Japanese Pilaf
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Ingredients
- 2 cups rice Japanese rice
- 2 cups water
- 2 tbsps soy sauce
- 1 tbsp mirin or sake & sugar mix
- 50 g chicken pieces breast or thigh
- 4 shiitake mushrooms
- handful shimeji, enoki mushrooms if available
- 1 small size carrot
- 50 g green onions
Ingredients
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Instructions
- Wash the rice very well about three times. Each time, but particularly for the first wash, discard the milky water as quickly as you can to get rid of the rice bran on the surface of the grain.
- Rinse the rice about 5~6 times. Measure the proper amount of water for the rice, and pour it in. You can see the amount of rice and water to use in the first part of this video.
- Keep the rice in the water for about 30 minutes. Rice needs to absorb some water before it’s heated.
- After about thirty minutes, put all the ingredients in, except for the peas. The peas will be added after the rice is cooked.
- Pour the seasonings in and add the shiitake water. The added up amount of water, soy sauce, mirin and shiitake water should be 120% of the rice. Mix them all well.
- I’m using a clay pot I brought from Japan, but, of course, you can use any kind of pot at your home. A little heavier duty type works well to cook rice. Start cooking the rice at higher medium heat if you use an electric stove. If you use a gas stove, you can use high heat.
- When you hear the rice boil, open the lid and mix the contents very well so that the boiling water will circulate inside the pot efficiently. Turn the heat down to low. Don’t open the lid at this moment. Just wait for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, turn up the heat to the highest. The lid cannot be lifted yet.
- Wait for 5 minutes, and turn the heat off. As this rice contains soy sauce, the bottom part of the rice may slightly burn. A dark-brown colored burn is considered a delicacy in Japan, but if you don’t like this flavour, turn off the heat after about 3 minutes. You cannot open the lid yet.
- Turn off the heat and remove the pot from the stove. Throw the peas in. Wait for 10 more minutes.
- Stir the rice gently., and mix the contents well.