i made salmon takikomi gohan tonight. it didn’t look quite like the dish at yabu, but i enjoyed the salmon immensely. i soaked kelp in water to make a broth then added soy sauce, rice, mirin and topped the bowl with seared salmon. the rice cooker did the rest. m sauteed the komatsuna and enoki mushrooms. i chopped some scallions. we piled all of it on our heaping bowls of salmon takikomi gohan. umami!
Serves: 3-4 Prep Time: 1 hour Cooking Time: 20 minutes Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- 3 Cups of Japanese (short grain) Rice
- 3 Tablespoons of Shoyu (Soy Sauce)
- (see mirin below) 2 Tablespoons of Cooking Sake
- (see mirin below) 1 Tablespoon of Sugar
- (substitute cooking sake and sugar) 3 tablespoons of Mirin (Sweet Cooking Sake)
- 1 3″ x 3″ sheet of Hoshi-Konbu (dried kelp)
- 1 (or 2) Kirimi (cut) of Salmon
A cup of rice is measured using the measuring cup in the rice cooker. The water should be done in the same way. Imperial cups are much larger than the rice measuring cups.
A kirimi is a cut of salmon approximately the thickness of the forefinger and the middlefinger.
Take a bowl large enough to fit the sheet of kelp in. This may be the rice cooker bowl or the pot. Cut the sheet to fit if neccesary. Fill the bowl with 3 cups of water, the same amount the rice will be cooked in. Let the kelp be submersed. Let stand for 30 minutes. This will make the stock, and soften the kelp. DO NOT DISCARD WATER/STOCK.
Use a pair of scissors or a knife to slice the kelp into thin strips as thin as you have patience for, approximately 1″ long. Return kelp into the stock.
Wash the rice to be cooked. For questions on how to cook Japanese rice, refer to the Rice (Japanese) entry. Drain water from rice. Place rice into the cooking container, add kelp and soupstock. Add in soy sauce, cooking sake, and sugar. Mix thoroughly, using your hand to ensure an even mixture. Let stand for 15 minutes while doing the next step.
Grill the salmon at high heat to sear the surface. Cook only enough to color the surface and make it crispy. Alternately, use a frying pan to sear the surface of the salmon. Ideally, use no oil. The salmon need not be thoroughly be cooked. This step is intended to add texture to the salmon, and bring out some of its scent.
Place cooked salmon on top of rice. It needs only to sit on the top. Cover, and begin the cooking cycle on the rice cooker. No time modification needs to be made on an electric cooker.
When cooker is finished, let stand for 5-10 minutes. Take the Shamoji (rice paddle) and use the edge to “cut” the salmon into the rice. Break apart the salmon (steamed, it should do so readily) as you mix it throroughly. Do NOT use the flat side to squish the rice and turn it into a featureless mush.
salmon steams on top
mix it up!
final product with enoki, komatsuna, and green onion
side of king trumpet mushrooms
made it last night for KL+MC in their 10 cup rice cooker. i added 1 carrot and the same amount of burdock. i used 6 cups thai jasmine rice, 7.5 cups water, 2 lbs of salmon, 9 TBSP ea of soy and mirin and probably 12″ x 12″ of kelp. the jasmine rice and the 30 minutes of rest after cooking yielded a drier mix. everything came to exactly 10 cups. it was undersalted (i forgot to let it sit for 15 mins while i sauteed salmon…) but a dash of soy in individual bowls took care of that. we topped with komatsuna and green onions and enoki and radish sprouts. with buttered maitake mushrooms on the side. fresh pineapple for dessert.
note: for each cup of rice (using the little rice cup), use 1 1/4 of the little cups of water. therefore, 2 cups of rice is covered with 2.5 cups of water. soak the kelp in this water. also, i used 1/2 lb of salmon in this recipe. it needed a bit more salt so next time, using the same recipe, add 3 TBSP each of soy sauce and mirin.