Takikomi Rice

This is my take on Takikomi rice, so it's a little different from what you would consider the standard recipe.

Takikomi rice is a dish full of warm, soothing umami from the mushrooms, hijiki seaweed and soy sauce.  The carrots and cabbage add sweetness, which matches the saltiness of the other ingredients well. Making everything together in the rice cooker also makes this recipe incredibly convenient, especially if you need to use your (possibly single, as in my case) stove burner for some other purpose.

Without further ado, the recipe!

Ingredients:

     100g Short grain white rice
     1 Tbsp soy sauce
     1 tsp mirin (or plain sugar)
     1/2 tsp konbu or dashi stock granules
     100g raw shiitake mushrooms
     100g finely chopped or shredded cabbage
     50g chopped carrots
     50g chopped snow or snap peas
     1-2 Tbsp dried hijiki (I always opt for more)

Put the rice in the rice cooker bowl and swish with cool water until it runs clear when you pour it out. I usually change the water 2-3 times to achieve this. Add water to just below the "1 cup" line (if that seems like a lot for your bowl, you can cut it back a little; I find erring on the side of a little less water is safer).

Add the soy sauce, mirin or sugar, and the dashi granules to the water and mix a little to disperse.

Add the hijiki, sprinkling it evenly on TOP of the rice; do not mix in! You want the rice on the bottom of the bowl to protect the vegetables on top from burning.

Add the rest of the chopped vegetables. You can add them in all mixed together, or create a "pie chart" pattern on the rice by putting them in lumped together; it doesn't make much of a difference to the final product. By the way, they will look like a LOT of vegetables, but they cook down in the steaming process. Trust me.

Turn on the rice cooker. I've made this on both the regular setting, and the "speed" setting with no adverse effects.

When the rice is done, open the rice cooker and use a rice paddle to mix all the vegetables into the rice. Try to use a cutting-and-turning motion to avoid crushing or breaking the grains of rice. Obviously this doesn't affect the taste, but it makes it prettier (^.^) Also, the soy sauce will probably have settled, making portions of the rice appear very dark brown. The juices from the hijiki rehydrating also will do that. This isn't burned rice and is perfectly normal.

Now CLOSE the rice cooker and leave it for 5 minutes or so. This lets a lot of the excess steam and moisture escape and the rice will be more "sticky" and less "slimy."

This recipe usually makes 3-4 servings for me. The leftovers refrigerate well; I haven't tried freezing them yet. If you try that, let me know how it goes! In the meantime, enjoy!

Mata ne!