Takikomi Gohan is a Japanese rice dish typically seasoned with soy sauce. Although I’ve seen Takikomi Gohan on a menu at a high-end Japanese restaurant here in San Francisco Bay Area, most of you probably haven’t heard of this dish.
In Japan, depending on season, we add different kinds of vegetable, meat, and mushrooms so you enjoy the food each season offers and get extra nutrition instead of just plain white rice. People are always creative in regard to the ingredients they put in.
Today I added leftover fish cake called Chikuwa and Gobo root. I also added miso this time because both ingredients go really well with miso flavor. If you are tired of just plain rice, I hope you will add this recipe to your repertoire.
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Gobo and Miso Takikomi Gohan
Ingredients
- 3 rice cooker cups uncooked Japanese short-grain rice (2 rice-cooker-cups (180 ml x 3 = 540 ml) yields roughly 6 servings (5 ¼ US cups); see how to cook short-grain rice with a rice cooker, a pot over the stove, an instant pot, or a donabe)
- 1 gobo (burdock root)
- 1 carrot
- 2 pieces chikuwa (fish cake)
Seasonings
For Serving
- yuzu kosho (Japanese citrus chili paste) (optional)
- shredded nori seaweed (kizami nori) (to garnish)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. Rinse rice until water is almost clear. If you're not sure how to rinse the rice properly, click here. Drain well in a fine-mesh strainer, shaking off the water out. Transfer to the inner bowl of the rice cooker.
- Peel the gobo root and cut in half lengthwise and thinly slice diagonally.
- In a medium bowl, soak gobo in water for 15 minutes to prevent it from changing color. Change the water a few times and drain well.
- Peel the carrot and cut in half lengthwise and slice thinly.
- Cut chikuwa into thin pieces.
- In a small bowl, combine soy sauce, miso, mirin, and sake and mix well.
- Pour the seasonings into the rice cooker and mix well.
- Then add water up to 3-cup-line on the inner bowl.
- Add the gobo root, carrot, and chikuwa on top of the rice. Do not mix together with rice. Rice cooks evenly when it's not mixed with other ingredients.
- Place in the rice cooker and start cooking. If you have a “Mixed Rice” option, use it (See Notes below).
- When rice is done cooking, wait 10 minutes before you open the rice cooker. Mix well and serve Takikomi Gohan with Yuzu Kosho for spicy taste and garnish with shredded nori sheet.
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the freezer for a month. I prefer freezing the cooked rice to refrigerating it. You can read more about it in this post.
