KitchenNippon

＜Ingredients＞ 5 Servings

Rice (米 / Kome) 360g
Soup stock (だし汁 / Dashijiru) 360ml
Boiled bamboo shoot (たけのこの水煮 / Takenoko no mizuni) 100g
Deep-fried tofu (油揚げ / Abura-age) 1
Ginger (しょうが / Shōga) 20g
Sake (酒 / Sake) 2tbsp
Light soy sauce (うすくち醤油 / Usukuchi shōyu) 2tbsp
Kinome (木の芽 / Kinome) 5 leaves
(This is also known as sanshō [山椒] – Japanese pepper [Zanthoxylum piperitum].)

＜How to Make＞
① Rinse the rice well and soak it in water for at least 15 minutes, then drain. Cut the boiled bamboo shoot into slightly-larger-than-bite-size pieces (Boiling further will cause the bamboo shoot pieces to shrink a little). Cut the abura-age into 5mm cubes. Cut the ginger into extremely thin strips.
② Add the rice, soup stock, sake, and light soy sauce to a rice cooker and mix well. Spread the abura-age, ginger, and bamboo shoots evenly over the top of the rice mixture. Cook the rice using the cooker’s “normal” (普通) setting.
③ When the rice is done, mix it well with a cutting motion. Serve in rice bowls, garnishing each with a leaf of sanshō.

※ Make stock ahead of time.

※Dashi packs (だしパック / Dashi pak-ku)
Stock, or dashi, is traditionally prepared with konbu (kelp), katsuobushi (smoked and dried bonito) or niboshi (dried sardines), dried shītake mushrooms and water, but it can also be made with packs (like teabags) of these ingredients in powdered form. These packs, which can be purchased at a grocery stores, simplify the making of stock to basically adding water, bringing it to a boil, and then simmering for 3-5 minutes.
Recipe Developed by: Machiko Tateno