Kitchen Culture Cooking Club
EXPLORE and PRACTICE Japanese cooking in your own kitchenAbout Kitchen Culture Cooking Club
Welcome to the Kitchen Culture Cooking Club, a community space providing encouragement to those who want to EXPLORE and PRACTICE Japan’s washoku wisdom in their own kitchens.
To facilitate this, themed projects will be posted to this page periodically. Project Assignments and links to relevant reference material stored on this site will be posted to this page. Anyone, anywhere in the world, with a sincere interest in Japanese food culture is welcome to browse the contents of this page and then replicate the themed project in their own kitchen.
For those who wish to display-and-discuss their projects with like-minded people, I invite you to join the KITCHEN CULTURE Cooking Club Facebook Group (formerly the TSUDOI Project), an interactive community space.
Project Kayaku Gohan
Vegetables cooked into Rice
Kayaku (Takikomi) Gohan
加薬 (炊き込み) ご飯
In different parts of Japan, rice that is cooked in a flavored liquid with a variety of ingredients (that went to flavoring that liquid) goes by various names. The most generic is takikomi because it describes the general method by which the dish has been prepared: TAKI (炊き a verb used to describe rice cooking) and KOMI (込みmeaning “include”). But… when I first encountered the dish in Shikoku nearly sixty years ago (!!!) it was called KAYAKU GOHAN… and so that is how I know it. Scroll to the bottom of this post to discover other names… and to download a recipe fo making it in your own home kitchen.
Takikomi gohan is a two-stage method of preparing rice. First, ingredients such as mushrooms, carrots, and gobō are briefly cooked to create a flavorful broth. The broth is then used in lieu of water to cook the rice. The ingredients that contributed to flavoring the broth (mushrooms and vegetables) are returned to the pot in the final stages of cooking and folded-and-tossed into the rice just before serving.
Takikomi dishes often create a dark crust called okogé at the bottom of the cooking vessel. When that happens, these crusty, coveted bits are divvied up among individual servings.
I chose to feature KAYAKU GOHAN, rice cooked with bits of vegetables in a flavorful broth, as this month’s recipe because it exemplifies the spirit of culinary kansha (gratitude) embodied in so many thanksgiving rituals worldwide.
DOWNLOAD a RECIPE for
KAYAKU GOHAN
What’s in a name?
In different parts of Japan, rice that has been cooked in a flavored liquid with a variety of ingredients (that went to flavoring that liquid) goes by different names:
In KANAGAWA Prefecture, the descriptive TAKIKOMI GOHAN 炊き込みごはん (literally “cooked along with rice”) is used, as is MAZÉ GOHAN 混ぜごはん (literally “mixed with rice”). The same dish in SHIZUOKA Prefecture, however, is typically called GOMOKU GOHAN 五目ごはん (literally “assorted-item rice”). In NAGANO (and adjacent Aichi and Mie Prefectures as well as Kyushu’s Fukuoka Prefecture), the name TAKIKOMI GOHAN is used along with AJI GOHAN (literally “flavored rice”– the green bubble in the map).
In KYOTO and other parts of the KANSAI Area (orange area in the map), you’ll find such a dish referred to either as TAKIKOMI GOHAN or KAYAKU GOHAN. In OKAYAMA Prefecture, TAKIKOMI GOHAN is most commonly used.
Perhaps the most unusual name for such a dish is OKINAWA Prefecture’s JU-SHI- (the pink area on the map). The probable origin of that is the word ZOSUI 雑炊 meaning a “miscellany of simmered/boiled” items.
THANKSGIVING RITUALS in JAPAN:
See the KITCHEN CULTURE blog post
Read my NOVEMBER 2024 newsletter
Recipes and Resources
Stock (Dashi)
Dashi stock is essential to making soups and simmered or stewed dishes. Dashi is also used when making many egg dishes and all sorts of sauces, dips and dressings. Using good dashi will make a noticeable difference in the outcome of so many dishes you prepare.
Click to download recipes for (vegan) Kelp Alone Stock or Standard Sea Stock + Smoky Sea Stock
How to Cook Rice
In Japanese, the word for cooked rice, ご飯 GOHAN, is the same as the word for a meal, ご飯 GOHAN. Indeed rice is central to the meal. Download the Rice with Mixed Grains recipe.
How to Prepare Sushi Rice
Sushi dishes are made with rice that has been seasoned (with sweetened vinegar) AFTER being cooked. Download the Classic Sushi Rice recipe.
Quick Pickles
The Japanese enjoy a wide variety of tsukémono pickles, many can be assembled quickly and are ready to eat within a short time.
Download a recipe for Quick-Fix Hakusai Cabbage.
Thanksgiving Rituals in Japan
In Japan, rice is more than just sustenance. It holds symbolic and sacred significance. Rice yield was also a measurement of wealth during the Edo Period (1603-1868). Early records of rituals celebrating the harvest and entreating future prosperity, called nii namé...
Chawan Mushi (Steamed Egg Custards)
Silky, savory egg custards called CHAWAN MUSHI 茶碗蒸し are served in cups with a spoon. The egg and dashi mixture is delicately seasoned with mirin and light-colored soy sauce. Various tidbits such as mushrooms, ginko nuts, chicken, shrimp or kamaboko (fish sausage) can...
PROJECT Serving Chawan Mushi
This PROJECT is about serving chawan mushi, a dish that requires heatproof cups to cook the egg custards in and to bring them piping hot to table. Because Japan's food culture places importance on the presentation of food, often specialized tableware is chosen....
PROJECT Setting the Autumn Table
This project PROJECT is about setting the table... to set the stage for autumn's culinary pleasures. One simple and fun way to do this is by choosing fall-themed HASHI OKI (choptsick rests). Pictured above are a few of the options: autumnal maple leaves, chestnuts,...
Like us on Facebook for the freshest content or follow Taste of Culture on Twitter.