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)

Papillote de crystal, saumon et pomélo

Let’s make a transparent papillote now…
You can see now many chefs presenting their papillote in a special transparent film. It’s only available in shops for pros. Ordinary micro-wave film can be used if you don’t heat too much over 100 degree C. No problem for steaming.

Thinly sliced zucchini with salt and mace. The salmon rubbed with black pepper and a little salt. A slice of pomelo. Bits of young onion.

Last touch : sweet almond oil.

You can see when the fish changes of color. Stop cooking just at that point. It will keep cooking slightly and it will be perfect when you unfold.

A side of nagaimo (raw potato) with negi and onion.

That makes a delicate and delicious Summer lunch.

Sakura plate, roots and fish

Soon, the sakura (cherry blossom) will come to greet us… A little meal at their colors.

Potatoes, daikon radish…

…and beet roots for the pink roots.
I had cooked the beets and daikon for the borstch, I just added the steamed potatoes and as you can see herbes de Provence as flavoring, an reheated.

Sakura color fish. It’s olive oil tuna. It’s a can. Yep, it’s an easy one today. And a few capers, like unopened flower buds.

A little habanero hot sauce to jazz it up.
That was really good. Those new potatoes from Hokkaido are very tender and tasty.

Coming soon ? The sakura photos are of last year, same date roughly.

One-pot steamed menu and “petals of potato”

This is one of the dozens of uncommon veggies that makes the refinement of Kyoto cuisine.
This petal shaped vegetable is called yurine (lily root) in Japanese. The taste and texture is closed to potato.

Mine was not pretty, I borrowed a photo of the raw whole yurine. I’ll get others soon.

Source

The site says it is “cultivated all over the world”. Really ? I couldn’t find a Latin name, even less an English translation of the name. It existed in the wild only in Japan and Korea. It is now cultivated in Hokkaido mostly (4 tons per year), and 70% is eaten here in Kansai region.
The season is November to February roughly. So it’s often used to make New Year dishes.
It germinates and becomes purple in spots quickly in the daylight (mine did), so in shops, they do like my grand-ma with her carrots, they bury them in sawdust.

Preparation : Brush and wash the yurine. Separate the petals. They can be cooked in many ways like potatoes, boiled, stir-fried, steamed… but the cooking time is very short.

Here they are steamed, and sprinkled with broken pink pepper.
It’s a “tagine steam”.
It’s very convenient. I use the “steam program” of the oven. I started by thawing chicken breast, steam-cooking it. On top, added the yurine, steam-cooked 2 minutes.

No need for fat or whatever, the chicken skin released a little fat as you can see. Added hakusai (Japanese napa cabbage) for 2 more minutes and reheating the sauce (in a cup on the side).

Steamed hakusai and pomegranate for a warm salad. Dressing was simply raspberry wine vinegar, salt, pepper.

Steamed chicken with the leftover orange sauce.
orange sauce with duck

The drink was persimmon tea, well dry leaves of persimmon I had dried (see there).
If you don’t make yours, Japanese (and probably Chinese, Korean…) shops sell 柿茶 (kakicha),　柿の葉茶(kakinohacha).

I broke the leaves, placed them in the basket, covered with boiling water that I discarded after 20 seconds. Then I added more very hot water and let it infuse 10 minutes. It’s has a lightly slightly nutty flavor. It is said to be rich in C vitamin. It’s caffeine free.