Japanese

Mushroom Takikomi Gohan (Japanese Mushroom Rice)

Name: Mushroom Takikomi Gohan (Japanese Mushroom Rice)
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 80 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Japanese

Japanese short-grain rice cooked with shiitake, shimeji and carrot in a dashi and soy broth. One pot (or rice cooker), full of flavour.

Serves

Prep

mins

Cook

mins

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Ingredients

Pantry bits

Dashi (Japanese Soup Stock)

Soy Sauce

Mirin (Japanese Sweet Rice Wine)

Sake (Japanese Rice Wine)

2 cups (300g) Japanese short-grain rice
4 fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced
100g shimeji mushrooms, separated
1/2 small carrot, cut into fine matchsticks
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp sake
1/4 tsp salt
About 320ml dashi
1 spring onion or a few mitsuba leaves, to serve

Instructions

Wash the rice in several changes of water until the water runs almost clear. Soak in fresh water for 30 minutes, then drain well.
Put the rice in a rice cooker bowl or heavy-based pot. Add the soy sauce, mirin, sake and salt, then pour in dashi up to the 2-cup line on the rice cooker (about 320ml).
Scatter the shiitake, shimeji and carrot on top. Don't stir them in.
Cook on the normal rice setting. For a pot: cover, bring to the boil, then cook on the lowest heat for 13 minutes. Turn off the heat and rest, lid on, for 15 minutes.
Gently fold the mushrooms through the rice with a paddle. Serve topped with sliced spring onion or mitsuba.

About this dish

Takikomi gohan means rice cooked with things. Everything goes in the pot together, so the rice absorbs the dashi, soy and mushroom flavour as it cooks.

It's an autumn favourite in Japan, when mushrooms are at their best, and it's naturally a little more than a side: add a piece of grilled fish and a bowl of miso soup and dinner is done.

The one rule: add the seasoning before you top up with dashi. If you add dashi first and then soy, there's too much liquid and the rice turns soggy.