by Ethan Johnson
September 14, 2005

Say you're like me. (No, really. I need the audio file for later.) Say you've been curious about Japanese food but shows like Iron Chef aren't exactly the best ambassadors, what with the chefs somehow managing to incorporate (shall we say) "innards" as a dessert topping every week.

Not this time! No unsightly choices of ingredients will be (well, noticeable) when we serve up:

Ochazuke

Note: Originally seen on the I Was Just Really Hungry weblog. As per usual, this gets the EJ treatment, so it's mine, mine all mine.

1 cup California short-grain rice (see cooking instructions for more information)
1.5 cups cold water
2 cups hot green tea
Ochazuke mix (ideally) or Furikake (see instructions below)

(Serves 2)

1. We begin by learning about rice you never knew existed, and now will be obsessed with finding:

   

   California short-grain ("sticky") rice is used in all sorts of Japanese dishes. The clerk at the local gourmet Japanese market told me that while this is usually billed as being "for sushi only", she uses it for everything. The cost is a bit steep. The bag pictured above runs about $6 USD for just over 4 lbs. I have found a 15-pound bag for $11.99 USD however, so if you are really serious about buying this stuff, shop around.

2. Measure out 1 cup of the rice into a bowl. Run cold water over the rice and gently swish it around. The water will turn milky-ish. Strain out the water through your fingers, taking care not to dump out the wet rice. Repeat.

3. Dump the wet rice into a saucepan. Unlike plain white rice as we think of it here in the USA, this sort of rice does not require "fat" (such as butter) to get started.

4. Pour in 1.5 cups of cold water, and set the saucepan over medium heat. Bring the pan to a boil (it won't take long), and reduce heat to "lower than low" (as seen in the Plain White Rice recipe linked above), cover, and let cook for 20 minutes.

   When the 20 minutes are up, turn off the heat, but do not remove the saucepan lid. Let the rice sit for 10 more minutes.

5. Prepare the green tea. Try to time the tea water to boil as close to the 20-minute timer winding down. Since I don't know what method you are going to use to accomplish this, I defer to your judgement.

   I found some excellent green tea at the gourmet Japanese market: Sen-Cha by Takaokaya.

   

6. Once the rice is finished sitting and the tea is steeping and about ready to pour, dish out the rice into 2 bowls and open your bag of ochazuke mix. Since I'm having a hard time finding that stuff, I am subbing furikake. My research has shown (and I will take my beatings from any Nihonjin who read this and take issue) that they are essentially the same thing. The difference seems to be that furikake is more versatile, whereas ochazuke mix is for, well, ochazuke.

   

   (Note: To show off my Japanese reading prowess (I can hold my own with most Nihonjin newborns), the package banner reads, "Katsuo Furikake". Katsuo means "bonito", a type of fish used a lot in Japanese cooking.)

   Sprinkle the [toppings] onto the rice (it doesn't need a whole lot, use your best judgement).

7. Next, pour the green tea onto the rice and [toppings] until they are covered. see the top photo for a good estimate for when to stop.

8. Let everything sit and develop for a few minutes before eating, especially if using furikake. Everything was pretty nondescript in the beginning when I tore into it, versus after it "steeped" for a few minutes. Much more flavor and complexity.

9. Oishii!

Enjoy! Let me know how it turns out. <EM>