Sea Bream Takikomi Gohan 鯛の炊き込みごはん

Rice cooked with the best ingredients of the season and small quantities of seasonings offers a delicious way of savoring rice that differs from steamed white rice, as well as enjoying the coming of the season. With simple ingredients and no special techniques involved, this recipe conveys the minimum steps needed to cook rice at its most delicious.

お米と四季折々の食材、少量の調味料で炊き上げるごはんは、白米とは違ったおいしさと、季節の訪れを味わうことができます。食材はシンプルに、炊き込む技術ではなく、「おいしいお米を炊くために最低限守るべきこと」をお伝えします。

How to cook

The secret to cooking delicious rice is to give the rice plenty of time to absorb the water down to its core after rinsing. Sea bream can be replaced with any other type of white-fleshed fish or chicken. The vegetables are for color, so add any relatively dry vegetable to your preference.

Adjust the flame according to the thickness of your pot’s walls and the types of ingredients (adjust so that it takes about 8 minutes to boil). An enameled cast iron pot works similarly to an clay pot. Because you want the ingredients to all be ready at the same time, add the fish at the very end, just before finishing. If using chicken, you can add it at Step 6.

Ingredients for 5-6 serving

Sea Bream Takikomi Gohan

450g （15.8oz）: Uncooked rice
240g （8.5oz）: Sea bream fillets (can be substituted with other white-fleshed fish or chicken) Handful of green beans (cut into 3 cm lengths) (can be substituted with green soy beans or other relatively dry vegetable)
Cut into 3 cm lengths: Handful of green beans (can be substituted with green soy beans or other relatively dry vegetable)

A

450ml: Water
45ml: Light soy sauce (dark soy sauce is also okay)
45ml: Sake

Basic soy sauce that is usually used in cooking is known as “dark soy sauce.” Light soy sauce is made in Western Japan and is lighter in color. It is used in dishes in which the color of the ingredients and the flavor of the dashi is of particular importance, such as simmered dishes and soups. Light soy sauce has a slightly higher sodium content than regular dark soy sauce. If you do not have light soy sauce, you can use the same quantity of dark soy sauce, and it will taste just as good.

Cooking Steps

40minutes

Wash the rice

Place the uncooked rice in a bowl and wash it in running water, changing the water about five times. This is simply to wash off the starch from the surface of the rice grains. The water does not have to run completely clear (with the advances in rice polishing technology, there is no need to rub the rice vigorously).

Let the rice absorb the water

Cover the rice with plenty of water (the ideal water temperature is 15°C). After soaking the rice for about 15 minutes, strain it into a sieve and let it sit for 15 minutes (even while sitting in the sieve, the rice grains are still absorbing the water that adheres to their surface. This sitting time is key to cooking delicious rice.)

Prepare the ingredients (sea bream)

Sprinkle both sides of the prepared sea bream (block) with salt and let sit for 20 minutes (a good idea is to prop the tray holding the block diagonally on a rolled-up towel, to let the so that the moisture that comes out of the fish can drain down to the bottom of the tray). If using bought fillets, they have already been cut, so let them sit for just 10 minutes. Next, rinse off the salt and wipe the fish well with a paper towel, before cutting the fish into about 16 slices with a knife.

Prepare the ingredients (vegetables)

Not limited to green beans, any relatively dry vegetable can be used, such as green soy beans. If using green beans that have strings, pinch the end of the stalk and slowly peel off the strings from the bottom end to the top. Do the same on the other side. If the beans do not have strings, line up the stalks and cut them off. After boiling the beans in plenty of salted hot water, cut them into easy-to-eat lengths (about 3 cm).

Cook the rice

In your pot (the pot in the photo is a clay pot), add the rice from Step 2 and the water, soy sauce and sake in A, cover with the lid and place over a high flame. When it starts to boil (8 minutes), keep the lid on, and reduce the flame to low and cook for 8 minutes (at this point, the heat will have penetrated to the core of the rice grains). Keeping the lid on is important to ensure that the air can circulate inside the pot and to not let the internal temperature drop.

Reduce

Lower the flame to the lowest setting and cook for another 6 minutes until there is no liquid left.

Steam

Lift the lid and place the sea bream slices in a circle on top of the cooked rice. Cover again with the lid, turn off the heat, and let the rice and fish steam for 6 minutes. Place the fish on the rice quickly to keep the time with the lid off to a minimum.