Rice Cooking

We Japanese live on RICE basically.
The rice we grow in Japan is called as Japonica rice
which is rather round and shorter in shape and
it will be sticky when cooked.

We have a long history of cooking rice among us Japanese.
When the writer was a small boy, people were cooking rice in an iron pot.
Then the time has come we use electric rice cooker.

If it is a family of lots of family members like a family
of 4 people or more, the electric rice cooker is still popular
for the purpose to cook more rice at a time.

But, if it’s a family of 2 people or less, it is convenient to use
an earthenware pot to cook a smaller volume such as 2 go of rice.

The “go” is a unit to measure the volume of rice.
The 2 go is a volume sufficient for 2 people to eat it at a time,
unless he/she will be a big eater. In my case, I cook 2 go at a time daily.

In this
鍋炊きご飯の炊き方/レシピ
It looks like that an ordinary pot made of metal will be used to cook the rice.

1)　What is needed before to start cooking rice by pot.
Crucial to DIP the washed rice firmly in water for some time.
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Required to get the rice “absorb water” beforehand
so that the rice could be cooked by fire through the core of rice.

It would be good to keep in water for over 30 minutes
after washing the rice in summer season.
But, in winter, the soaking time needed will be for 1 hour.

The way of judgment : It will be ready if the color of rice will be
“cloudy” or “milky” after being soaked in the water.

2)　The quantity of water.
After the first soaking process, although I do not do this myself,
just for the purpose to measure the water to be used,
this explanation will be easier to see what to do.

Once you move the water-absorbed rice into the colander
and then put them into the metal pot.
The quantity of water you add will be 400ml~450ml against the 2 go rice.

Against the rice of 3 go, the water to be given will be 600ml~650ml.
The more water will give the cooked rice more stickiness,
than the case of less water.

3)　How to cook (Correct Heat and Time)
After you added water into the pot, make the surface of rice flat.
When cooking the rice in the metal pot, it would be good
to start with medium heat (flame) in the case of 2 go or 3 go.

I personally use earthenware pot – in its case,
I start with high heat (high flame) from the beginning.

The water inside the pot will be boiled and
the bubble will be coming out from the lid.
(In the case of metal pot, keep on cooking for 2 minutes
after boiling gets started, then weaken the flame a little for 3 minutes,
then keep on cooking with low flame for 5~7 minutes.)

Cook for totally 10~12 minutes as above quoted
for metal pot cooking, and open the top lid to see
if water still remains or not.

If you still see bubble on the rice, it is the condition
that the water has not been blown.

If such is the case, keep on cooking for another 1~2 minutes
with low flame until the water will be blown off, and then
give medium flame for some 10 seconds to steam them
with the lid on the metal pot.

Depending upon the kind of pot to be used,
or when the rice volume is small,
the boiling condition is less noticeable.

4)　Finishing process is steaming
By steaming the cooked rice, it will have delicious taste.
The length of time needed for the steaming will be 10 minutes
– wait the time while putting the lid on the pot.

At the end of this article,
it is referred to about “aluminum” pot.
But, I personally “avoid” using “aluminum”
as the material of pot or pan or any other thing.

Above is mostly translated from the below
:http://www.sirogohan.com/recipe/gohan2/ 鍋炊きご飯の炊き方/レシピ

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