133 replies to this topic

[Hiroyuki]

Is Takikomi Gohan Day on Dec 12th an annual event?  Is this a special day?  Are we all supposed to cook together at the same time? Well, anyway this sounds fun.

Here is what torakris, the host of the Japan Forum, wrote about Okonomiyaki Day here. (For more, see post #81.)

Anyway... since those in Japan will be making it more than half a day before the other side of the world, if you are busy on the 1st, then there is no problem making it on the 30th or even later that weekend.
Pictures if possible would be great, but not necessary, I think we should keep the way we are making it a secret so then we can be surprised by all of the pictures. 

I guess this applies to Takikomi Gohan Day.

[Hiroyuki]

What are the guidelines for it to be Takikomi gohan?

Generally speaking, takikomi gohan is made by boiling rice, ingredients, and seasonings together in a single pot (usually in a rice cooker).

Sekihan is usually made by steaming, but my wife and I usually make it in a rice cooker.

[melonpan]

good day, whereever you are!

today i made some chicken takikomi gohan.

<center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com....jpg"></center>

last night, i measured out 2.5 cups (gou) short grain and 0.5 cups sweet rice. rinsed, and set in the fridge with 3 cups water. i also cleaned, then simmered a handful of dried shiitake in water for about 45 minutes. drained them and stuck them in the fridge.

this afternoon, i prepped<ul><li>500 grams boneless skinless chicken thigh meat
<li>small packaged of eryngii (torn into pieces)
<li>small package of maitake
<li>package of abura age (sliced into strips)
<li>small jar kuri kanroni (drained)
<li>reconstituted shiitake (sliced into halves)</ul>fried the chicken, eryngii in a slice of butter, just until the outsides of the chicken were browned a bit (i wasnt looking to cook the meat thoroughly though).

added all the prepped ingredients into the rice pot.

added about 60 ml soy sauce, 45 ml sake and about 15 ml of mirin. stirred everything together and set the rice cooker to cook.

husband really likes this stuff! me too. nice homestyle dish.

Edited by melonpan, 13 December 2004 - 01:43 PM.

[helenjp]

I totally forgot about takikomi day, thanks to more soap-opera stuff with The Family, but we did have a sort-of Korean style beansprout rice last week.

To roughly 3c rice, I added 1 packet of beansprouts, carefully rinsed, tailed, and chopped into small pieces. This got cooked up together with a very little salt, and when the rice/sprouts were done, in went about a 1/2tsp minced garlic, about 2 tab finely minced Japanese dividing onions, and a little sesame oil. In the past, I've over-seasoned, but I find this level combines best with other dishes!

Still tasted good in the next day's lunchboxes too!

[Kiem Hwa]

I made my Takikomi Gohan!


2 1/2 c. regular japanese rice
1/2 c. mochigome rice
I washed the rice and let it soak for 1 1/2 hours in water and
Mirin
Sake
Shoyu

Then I added:

Kabocha
Shiitake
Aburage
Gobo
Renkon (lotus root)
Carrots
Sugar

And cooked it in the rice cooker

hmm....I still can't figure out how to post my pics correctly.....

Edited by torakris, 13 December 2004 - 03:14 PM.

[Kiem Hwa]

<li>small jar kuri kanroni (drained)

Melonpan!
How did the kuri kanroni turn out? I was daydreaming about making my takikomi gohan featuring kabocha and kuri except I only read about horror stories using the packaged kuri, but I haven't heard about kuri kanroni before.

Is this the type?
http://www.penchan.c...g/kuri/kanroni/

[Hiroyuki]

I made bamboo shoot takikomi gohan.

Domestic bamboo shoots, about twice as expensive as those imported from China!


I am of the opinion, "the less ingredients, the better". So, I added bamboo shoots and aburaage only.


Bamboo shoot takikomi gohan along with some leaftovers and miso soup with tofu and nameko mushroom.

Cool, huh?

[melonpan]

How did the kuri kanroni turn out?  I was daydreaming about making my takikomi gohan featuring kabocha and kuri except I only read about horror stories using the packaged kuri, but I haven't heard about kuri kanroni before.

the kuri was good with the rice. i dont know if this is a normal use for it, but it turned out well. the link you gave seems to be the same thing: chestnuts, sugar, some mirin and salt. the ingredients on my jar list chestnuts, sugar and a little citric acid.

[smallworld]

We did ours a few days late. The usual gomoku (five-ingredient) takikomi-gohan. I added konnyaku, gobou, carrot, abura-age and shiitake. Pretty good but not a huge success- unfortunately I shaved the gobou so thin that it lost all of its texture, and since it was shin-gobou (new gobou) it added very little flavour. And as usual I got the amount of liquids wrong and the rice ended up a bit too wet and sticky.
I'll never get the hang of it...

Edited by smallworld, 14 December 2004 - 11:12 PM.

[Kiem Hwa]

Kabocha
Shiitake
Aburage
Gobo
Renkon (lotus root)
Carrots

I remade the same Takikomi Gohan from before. The first time I pre-cooked the kabocha before adding it to to the rice cooker, this time I wanted to see if I could just add little uncooked chunks. It turned out better this time!!

[Kiem Hwa]

My MIL's friend brought over some Hijiki takikomi gohan the other day. It was quite good. She flavored it with shoyu, mirin, mushroom powder, and clam juice (sauce from the canned clams).
It also features hijiki (a seaweed), shiitake, carrots, and peas.

[torakris]

made a takikomi last night with adzuki beans and satsumaimo (Japanese sweet potatoes)


after I took the picture I sprinkled it with goma-shio (salt and toasted black sesame seeds)
I messed it up by over cooking the beans, actually I forgot about them and didn't rember them until I heard a strange hissing noise coming from the kitchen when all of the water had evaporated away....
I was supposed to use the boiling water as the stock to cook the rice and ended up using just water instead, it wasn't bad though.

[Kiem Hwa]

MIL's friend brought this over this morning (same woman who made us the Hijiki Gohan).
Yumm...featuring the purple "okinawan" sweet potatoes, and peas.

[torakris]

lat night I sautted some carrots, then added them to the rice cooker with some dashi, soy, sake and mirin, voila! ninjin (carrot) takikomi-gohan

[torakris]

last night's takikomi gohan



salmon and mitsuba (trefoil)

I removed the bones and skin from two pieces of fresh salmon, placed them in a colander and poured boiling water over them to rid them of the fishy smell. I then broke each piece into quarters and added them to the rice cooker with the rice and some salt and sake. After it was down cooking I mixed it, breaking up the pieces and added some mitsuba.

[torakris]

On busy days I sometimes rely on takikomi gohan to be most of the meal and on really busy days I use a packaged version of takikomi no moto .....


this one was hijiki (type of seaween) and chirimen (tiny fish)
this is just mixed into the rice before cooking


finished dish, this specific type (first time to try it) was actually very good

[torakris]

a couple nights ago I made a takikomi gohan with takenoko (bamboo shoots), from a prepared mix....



this was really good! so good in fact that I forgot to take a picture of it and there were no leftovers.

[Hiroyuki]

I bought two packs of matsutake takikomi gohan mix today (product and company names suppressed), 418 yen per pack (836 yen in total).
It wasn't very good, and I really thought I wasted my money this time.

[Hiroyuki]

I made kuri okowa (glutinous rice cooked with chestnuts) for yesterday's dinner.
The ingredients are 4 gou (1 gou = 180 ml) glutinous rice, 18 large chestnuts, 2 tablespoons sake, and 1 teaspoon salt.
So simple, yet so delicious!

[torakris]

hijiki and carrot takikomi-gohan (not from a mix), with a handful of sesame seeds added after cooking, wonderful...

[Sencha]

I made kuri okowa (glutinous rice cooked with chestnuts) for yesterday's dinner.
The ingredients are 4 gou (1 gou = 180 ml) glutinous rice, 18 large chestnuts, 2 tablespoons sake, and 1 teaspoon salt.
So simple, yet so delicious!

It's already that time of the year!? I was really craving some kuri gohan (kuri okowa would be good too, but I'm currently out of mochigome) the other day and lamented the fact that it will probably be a couple more weeks until some chestnuts are available to me. Summer doesn't seem to want to die just yet here.

[torakris]

I made a carrot and hijiki takikomi the other day, the same one pictured two photos above. This is slowly becoming a staple as it is very easy, good for any season and all three kids love it!

My MIL came over when I was making it and we started talking about takikomi gohan. I told her that one I wanted to try making was mukago gohan. Mukago are the nuts? seeds? that grow off of yamaimo (mountain yam) leaves and look like this.
However I used the wrong word and instead of saying mukago gohan I called it mukade gohan!

for those that don't know, this is a mukade...

I think for a moment she actually thought I was serious...

[helenjp]

I have made mukago gohan, and it was pretty underwhelming, though it looks cute and is somehow such a romantic dish.

I've become sneaky in my old age, and sometimes make takikomigohan with all the usual things, but then brown some chicken thighs, wipe off extra fat, and lay them on top of the rice and sprinkle with sake to cook, so that I can serve them separately.

Looking at Kiem Hwa's photo upthread reminded me of a very simple but pleasant dish - okowa (or mochigome/plain rice mix cooked in the rice cooker) with green peas. I like it with a few shreds of ginger stirred in just before serving.

[jeniac42]

Today my new rice cooker arrived, and I plan on using it tonight. I was thinking of making kuri-gohan with it - I have all the ingredients - but then I thought maybe I should do a test run with plain rice first. I have never had a nice rice cooker before (this is a Zojirushi neuro fuzzy 5.5c version) so I'm not used to them. Maybe I'll do a test run with plain rice tonight and set up the kuri-gohan on a timer for tomorrow's dinner.

[jeniac42]

Well, I'm really glad I didn't go to all the effort to make the kuri-gohan tonight. I made takikomi-gohan with chicken and mushrooms, and, uh... it did NOT turn out at all. I think I maybe put too much of the chicken and mushrooms; also, I put those in before adding the water and I think that was a bad idea. The rice is all hard in the middle and starchy and just... eugh.

I am leaving it on the keep warm setting to see if the steam will somehow permeate into the rice and make it OK to eat, because I hate to pitch it, but it's more or less inedible.

I will try again soon.

[torakris]

Well, I'm really glad I didn't go to all the effort to make the kuri-gohan tonight.  I made takikomi-gohan with chicken and mushrooms, and, uh... it did NOT turn out at all.  I think I maybe put too much of the chicken and mushrooms; also, I put those in before adding the water and I think that was a bad idea.  The rice is all hard in the middle and starchy and just... eugh.

I am leaving it on the keep warm setting to see if the steam will somehow permeate into the rice and make it OK to eat, because I hate to pitch it, but it's more or less inedible.

I will try again soon.

I am sorry to hear this...
but just remember that this is the kind of mistake that you will never repeat.

I always add the seasonings (liquid), then water to the appropriate line and then the vegetables/meats.

[jeniac42]

Tonight I tried my hand at kuri-gohan and I am pleased to report that it came out really well! I put together the recipe from posts here and ran it by my Japanese teacher, who agreed. I only used 2c of rice, about 1.5 tablespoons of sake, 3/4t of salt, and water, plus 10 chestnuts cut into pieces. Man, roasting the chestnuts was really difficult! I had never done it before and I didn't cut through the shells far enough so it took me a very long time to peel them completely.

Here it is in the rice cooker ready to be cooked.


And here is the finished version, with my weird Thanksgiving korokke and sweet potatoes.

[Hiroyuki]

Man, roasting the chestnuts was really difficult!

Looks yummy. But, roasting? Did you roast the chestnuts?

[jeniac42]

Man, roasting the chestnuts was really difficult!

Looks yummy. But, roasting? Did you roast the chestnuts?

I did roast them a little bit so I would be able to peel them... was that wrong?

[Hiroyuki]

Man, roasting the chestnuts was really difficult!

Looks yummy. But, roasting? Did you roast the chestnuts?

I did roast them a little bit so I would be able to peel them... was that wrong?

The common practice in Japan is to soften the shells either by soaking the chestnuts in hot water for a few hours or by boiling them in water for a few minutes.
When making this kuri okowa, I boiled the chestnuts in water for about three minutes and let them cool for a few hours before peeling them with my 'kurikuribouzu'.