perfectly cooked hot white rice is often present on the the table.
But, you have many variations.

onigiri
The rice “sandwich”. Shape hot rice in your hands.

basic
yaki onigiri (grilled)

domburi

Rice bowls : fill half of a big bowl with hot rice, add some toppings.

gyudon (beef)
tendon (tempura)
oyakodon (mama-baby, chicken egg)
soboro (sloppy joe domburi)
eight treasures

takikomi gohan

Flavored rice dishes. Ingredients are added in the rice-cooker. There are millions of possibilities. A few classics :

chicken rice
kaibashira (scallop)rice
oyster rice

sekihan (red rice)
mame gohan (green peas)
kuri gohan (chestnut)

sushi

Click here to go to the sushi compilation

Bento
Fill a part of your lunch box with rice.

midori okowa
chirashi bento
Unaju (eel)

yakigohan
Stir-fry your rice leftover :

nira fried rice
buta-kimchi rice (pork)
soba meshi (with noodles)

More elaborated dishes :

omurice (omelet filled with rice)
doria (retro baked rice)

o-cha-zuke

Okayu
Rice porridge, often a breakfast.

nanakusa okayu (7 herbs)
red okayu
umeboshi
salmon

More ?
Also see mochi (rice paste), and wagashi (Japanese sweets)

Coconut black rice doria

Coconut power !
A light summer version of the doria gratin, with very sweet coconut and cinnamon flavors. The black rice is a sticky rice that naturally brings a sweet texture and flavor. It’s nearly a dessert. I could have eaten 2 or 3.

what is a doria ?

Black rice, young onion and carrot, stir-fried in coconut cream.

Layer 1 : cooked chick peas.

Layer 2 : the rice

Layer 3 : white sauce
It’s a leftover of millet white sauce. I have added more coconut cream. Reheated. Just poured on the rice.

Yummy !

Cinderella gourmande, recipes of golden carriage

Beware little pumpkin, the hunting season is officially opened !
Well, the kabocha (pumpkin) is on the tables year round in Japan.
Read more here.

photo kabocha menu

Most Japanese pumpkin are the sweet non-watery type (potimarron, chestnut-pumpkin). They are delicious just steamed or simply cooked… If you want more ideas for variation, here is a little compilation.

Japanese meal with kabocha skin and kabocha bread toasts

pumpkin samosa and roast kabocha

pumpkin tofu jewel cake

raw pumpkin pie

creamy pumpkin pie

kabocha cardaman buns savory tarte au potiron

Pure potiron

Foamy soupe de potiron
Pan-fried kabocha
Fitness creme de potiron

Japanese kabocha classics

Kabocha no nitsuke
Tempura with kabocha
Okowa (steamed sticky rice) in kabocha

Not on photo :
Summer food rainbow
Shrimp doria with kabocha
Dengaku tofu, kabocha…

World pumpkin

Noodles with kabocha and bamboo shoots
Spring rolls
Ramen soup with kabocha
Pumpkin “risotto”
Pumpkin rosemary spaghetti
Pumpkin couscous

Sweet citrouille

Kabocha yokan
Souffle de potimarron
Vegan pumpkin chi’cake
Thai steamed pumpkin custard

with soba (poached)
roast (chick sand)

Purée

kabocha salad
millas (cake)
chana dal chilled soup
kabocha yokan (Japanese sweet)

The grated raw flesh

August veg’
color slaw
shred veggies

miso soup
salad with fried tofu
mabo tofu

grilled
opened with the teeth
the green seed, to enjoy with a little salt

Veggie-ful shrimp doria

Today a shrimp Doria. Classic ? Nope, I dropped the 19th century sauces.
Mushroom Doria, and the “story” of the dish

My sauces are kabocha and broccoli.

Brown rice, stir-fried with onion, shrimps (big ones) and a tbs of ami-ebi. The ami-ebi are tiny salted shrimps. They melt and serve as a flavoring.

I melted a chunk of butter in the rice.

No pre-cooking for broccoli, just juicing and adding to the rice. Bottom layer.

The kabocha is boiled (5 minutes in microwave) and mashed with a fork, into sauce texture. Parsley. That makes a second layer.

Top is bread crumbs mixed with dried herbs, a little butter, then almond slices.

Out of the oven…

3 layers of bliss.

The whole casserole (made with 2 servings of rice)
Cal718.5 F26.1g C109.2g P29.0g

Where do you hail from Miss Doria ?

Kinoko Doria. Mushroom Doria.

It’s a hot comforting dish totally adopted by Japan… but where does that come from exactly ? Big mystery !

It seems Miss Doria arrived, without her luggage in the port of Yokohoma, at least 100 years ago.
I never got an explanation from where it comes. What country ? Wikipedia says it’s from mine.
Roughly, their tale :

At the origine, the dish was created in a restaurant in Paris and name from the noble Italian family “Doria”. That was a dish with cucumber, egg, and tomato to represent the flag of Italy…. Then in 1925, it was made in Yokohama, by Swiss chef Saly Weil , with shrimp bechamel…

Logical ? Plausible ? Saly Weil arrived in Japan in 1927, they also say.
There is a little more on that chef on the web.
Saly was a man… I liked the idea of an international woman chef in the 1920’s. Too bad.

I have not found anything about Doria in Europe.

So you were born in Paris, Miss Doria ? Champignons de Paris, mushrooms. Why Paris ? Because they started growing some mousserons wild mushrooms in the caves under Paris. Probably at the time of the supposed Doria invention.

Make a 3 step doria

1. Make rice :
Rice pilaf or refried in sauce… any flavor is OK.

2. White layer
Top with white sauce and cheese. The layer can be… very thick. I am little player. I don’t want to be able to say it’s as thick as my waist and hear people giggle and say : “Oh yeah !”.

3 Gratinage
In the oven, 10 minutes. Serve hooooot ! You can even serve it on a keep-me-hooot brasero.

Kobe being a copycat town of Yokohama, it has a number of Doria Restaurants. All over Japan, it is served in the Yoshoku Restaurants. Yoshoku is old-style “Western for Japanese” food that started from Meiji Era. The Doria shops offer countless variations.

Types of Doria

Common colors of rice sauce : yellow (butter and “saffron”), red (tomato), orange, brown (meat sauce), green…
Common types : plain doria, chicken doria, seafood doria
Optional topping : I have seen some topped by : a hamburger, an egg, a big shrimp, tons of cheese, an omelette, sausages, meat-balls, fried items like croquettes…

Sunny sides.

Well, today’s flavor… it is a Milano-fu Doria (Doria Milanese)… totally un-Milanese, of course.

Mushrooms, onions, garlic, stir-fried brown rice, with lots of tomato paste, nutmeg, turmeric, herbes de Provence. I made 2 layers of rice. In between : raw spinach and Asian napa cabbage.
A thin layer of simple white sauce with a little Hokkaido cheddar. Flakes of aged parmesan (very hard…).

(meal with double serving of rice)

Cal 726 F25.9g C112.5g P28.6g