Sansai Gohan (Rice with Mountain Vegetables)

Vegetables is rice that is cooked with sansai – literally meaning “mountain vegetable.” 
The rice is slightly seasoned with kombu, soy sauce, sake, and mirin, but the flavors mostly come from the assorted mountain vegetables.
Sansai Gohan (Rice with Mountain Vegetables)

Ingredients

• 1 kombu (dried kelp) (4" x 5" or 10 x 13 cm)
• 2 ½ cup water (600 ml)
• 3 rice cooker cups uncooked Japanese short grain rice
• 1 piece aburaage (deep fried tofu pouch) (1 rectangular piece = .7 oz = 20 g) (optional)
• 7-8 oz Sansai Mix (Sansai Mizuni)(200-250 g)

Seasonings

• 3 Tbsp soy sauce (Preferably light colored (usukuchi) soy sauce. Use GF soy sauce for GF)
• 2 ½ Tbsp sake
• 2 ½ Tbsp mirin
• ½ tsp kosher salt

Instructions

1. Gather all the ingredients.
2. To make kombu dashi - Add kombu in 2 ½ cup water. Let the kombu steep in water until ready to use.
3. Rinse rice and soak in water for 20 minutes. If you’re using short grain rice, ALWAYS soak the rice before you cook. Then drain excess water well, making sure there is NO MOISTURE left in the rice. We do not want to dilute the seasonings. 
4. To remove the oil from aburaage, you can either pour boiling water over the tofu pouch in a sieve over the sink, or have a quick blanch over the boiling water in a small pot for 15 seconds (flipping 1-2 times).
5. Cut the aburaage thinly.
6. Drain the sansai mizuni in a sieve and quickly rinse with running water.
7. In a rice cooker bowl, add the rice and seasonings (3 Tbsp soy sauce (usukuchi or GF), 2 ½ Tbsp sake, 2 ½ Tbsp mirin, and ½ tsp salt).
8. Then add in kombu dashi (remove kombu first) and mix well.
9. Add sansai mix and aburaage on top. Place in the rice cooker and start cooking. Select “Mixed Rice” setting if your rice cooker has “Mixed Rice” function, otherwise, cook normally.
10. Once the rice is cooked, using a rice scooper, fluff the rice and combine well with ingredients. Serve in a rice bowl and enjoy!

https://www.justonecookbook.com/sansai-gohan/