Takikomi Gohan

Takikomi gohan means rice soaked in soy sauce and boiled with meat or seafood and seasonal vegetables. This dish is typical of Japanese cuisine and has a long tradition. Rice has been and continues to be a staple in Japanese main dishes. In the old days it used to be expensive, so to make it go further, people would often boil it with available vegetables such as daikon radish, potatoes, beans, and other grains such as millet. Boiling rice together with these ingredients led to the development of several types of takikomi gohan.

  Whatever ingredients you may choose, it's important to consider the color balance of the vegetables. Because of the soy sauce, the rice takes on a light brown tinge, so to please the eye, it's good to add some bright-colored vegetables such as carrots (orange) and beans or peas (green).

 Tori gomoku is a popular version of takikomi gohan that uses chicken, shiitake mushrooms, burdock, and carrots and it is eaten throughout the year. Takikomi gohan can be varied using different ingredients in each season. For example, bamboo shoots or broad beans are often best and easier to find in the spring; green peas or fresh soybeans in the summer; chestnuts or matsutake mushrooms or Pacific sauries in the autumn; and oysters in the winter. Regional versions often prefer to use local ingredients, to make a meal typical from their area. Versions of takikomi gohan famous in western Japan include tai meshi (rice with whole sea bream) and ayu meshi (rice with whole sweet-fish), both cooked using a whole fish.

  Thanks to the variety of ingredients in the dish, there's no need to prepare many side dishes to go with it. In addition, it is usually eaten in rice ball form the next day. Thus you can either serve it hot at home with your family or take it along for a picnic with your friends. What a versatile dish!

  Takikomi gohan is also a very healthy dish. As it contains neither oil nor butter, It's great if you're tired of eating 'heavy' or oily food. And I know that when my family comes to visit and we just seem to be eating nonstop at the restaurant, this dish is perfect. As a Japanese living abroad, I eat this healthy and tasty dish often. But occasionally, for a change in pace, I try cooking takikomi gohan in other styles, such as Mediterranean - using a tomato sauce with a bit of garlic; and Provençale - with herbs but no oil or butter. And it works! Preparing risotto usually requires butter, but if you want a tasty and healthier alternative, try takikomi-style risotto, cooked with no butter. The texture is alitle different from traditional risotto, but it will most certainly please your friends and family, especially those on a diet.

  This time I used ingredients typically found in Japan: whitefish, carrots, green beans and oyster mushrooms (hiratake). (Shiitake mushrooms can also be used). These ingredients are usually also easy to find in Western countries nowadays, and I've heard that shiitake in particular are becoming quite popular in the U.K. for low-calorie diets. Shiitake are still expensive here in France, but they're well worth buying to produce the authentic Japanese taste of takikomi gohan.
 I hope to introduce other types of takikomi gohan in the near future. Until then, here is how to prepare it and I hope you enjoy it. Bon appetit!


Written by Yuko Tamaki-Welply
A member of TranNet and freelance translator based in France

♦ INGREDIENTS
(serves 4)

c   = cup
g   = gram
T   = tablespoon

3    c   short-grain white rice
100 g   boneless whitefish
100 g   carrots, thinly sliced
50   g   green beans
50   g   oyster mushrooms (hiratake or shiitake)
1    T   dashi (bonito soup stock) in 2 c of water
3    T   sake
2    T   soy sauce


♦ How to make Takikomi Gohan

1. Wash the rice and let it drain in a colander for half an hour before transferring it to a pot.
2. Cut the whitefish into bite-size pieces. Slice the carrots thinly and cut the oyster mushrooms into thin, 3-cm-long sticks.
3. Soak the whitefish, carrots, mushrooms and green peas in 1 c of water with 1/2 T of dashi (fish soup stock) in a bowl for 20 minutes. Reserve 1 c of the soaking water.
4. Add the reserved water, dashi and sake to the rice and let it stand for another half an hour.
5. Boil the rice with all the other ingredients in a covered pot at high heat for 10 minutes Then cook it for another 15 minutes at low heat. After these two phases, turn off the heat and leave it for another 10 minutes to let the rice soak up all the aroma produced in the pot.
6. Gently mix them after the rice is finished cooking.

I have kept on writing the kanji for "LIFE." I have been wondering what I'm living for and what I really want to do; and day after day I have continued writing that kanji, assuming different aspects of myself.
Myself worrying, myself putting on airs, myself careless as to what may become of me, myself so happy I can't stand it, myself as mischievous, myself as egotistical, myself as disagreeable - - hundreds of "myselves" inabit this dark area.
I've kept on writing with the one single hope of letting carious aspects of myself dwell in each of my works. Our feelings and sense of values change day by day and in this process we mature. Although we are influenced by outside factors such as daily events and people we meet, it is finally one's inner world, that is, our own self that decides one's own sense of values.
As I kept on brushing in ink one kanji after another, I suddenly felt the dark clouds clear. In that very moment, perhaps, I encountered the guidepost which I would follow as a calligrapher. Whenever I see this work of mine, "HUMAN LIFE," myself of that moment comes back to me. Human life from now on, and human life at this very moment.... I seek after continuous growth.

In 2003 Souun Takeda was awarded a medal from the Shanghai Art Museum, and the same year received the medal of Constanza de' Medici on this work.