About the Recipe
How the world has changed - the mixing of white rice with other ingredients originated out of the need to cut expensive rice with other, cheaper foodstuffs. Nowadays, it's a way of flavouring and boosting the nutritional value of a bowl of rice so that it can becoe a quick, one bowl lunch or supper. I usually make more takikomi rice than I need and refridgerate the leftovers - unlike plain white rice that quickly dries out in the fridge, takikomi rice remains soft becuase it has a higher moisture content - so a day or two later, you can just reheat and enjoy the dish all over again! You;ll see below that I advise rinsing the bamboo 4 or 5 times - this isn't because of impurities or anything like that - just that the flavour of bamboo can be overpowering making it a good idea to dilute the flavour with a good soaking. I also rinse the rice more than usual for this dish as well but for a different reason - the rice needs to soak up as much flavour as possible so the grains need to be as clean as possible for this to happen.
Ingredients
3 cups Japanese rice (1 cup = 160ml)
1 sheet abura-age
60g carrot, peeled
1 tin (225g-net weight) bamboo shoots, rinsed 4-5 times
500ml water
3 tsp japanese instant dashi granules
1.5 tsp salt
1.5 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp japanese cooking sake
some shredded nori for topping (optional)
Preparation
rinse the rice under running water 4-5 times and then drain in a sieve
quarter the abura-age and slice thinly
slice the carrot finely and cut into small matchsticks
add the salt, dashi granules, soy sauce & cooking sake to the water in a jug or bowl and mix well
put the rice into your rice cooker and add the dashi broth. mix, then top up with water to the "3 cup" mark if necessary
put the bamboo, carrot & abura-age on top of the rice, but don’t mix yet
cook according to your rice cooker programme
when cooked, mix everything together well
your takikomi mixed rice is now ready. serve topped with the shredded nori (optional)