Cooked with ginger, fried tofu skin, and soy sauce base sauce, this Japanese Ginger Rice is so fragrant that you would enjoy it on its own.

Ginger Rice

INGREDIENTS

• 1½ cups uncooked Japanese short-grain rice (335 g or 12 oz)
• 1 piece aburaage (deep-fried tofu pouch)
• 1 oz ginger (30 g) (preferably young ginger)
• 1¼ cups water

Seasonings:

• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp sake
• 1 Tbsp mirin
• ¼ tsp kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; Use half for table salt)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Gather all the ingredients.
   
2. Rinse the rice and drain well. For detail instructions, click here for the recipe and video.
3. Boil water in a small saucepan and pour on top of aburaage. This will remove the oil coated on the aburaage (manufacture’s oil doesn’t taste good, so this extra step will improve flavor of aburaage).
4. Cut in half lengthwise and slice thinly into strips.
5. Peel the ginger and cut it into julienned pieces.
6. Mix all the ingredients for the seasonings in a 2 cup measuring cup. Then add water to the seasonings so that the liquid totals 1 ½ cup (equal volume as rice).
7. Place the (drained) rice into the rice cooker. Pour the liquid into the rice cooker and mix well, and add ginger and aburaage on top.
8. Start cooking. If you have a “Mixed Rice” option, use it (See Notes below). When the rice is done, let it steam for another 10 minutes. Fluffy it up with the rice paddle and serve.

RECIPE NOTES

Aburaage: This is really good to have in this recipe to give more flavors. You can find it in Japanese grocery stores. However, if you cannot find it, you can omit it.

Regular or Mixed Rice setting on rice cooker: The main difference is that Mixed Rice setting will create burnt rice called “Okoge” on the bottom of the rice cooker. Takikomi Gohan (mixed rice) always have the burnt rice from soy sauce in the seasoning, and many people enjoy the burnt charred rice. If your rice cooker doesn’t have the mixed rice option, steam extra 5 min longer at the end before opening the rice cooker.

Equipment you will need:

• Rice cooker (If you don’t own a rice cooker, you can cook rice over the stove top. Watch the video here and get the recipe here. Cooking time will be just 15 minutes.)

https://www.justonecookbook.com/ginger-rice/