Caramelized sweet onion, seasoned with soy sauce and mirin, this simple Sweet Onion Takikomi Gohan is flavorful and aromatic rice to accompany your next Japanese meal.
Gather all the ingredients. Please note that 1½ cups (300 g, 2 rice cooker cups) of uncooked Japanese short-grain rice yield 4⅓ cups (660 g) of cooked white rice.
Rinse 1½ cups uncooked Japanese short-grain white rice until the water is almost clear. Soak in water for 30 minutes. Drain well in a fine-mesh sieve for 15 minutes.
Thinly slice ½ sweet onion. I cut the onion against the grain so the slices keep their shape and texture after they‘re cooked.
In a frying pan, heat 2 tsp neutral oil over medium heat. Add the onion and ⅛ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt and sauté the onion slices until they are tender.
Add 2 Tbsp mirin and 1 Tbsp soy sauce.
Continue to sauté until the sauce is thickened.
Add the drained rice into the inner pot of a rice cooker and pour in the sautéed onion, including the sauce.
Add the water up to the 2 cup line on the inner pot. Press Start to cook. If you have a “Mixed Rice” option, use it (see Notes below).
When the rice is finished cooking, chop some mitsuba (Japanese parsley) into small pieces and fluff up the rice with a rice paddle. Serve the rice and garnish with mitsuba.
To Store
You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in the freezer for a month.
Notes
Regular or Mixed Rice setting on a rice cooker: The main difference is that Mixed Rice setting will create burnt rice called “Okoge” on the bottom of the rice cooker. Takikomi Gohan (mixed rice) always has burnt rice from soy sauce in the seasoning, and many people enjoy the burnt charred rice. If your rice cooker doesn’t have the mixed rice option, steam an extra 5 minutes longer at the end before opening the rice cooker.