Gohan Nabe: Earthenware Pot for Cooking Rice
Rice cooked in a gohan nabe is noticeably tastier than in an electric rice cooker. Of course electric rice cookers are the norm in modern Japan. But there is a lot interest in gohan nabe recently, especially among the younger generation. The gohan nabe is different from a regular donabe in that it has an inner and outer lid. Any donabe needs to be seasoned before its first use.

I have noticed from comments and search access keywords that there is a fair amount in interest in donabe and gohan nabe among foodies abroad now. We have a good discussion going on in our Kyoto Support forum about how to season a donabe.

I thought that it would be useful to make a demonstration video on how to season a donabe as well.

Video: How to Season a New Donabe

Steps to Season a Donabe
Seasoning is done by boiling cooked rice in the donabe until it becomes a thick porridge. This fills microscopic pores in the donabe and will help to prevent breakage and damage by heat.

• Fill the donabe to about 80% with water then add cooked rice.
• The amount of cooked rice should equal about 1/5 of the volume of water. A little more rice is said to be better than less.
• Simmer gently over until the rice forms a thick porridge. This took me about an hour. Be careful not to cook it down so much that it burns.
• Allow donabe and porridge to cool to room temperature and then discard. Don’t leave to porridge in for more than a few hours.
• Wash and wipe well. Allow to dry overnight before first use.

Donabe Maintenance

• All donabe accumulate hairline cracks with use.
• When not in use never cover a dobane if it is not completely dry inside.
• Avoid mold developing inside the donabe.

SHARE! Kyoto Support Topic: How to Season a Donabe

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Itadakimono: Early spring is the time to enjoy uri, a cucumber-like gourd that is in season here for just a few weeks. The only way I know to eat this vegetable is as tsukemono. In March and April, I often go to Nishiri to buy their uri that is simply and lightly pickled with salt. The other morning I got a call from Kichisen telling me that the boss had some fresh uri from me, so come on over and pick them up. It turns out that it was an entire box! As we are making homemade pickles now, I am putting these beautiful uri to good use.

Fresh ‘Cucumbery’ Uri Tsukemono
Uri is best lightly pickled, so I buried several in nuka and in less that 24 hours removed, washed and sliced them for our onigiri lunches tomorrow.

Uri is quite ‘cucumbery’, fresh and ‘springy’. The idea is that even though they are pickled, they should still taste very just off the vine fresh. The pungent taste and sourness of the nuka quickly penetrated the uri, it was the perfect balance of early spring fresh veggie with sour and pungency. The flesh is still firm and crunchy.

I can’t wait for lunch tomorrow! Hidden inside my recently perfected mixture of white rice, 30% milled brown rice, rolled oats and gokokumai, simmered in well water, sake, kombu and a dash of salt and wrapped in nori is uri nukazuke.

Itadakimono: Spring Pickling Vegetable Uri

Spring Pickling Vegetable Uri Washed and Ready for Pickling

Spring Pickling Vegetable Uri Washed and Ready for Pickling

Note beagle for scale.

Uri Split and Seeds Removed

Burying Uri in Nuka

Day Two

Uri in Nuka

Digging out the Uri

Uri Nukazuke Ready for Washing

Uri Washed and Slicing

Making Onigiri for Tomorrow’s Lunch

Making Uri Nukazuke Onigiri

Making Uri Nukazuke Onigiri

Uri Nukazuke Onigiri Served (with Kasuzuke Sujiko Ikura Onigiri)

Wagyu Roast Beef Donburi is a recent invention of Paku and it kicks!

This novel donburi features fine wagyu (Japanese beef) roast beef, on a bed mugi genmai gohan (barley brown rice) and fresh mizuna and topped off with a shoyu based onion sauce.

Main Ingredients: roast beef (preferably wagyu style), mizuna (or other similar green), rice (1 cup ‘genmai‘ brown rice, 1 cup white rice, 1/2 – 2/3 cup ‘mugi‘ barley), *dried kombu
(*optional)

Sauce Ingredients: onion (grated), shoyu, cooking sake (or white cooking wine), mirin and sugar (about 1 tablespoon each)

Rice: If possible, use Japanese style short-grain rice. If using genmai, be sure to soften it up adequately before cooking. This can be done by soaking the genmai in water over night or by pouring on boiling water and letting it stand about 2 hours before cooking. If you don’t like or don’t have genmai, just white rice or mugi gohan is fine too. Genmai and mugi makes for a more healthy donburi. Cook the rice with a sheet of dried kombu if you can obtain it as is adds excellent flavor and minerals.

Sauce Preparation: Grate half an onion as shown in the photo below. Combine all sauce ingredients in a pan and cook over moderate heat for several minutes and until it starts to thicken up. Paku says to just cook it until the ‘sting’ of the onion is ‘gone’.

Serve: Serve the rice in a large ‘donburi‘ style bowl and place fresh mizuna on top of the rice. Atop the mizuna, place the roast beef and spoon on the onion shoyu sauce.

Enjoy!

The Main Ingredients

Wagyu roastbeef, mizuna (greens), genmai mugi gohan and dried kombu (kelp)

Sauce Ingredients

Onion, shoyu, sake, mirin and sugar

Grating the Onion

If you don’t have this kind of Japanese grating implement, a food processor will work just fine too.

Cooking the Sauce

Cook for several minutes, until thick and mellow in flavor.

Dekita! Wagyu Roast Beef with Shoyu Onion Sauce Donburi

Enjoy!

This is a quick and easy dish that makes Western-style roast beef modern-Japanese.