Takikomi Gohan （炊き込みご飯）is a Japanese rice dish that different ingredients mixed into rice while cooking. In this recipe, however, I mixed in the ingredient after cooking the rice with broth, instead of cooking rice and ingredients all together. Or you can use a pre-made package like this, and all you need to do is to mix this into rice when you cook.
(Please see the descriptions of each ingredients at the end of this page)
Ingredients
- Rice
: 4 cups (I used 3 cups Japanese white rice, a cup of wild rice
- Mix 1
- Sansai Mix: 1 bag
- Hondashi
: 1/4 tsp
- Sake
: 1 tbsp
- Soy Sauce
: 1/2 tbsp
- Mirin
: 1tsp
- Salt: 1tsp
- Water: 1 cup
- Mix 2
Directions
- Wash rice, and drain the water, leave it in strainer for 30 minutes
- Wash Sansai Mix and then cook on a medium heat along with other ingredients of Mix 1
- Separate the Sansai Mix from the broth (keep both!)
- Add Mix 2 to the broth above, bring to boil and check the flavor (don’t want it to be too salty, a bit less salty than chicken broth, I think…)
- By this time, the Rice from the step one should be sitting there for about half an hour; Set the rice to the rice cooker, add the broth above, adjust the amount of water by adding a little more hot water (follow your rice cooker’s instruction), then start cooking.
- Once Rice is cooked, mix the Sansai Mix from the step 3 into the rice, put the lid back on and let stand for 5-10 minutes
Ingredients Dictionary
Wondering what are those weird name ingredients you see above? All those are Common Japanese ingredients we use. You can find most of those items at any Asian Grocery Stores (Japanese Grocery Store if you can find one near by, but if not, try any Asian Grocery).
For more detailed info on each ingredient, please click on the name, that is linked to a Wikipedia entry.
- Japanese Rice
- There are many different kinds of rice in Asia. In Japan, we use short grain, rice, it is often stickier than most other kinds of rice, but not as sticky as “Sticky Rice”. Most of the time, Japanese rice is more expensive than others, but I personally think it worth all the extra price tag…
- Sansai
- The direct translation of Sansai is Mountain Vegetable. Usually it contains some wild mountain vegetations and mushrooms.
- Hondashi
- It’s like a chicken bouillon for Japanese people. Instead of chicken, but it has the flavor of seaweed and Bonito Fish Flakes. It’s like an instant Japanese flavor, one pinch of of Hondashi will convert any (or almost any) dish to a Japanese cuisine.
- Sake
- Everyone knows Sake! It’s Japanese alcoholic beverage made from rice. Good to drink, and good for cooking as well.
- Soy Sause
- We call it “Sho-Yu” in Japan. Originated in China, and it is the essential condiment in asian cuisine.
- Mirin
- Another condiment we use in a lot of Japanese cooking. It is like a rice wine with sugar.
