How to Cook Okowa, Japanese Sticky Rice

Friday, March 24, 2017

How to Cook Okowa, Japanese Sticky Rice

This month, 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. If you love zongzi, you might like Japanese okowa as well. :) Okowa is absolutely one of my favorite Japanese foods, so when I make okowa, I try to cook a large amount of it. I can make okowa rice balls with extra okowa and keep them in freezer, so my husband and I can also enjoy them later. :) 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.
1 lb of Chicken or Pork (Minced)
1 Japanese Burdock Root (Shredded)
2 Carrots (Minced)
1 Cup of Lotus Roots (Shredded)
2 Tablespoons of Dried Kelp (Kombu)
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. Stir-fry chicken, burdock root, carrots, lotus roots and kelp in a large pan for 3 minutes or so.

3. Add sugar, sake, soy sauce and mirin, and simmer them until water evaporates.

4. 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.