Monday 26 February 2007

winter kinoko goodness: mushrooms and tofu in the ricecooker

warm kinoko goodness


This steaming bowl of brown rice, maitake and shimeji mushrooms and agburaage tofu was inspired by one of those god awful 'Surviving In Japan' booklets everyone was trying to give us when we first arrived. It strikes me as somewhat unusual (and dare I say inauthentic?), since the recipe involves cooking everything jumbled up together in the rice cooker with some soy sauce and sake**. The Japanese cooks I've met so far have largely been rice cooker purists, strictly reserving the appliance For Rice Only. However, it was the easiest thing in the world to throw together, and filled the apartment with the delicious earthy smell of mushrooms steaming, and for that I am grateful.

Recipe: Mushroom and Aburaage Tofu Takikomi-Gohan
Serves four as a side.

2 cups rice, rinsed
2 cups water
A few handfuls of mushrooms, rinsed
1 sheet aburaage tofu
1 TBSP soy sauce
1 TBSP sake


  • Add rice and water to rice cooker bowl, then top with chopped mushrooms and finely shredded tofu.

  • Drizzle with soy sauce and sake, giving a gentle stir to evenly distribute, close the lid and press start.

You're done! The cooking time will vary depending on amount of mushrooms and variety of rice used, etc, but allow around 40 minutes.

** Amy points out in the comments that this cooking method is known as takikomi-gohan (boiled with rice), and Google suggests it's actually quite popular. Heh. I guess some of the people I know are way too in love with their rice cookers.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That there is called "takikomi-gohan", and it's perfectly fine to make it in your rice cooker! There is a quick lazy version (properly called "maze-gohan") which involves cooking the rice and other ingredients separately, then mixing them together once the rice is done.
I suspect that people who do it this way are trying to keep their rice cookers pristinely clean and free of non-rice flavours. But these people are weird. It's just so much better cooked together, and a good wash should really be enough to keep the rice cooker free of funny flavours.
So keep on cooking your takikomigohan that way!