How to Cook Okowa, Japanese Sticky Rice

Monday, April 17, 2017

How to Cook Okowa, Japanese Sticky Rice

Yesterday, I purchased burdock root, which is called gobo (ごぼう/牛蒡) in Japanese, at my local Japanese supermarket. Burdock root is savory Japanese vegetable and an essential ingredient for some traditional Japanese dishes such as chikuzenni (筑前煮), kinpira gobo (金平牛蒡) and okowa (おこわ). Today, I cooked this Japanese sticky rice, okowa (おこわ/おこわ飯). Okowa is sweet, salty and savory sticky rice. It tastes pretty similar to Chinese zongzi. This is my favorite Japanese rice dish, so I cooked a large amount of it like always.

I also made many okowa rice balls with extra okowa, so I can keep them in freezer. my husband and I can also enjoy them later. :) Anyway, I'm going to share how to cook 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 means one Japanese rice measuring cup (180ml) of rice.
2 Tablespoons of Dried Hijiki
1 lb of Chicken Thigh or Pork (Minced)
1 Japanese Burdock Root (Cut Into Long Thin Strips)
2 Carrots (Minced or Sliced)
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.

Sticky Rice

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

Hijiki

2. Stir-fry pork, burdock root, carrots and hijiki in a large pan for 3 minutes or so.

3. Add sugar, sake, soy sauce and mirin, and simmer them until almost no liquid remains.

4. Put the rice into a large pan. Add water and hondashi, and stir them.

5. Top with simmered pork and vegetables.

6. 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.