Chef Central and Takikomi Gohan recipe

Posted on Feb 15, 2012 in Hiroko's Blog, Recipes

It’s been already 10 days since my last blog post. Time flies…and I cannot catch up with it. Thank you for joining me the hands-on sushi class sponsored by Zojirushi America (www.zojirushi.com) at the Chef Central, NJ. Tricia, thank you very much for dropping by to say hi to me. It’s been almost 10 years(?) since you worked for me in the Hiroko’s Kitchen. Now you are pride mother of two children.

In this post I want to share the recipe which my students loved. It is not a sushi dish, but cooked rice with shrimp and Spanish chorizo. Instead of serving simply cooked rice (no salt, oil or flavorings) with every Japanese meal, we often cook rice with seasonal delicacies – vegetables, seafood or chicken – in order to celebrate the season. This type of cooking is called takikomi gohan, and we flavor the rice with sea salt or shoyu (soy sauce). At the class I showed how to prepare American friendly (flavor-wise and texture wise) takikomi gohan in the rice cooker. The choice of rice is not short- or medium-grain, but long-grain rice. Long-grain rice has drier and fluffy texture when it is cooked. Here is the recipe for you and please try it right away!

Japanese style shrimp and Spanish chorizo rice

4 to 6 servings
3 cups long-grain rice
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 cup clam juice
About 3 cups chicken stock
5 ounces small shrimp, fresh or frozen, shelled
2 ounces chorizo, sliced thin
1 1/2 ounces green peas, fresh or frozen
1/4 cup thinly sliced ginger

Rinse the rice thoroughly by changing water 3 times. Drain the rice and let it stand in a colander for 20 minutes.

Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet. Add the onions and cook over medium-low heat until they are transparent, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 20 seconds.

In a rice cooker bowl place the rice and pour in the clam juice. Add as much chicken stock as you need to fill the bowl to the 3 cup water line. Add the cooked onion and garlic on top of the rice and scatter the shrimp, chorizo and green peas evenly over the rice. Do not stir the rice. Cook the rice using the MIXED RICE setting. After the rice is done, open the lid of the rice cooker and add the sliced ginger on top of the rice. Close the lid and let the rice rest for 10 minutes. Open the lid and gently fold the rice and ingredients with a spatula. Divide and serve the rice in 4 to 6 bowls.