Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Donabe rice...Gobo and Satsuma Yam Gohan

Here's a simple and delicious winter-style donabe rice dish.

It's Gobo (burdock root) and Satsuma-imo (Japanese sweet yam) mixed rice, which was made with the double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san". To cook the rice, I combined 2 rice cups (360 ml) short grain rice plus 2 tablespoon mochi rice (sweet rice) with 360 ml dashi stock, 2 tablespoons sake, 1 tablespoon light color soy sauce ("usukuchi shoyu"), 1 teaspoon mirin, and 1 teaspoon salt in the donabe (soak for 20 minutes). The mixture was topped with about 1/2 cup of shaved burdock root (soaked in water for 15 minutes and drained) and 1/2 cup of cubed satsuma yam. After the donabe was covered with both lids, the mix rice was cooked over medium+ heat stove top for 15 minutes, then rested for 20 minutes after turning off the heat.

With the natural sweetness of the yam, earthiness of the burdock root, and slight chewiness of the added mochi rice, the dish created the wonderful harmony.

Happy donabe life.