Okome - How to Prepare Rice the Japanese Way

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How to Prepare Rice the Japanese Way

If you've been following Tatsetokyo on Instagram or Facebook you've probably come across photos of some pretty yummy meals made by Takao. My keen eyed step sister Natalie wrote me asking how Takao prepared his rice. If you've ever visited Japan then you probably noticed that white rice here seems to be in an entirely different league. Even tourists from other parts of Asia come here to buy their rice cookers. Never too dry, never too wet and perfectly sticky; preparing your rice Japanese style will add a whole lot of culinary heft to whatever you're making.

Step by Step Japanese Rice

1. Gather Materials

• a large bowl
• a strainer (that wont allow rice to escape)
• and your rice measuring cup
• and rice! A good choice would be Koshi Hikari or other premium short grain rice

2.With the strainer placed inside the bowl start adding your rice.

3. Place the bowl and strainer with rice into the sink and fill with water

4. Lift strainer and rice out of the bowl and discard milky water

Note from the chef: Do not start scrubbing the rice at this point. It is important to throw away this first round of milky water as it removes a bit of gamey odor that we don't want to have mixing around in our rice when we scrub.

5. Place strainer back in the bowl and once more:

• fill bowl with water, 
• lift the strainer out of the water and
• scrub

Chef's note: Be sure to lift the rice out of the bowl once it has filled with water. Then, place your hand inside the rice and start mixing in a circular motion. If you made 1 cup of rice, do 10 revolutions. 2 cups, 20 revolutions. The goal is to have the rice scrub against itself. Throw out the water when you are finished.

6. Place the rice and strainer back in the now empty bowl and repeat (fill with water, lift, scrub)

Continue the process until your water looks just about clear. It should only take 1 or 2 rounds of scrubbing.

We are ready to go!

7. Set aside and let the rice sit in the water for 30 minutes

It's cocktail time!

30 minutes and several cocktails later your rice should have a nice, gooey, sheen to it. 

8. Remove the strainer from the water and pour rice into your rice cooker

You can discard the water the rice soaked in. Pour the rice into your rice cooker and now follow the directions inside the bowl of your rice cooker to know how much water to cook the rice in. Takao says a safe bet is typically 1 cup of rice to 1.1 cup of water. Quite specific.

Enjoy! I'd love to know if anyone tries it out!