Sanma Takikomi Gohan Recipe

by Hadley Sui

Are you looking for a new satisfying and easy weeknight dinner to add to your repertoire? Try your hand at making Takikomi Gohan! Takikomi Gohan is a Japanese rice dish flavored with dashi and soy sauce, cooked together with a mix of vegetables and proteins inside of a rice cooker. In this recipe, I blend tinned sanma (Pacific Saury, a type of fish popular in Japan especially during the autumn) with hearty shimeji mushrooms, carrots, and scallions. The dish is garnished with an inviting blend of enoki mushrooms flavored with seven Japanese spices, an addicting rice topping that amplifies any savory dish. Takikomi Gohan is different from Maze Gohan, a dish where ingredients are mixed into rice after the rice has been cooked. Takikomi Gohan is alluringly simple to prepare. To streamline the process even more, make a large batch of dashi stock ahead of time and store it in your fridge for up to 14 days.

“Takikomu” is a Japanese verb that means “to cook (something) with rice,” and is the origin of this dish’s name. Takikomi Gohan is thought to have originated during the Nara period (710-784) during a rice shortage. Rice was mixed with millet, vegetables, and foraged weeds and eaten for survival. The dish also rose in popularity during World War II. Once you’ve tried this recipe, consider mixing other ingredients into your rice such as different varieties of tinned fish from Bokksu Market like mackerel,

Yamame Asadore Mackerel In Miso Sauce

or flavorful bamboo,

Dynasty Sliced Bamboo Shoots

lotus root, and hijiki.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Grilled Sanma (Pacific Saury) with yuzu daikon oroshi

katsuobushi flakes

Nishiki Premium Rice: Medium Grain 2 lb

Kikkoman Soy Sauce: Traditionally Brewed

enoki mushrooms flavored with seven Japanese spices

  • 1 large carrot
  • 1 cup fresh shimeji mushrooms (or favorite mushrooms)
  • 1 1” piece fresh ginger, minced
  • 1 scallion, sliced, with white and green pieces separated
  • 2 cups rice
  • 4 cups water
  • 2 tablespoons sake
  • 1 pinch flaky sea salt


Instructions:

    1. Rinse rice and set aside.
    2. Make dashi broth. Combine 1 cup katsuobushi flakes with 4 cups water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Once boiling, lower the heat to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes.
    3. Strain the liquid from the katsuobushi flakes with a fine mesh sieve. Discard the flakes.
    4. Combine rice, dashi broth, soy sauce, sake, and minced ginger in a rice cooker.
    5. Thinly slice the carrot and separate the shimeji mushrooms. Add these to the rice cooker, along with the sliced whites of the scallion.
    6. Open a tin of sanma and remove any bones. Place sanma on top of the veggies in your rice cooker.
    7. Turn the rice cooker on and cook according to machine instructions.
    8. After cooking, mix the contents of the rice cooker thoroughly so all large pieces are broken up and evenly distributed.
    9. Plate rice and garnish with enoki mushroom spread, sliced fresh scallion greens, and flaky sea salt.
    10. Itadakimasu!

By Hadley Sui


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