World of Wati: Gomoku Gohan: Fredi's New Favourite Dish

It's very easy to feed Fredi. Since he was a baby, he has always shown an interest in food. It makes my job easy whenever we eat out as I don't need to bring special food just for him. At home, whatever I cook, he'll eat it.

Recently, I have been making Gomoku Gohan for the family. This seems to be a new favourite for Fredi. Wilkie is more reluctant but finished it for his school obento. Roy likes it too, despite containing chicken, and asked me to make it again after my 1st attempt. He even packed it for his obento to eat in the office.

Gomoku Gohan is a Japanese style flavoured rice with 5 ingredients, hence the name "Gomoku" in which "Go" means 5. It's like Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice) but instead of frying, you cook it in a rice cooker. If you Google around, you can find several versions of the recipe. Mine is very simple, I just used what I have in the cabinet. I try to avoid buying special ingredients if I know I won't be using them often, so my recipe may not be truly traditional, but it still tastes good. Lets get down to it.

Ingredients:

2 cups rice
2 cups water
150g chopped chicken meat (I prefer to use brown meat with skin on)

1/2 medium sized carrot, cut into thin strips
4 medium size fresh shitake mushrooms cut into thin strips
1/2 cup chopped lotus root (traditionally, burdock root is used)
1/2 cup konyaku cut into strips
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon mirin

Method:

Wash the rice and add the water and all other ingredients in the rice bowl. Stir and make sure the ingredients are distributed evenly, but don't worry about stirring too much.
Cook the rice mixture in a rice cooker as per normal.
Serve hot or at room temperature.

I usually eat Gomoku Gohan with vegetables and some left over meat. It's also good to eat it with an accompanying miso soup. In the photo, I ate it with roasted veggies and baked left over salmon. I have been roasting root veggies a lot nowadays too. They are very nutritious, rich in minerals and are very filling. Fredi of course loves them too and eats them enthusiastically.