Donabe Takikomi Gohan: Eda Mame ‘Green Soybean’ Gohan, Matsutake Gohan, Grilled Ayu Sweetfish and Homemade Tsukudani
Being requested for more frequent recipes by our readers on KyotoFoodie, last night I made eda mame gohan cooked in a donabe and tried my new experimental tsukudani. While preparing this simple, seasonal and very tasty dish, Tanigawa-san from Kichisen called and told that he had some wild ayu sweetfish and a box of natsu matsutake gohan for me, so come on over and pick it up. Dinner turned out to be quite a feast!
One of my favorite Japanese dishes is eda mame gohan. Eda mame are most commonly served salt boiled and chilled in the summer as an accompaniment to beer. Eda mame are available pre-packaged in the supermarket boiled and frozen, but I prefer the fresh ones, still on the stalk for this dish. They are a little more expensive and preparation takes more time, but the taste is definitely worth it!
This is a dish that is easy to prepare and you ought to be able to get all the ingredients in your country. If you cannot get fresh green soybeans, try adapting the recipe with other varieties of beans or peas. And, of course, tell us what you come up with!
Fresh Eda Mame ‘Green Soybeans’
Boiling Eda Mame
Eda Mame Beans Separated from Pods
Kodai Sea Bream Heads for ‘Kakushi Aji’ Broth
I bought some baby sea bream (kodai) heads for soup stock and broth and added two to the the gohan nabe. To remove any fishy smell, pour boiling water over the fish heads or grill them lightly. I did both.
Kodai Sea Bream Heads Wrapped in Muslin
To prevent bones and scales from getting in the rice, I wrapped the kodai heads in muslin.
Rice and Eda Mame in Gohan Nabe
All Ingredients in Gohan Nabe
Eda Mame Gohan Recipe
Please see our How to Cook Rice in a Donabe article here for lots of details and explanation. Also, we have an article and video on How to Season a Donabe if you have a new one.
Eda Mame Gohan Ingredients
2 1/2 cups rice, 1/2 cup pressed oats (I use a combination of lightly milled brown rice, white rice and oshi-mugi, or pressed oats)
1-2 cups of fresh green beans
1/2 cup cooking sake
2 1/2 cups fresh, clean water
kombu
pinch of salt
Soak rice and pressed oats in warm water for 30-60 minutes.
While soaking the rice, boil the beans in salt water for approximately 5 minutes. The point is to cook them enough that you can easily ‘squeeze’ the beans out of the pod. Be careful not to cook them so long that they become too soft and squish when squeezing them out.
Measure equal parts soaked rice to water and fill donabe. Bring uncovered donabe to a boil. Reduce heat and cover and simmer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove heat and keep covered for an additional 10 minutes. Again, see this article for how to cook rice in a donabe.
I added some grilled baby sea bream heads for a kakushi aji, or ‘hidden’ flavor.
The Feast
Kichisen’s Matsutake Gohan – Wrapped
Kichisen’s Matsutake Gohan – Unwrapped
Fresh Seasonal Ayu Sweetfish
Ayu Shioyaki (Salt Grilled Sweetfish)
Eda Mame Gohan with O-koge
O-kage is the charring of the rice at the bottom of the earthenware pot. This is slightly too charred, the color should not be black or dark brown and the rice should not get hard. Just the right amount of o-koge makes you remember why you spent the little extra time and effort to make rice the old fashioned way, not just push the button of the electric rice cooker!
Eda Mame Gohan Dinner Served
Eda Mame Gohan – Served
Eda Mame Gohan – detail
This is REALLY good!
Kichisen’s Matsutake Gohan – Served
This is ‘summer’ matsutake mushroom (natsu matsutake). The fragrance is sublime!
My Experimental Tsukudani
This is made with ‘water’ eggplant (mizu nasu), a traditional Osaka vegetable used mainly for tsukemono, wagyu beef tendon and egoma sesame leaves (egoma-no-ha). It was pretty good, but not a masterpiece. The eggplant variety wasn’t quite right for tsukudani. Egoma leaves, popular with beef dishes in Korean cuisine, aren’t usually used in Japanese cuisine but I like the astringent ‘mediciney’ taste very much. I will keep working on the recipe.
My Experimental Tsukudani
Ayu Shioyaki and Tade Kuzu Vinegar
Tade (蓼) is a bitter wild herb that is used to flavor vinegar for ayu. Kichisen adds Yoshino kuzu starch to their vinegar to make it very thick. This helps ‘stick’ more flavor on the fish. Eating the entire ayu, head, guts and all is quite bitter, but with ayu this small the flesh cannot really be removed from the bones very easily. The alternative would be deep frying, but these wild ayu are too good to just deep fry!
Ayu Shioyaki and Tade Kuzu Vinegar
Ayu Shioyaki and Tade Kuzu Vinegar
Wow! I need to make this this summer! It looks amazing! Great blog posting, as usual.
thank you for another eye opening japanese cuisine as i rarely have the authentic ones due to my residential location…
Wow, quite the gochisou! Both the matsutake gohan and the eda mame gohan look fantastic (rice is so nice and shiny). Is it just me or is that Ayu smaller than usual?
An interesting factoid about egoma no ha, it’s actually closer in relation to perilla (shiso) than sesame. The misnomer comes from the korean word deulkkae which literally means “wild sesame”. I love it’s flavour too and like to pickle it in layers with tobanjan and fish sauce (a pseudo kimchi).
Also, have you ever tried drizzling a little goma abura onto boiled edamame with some sea salt? It really brings out the inherent umami in the beans.
Hello Anita, You try! You try! (My imitation of Miwa.) Thanks for the encouragement-o.
Hello adel, Thanks for stopping by KyotoFoodie! I think that you can do this recipe most anywhere. You have beans and rice in your location, right? I love your Spinach & Mozzarella Potato Cakes recipe (I am a fiend for potato pancakes) and the Pan fried Curried Chicken Breast recipe.
Hello Marc, Sorry I haven’t stopped by your site recently. I will soon.
Shiny: I think that must be from the sheer amount of beans in the rice. Lots of sugar content, I guess. I might have put a little mirin in it, but if I did, I don’t think that it would be enough to shine it up.
Smaller than usual ayu: Yes, if those were ‘regular’ size ayu, they couldn’t be eaten whole from just shioyaki. The bones would be too big.
Egoma/Shiso: I say that but the taste is nothing like shiso/perilla. Egoma rules. In Korean yakiniku restos we often get it as shoyuzuke (‘pickled’ in soy sauce) and use it to scoop up rice, like nori, between bites of grilled beef. Cannot be beat!
I have not tried sesame oild on edamame, but I will. Thanks! I have some sesame oil that is pretty awesome. Last year I grew habanero peppers and smoked with sakura chips and then steeped them in light sesame oil. The fragrance is out of this world!
The edamame gohan reminds me of my summer vacations at my ojiichan’s house in Japan! Natsukashii!!!
I would seriously kill for some matsutake right now…i just love that fragrance…
Oooh the edamame gohan looks delicious! I’ve only tried making gohan once or twice in my claypot but both times the texture came out weird. The first time, it was too dry and the 2nd time, too wet. I think I need to do my measurements better.
It’s so hard to find fresh edamame in the states and whenever I do find it, it’s SO expensive! I’m tempted to just grow my own.
droooooooool!
i want! i want!
i love shioyaki!! ack. i hardly see those things in English markets but i might be able to get some where I am now. lovin the edamame gohan…the fishheads must give it such a nice flavour. and what a lovely green as well. my problem is that i love green tea, matcha and anything that is green. i’d gobble up that bowl of rice in no time just cause the edamame are a lovely shiny green (and cause i know it’d be delicious too, no doubt) x
What a feast! Silly me, I didn’t even know matsutake mushrooms were available in summer. I always associate them with autumn. Hmm, I can almost taste them!
By the way, I think the frozen edamame available in the West works quite well for gohan recipes. I usually parboil them in salted water and add them to the rice at the end, in order to preserve their lovely bright green color. I don’t really like them when they’re too soft.
Thanks so much for the recipes. The ayu look divine, and the kuzu sauce with tade… what does it taste like?
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WOW! that looks so delicious! have you tried just making it with brown rice? also, can you get sea bream at most asian supermarkets? that mushroom rice looks divine! WOW! can you do this in a regular rice cooker? i have a rice cooker that is the old school you put a metal pot in and pour water around it. and then you just push one switch down to turn it on. it pops up (the switch) when the rice is done/water evaporated around teh outside.
Hi jen, Yes, edamame is certainly synonymous with summer in Japan. Are you living abroad now?
Hi Louise, Did you use a Japanese nabe? Measurements and cooking time are really key. I am not very good at that kind of thing but I can make perfect gohan every time now in a gohan nabe. I would think if you make it a few more times you will be able to make it just right.
hi macha, Hey, don’t droool on blog! 笑 (LOL)
hi there diva, So where are you now? The fish heads add a real kakushi aji (hidden flavor) but you could get something similar with just high quality, natural dashi. Also, no dashi is great too because the eda mame are so yummy. Just a little salt and cooking sake will be enough to really ‘pop’ the flavor. Eda mame are really beautiful. The black beans from Tamba are prized in Japanese cooking, if you get them still green, on the stock, after they are cooked they are a beautiful purplish green. They cannot be beaten for looks or taste!! Grow some in your garden!!
Hello Risa, Tade is extremely bitter, there is a slight herby taste, but it is not very pronounced. Kuzu doesn’t have any noticeable taste. So, it is just bitter green herb and vinegar.
Hi Ted, Well, thank you very much! I will check that list out.
hello tra, Short grain brown rice can be cooked in a gohan nabe or rice cooker. BUT it needs to be soaked in water for several hours to overnight. Yes, this recipe can be done in an electric rice cooker. I am not sure about purchasing sea bream in Asian markets abroad. Red snapper, grouper or other similar fish ought to work just as well.
Wow! This is my first visit to your blog,and I am hooked! We love edamame so I’m really keen to try this dish. Thank you for the wonderfully informative recipe 🙂
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