Excerpted from Pat Tanumihardja's soon-to-be published gem, The Asian Grandmother's Cookbook and eponymous blog.
Any Japanese cook worth her wasabi knows that not all water, nor rice, are created equal.
Case in point: Japanese culinary instructor Hiroko Sugiyama uses only pure spring water to make her rice and dashi. She believes any "off" odors or tastes in tap water will be transferred to the final dish. So several times a month, she makes the 30-mile trek to a wellspring that's certified pure by the city of Lynnwood in Washington State, bringing home 10 two-gallon containers.
Not everyone goes to such lengths for pure spring water. But seek out the best. I found that even using Brita-filtered water improves the taste of my rice.
As for rice: Hiroko uses haiga mai (rice germ), a specially milled Japanese short grain rice. Milling removes the bran from the rice kernel while retaining the rice germ (hello, nutrients) rich in Vitamins E, B1 B2 and B6.
I've always cooked half-and-half rice (half white and half brown). It wasn't always welcome on the dining table—my husband hates the texture of brown rice. When haiga mai is served, he snaps open the chopsticks. Cook it as you would white rice or use Hiroko's clay pot method below. Tamaki, a brand from California, is Hiroko's preferred brand.
Haiga mai may be padi fields away from the jasmine rice of my childhood—and much pricier—but just as my cooking has evolved, so have my rice-eating habits.
Japanese Rice Cooked in Clay Pot (Gohan)
Whenever Hiroko craves for rice with a slightly burned bottom (okoge), she uses a donabe (Japanese clay pot). This basic recipe is so easy. Unfortunately, once the rice cooker was introduced, most Japanese no longer cooked rice in this traditional way. If you don't have a donabe, cook the rice in a rice cooker using the same proportions. Do not use this method to cook rice in a regular pot on the stove. I tried and the bottom of my pot still bears the scars.
Ingredients
2 1/4 cups Japanese short grain rice
2 and slightly less than 2/3 cups spring or filtered water
donabe
Method
Place rice a large bowl and wash using 3 to 4 changes of water until the water runs clear. Drain the rice in a colander for 1 hour.
Place the rice and water in a clay pot and cover tightly with the lid. Set the pot on the stove over high heat. As soon as you see steam escaping from the hole in the lid, set your timer for 3 minutes (don't reduce the heat). When the time is up, remove the pot from the stove.
Let the rice stand for 5 to 10 minutes. Lift off the lid carefully. Stir the rice gently with a Japanese rice paddle (
shamoji) and transfer it to a wooden rice container (
ohistu) if you have one, or lay a cotton cloth (
fukin) over the rice and cover with the lid.
Serves 4 to 6.
Read more by Pat Tanumihardja at
The Asian Grandmother's Cookbook.