How to Cook Okowa, Japanese Sticky Rice

Sunday, October 23, 2016

How to Cook Okowa, Japanese Sticky Rice

This morning, my husband and I cooked okowa (おこわ/おこわ飯), which is Japanese sticky rice. We purchased sticky rice (もち米), which is also called sweet rice, at Korean supermarket about a month ago, and we just bought Japanese burdock root, which is called gobo (ごぼう/牛蒡) in Japanese, at Japanese supermarket last week, so it's time to cook our favorite okowa! :) Okowa is sweet, salty and savory sticky rice. It tastes pretty similar to Chinese zongzi. If you love zongzi, you might like Japanese okowa as well. :) We cooked 16 servings of okowa (I know you think it's too much!) and made okowa rice balls with leftover. Then put them freezer, so we can enjoy them for a while. :) If truth be told we have only 6 rice balls in our freezer now! Yes, we've eaten a lot already. :) Anyway, I'm going to share how to make okowa with you.

Ingredients (8 Go / 16 Servings)

8 Go (8 Rice Cups) of Sticky Rice (or 2 Go of White Rice and 6 Go of Sticky Rice) *1 Go (一合, ichi-go) means one Japanese rice measuring cup (180ml) of rice.
2 Tablespoons of Dried Hijiki
1 lb of pork (Minced)
1 Japanese burdock root (Sliced)
2 Carrots (Minced)
4 Tablespoons of Sugar
4 Tablespoons of Sake
8 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce
6 Tablespoons of Mirin
1,600 ml (54 fl oz) of Water
2 Tablespoons of Hondashi

1. Wash the rice with water. Then soak the rice in water for 30 minutes.

2. Soak dried hijiki in water for 10 minutes. Strain the water.

3. Stir-fry pork, burdock root, carrots and hijiki in a large pan for 3 minutes or so. Add sugar, sake, soy sauce and mirin, and simmer them until water evaporates.

4.
■For A Pressure Cooker : Put the rice into a large pressure cooker. Add water and hondashi, and stir them. Top with simmered pork and vegetables. Cover the lid. Heat it over high heat until the level of pressure is reached. Reduce the heat to a lower level and simmer for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and wait for another 10 minutes.
■For A Large Pan : Put the rice into a large pan. Add water and hondashi, and stir them. Top with simmered pork and vegetables. Cover the lid. Heat the pan over high heat until boiling. Reduce the heat to a lower and simmer for 10 minutes. Then, turn off the heat and wait for another 10 minutes.

5. Toss the okowa.

6 Enjoy!