Gomoku Gohan, An Improved Recipe

Gomoku Gohan served with root veggies and left over baked salmon

Gomoku Gohan has been a staple at home for the past few weeks. It seems to be the family favourite at the moment, with the exception of Wilkie. Fredi eats it so quickly I struggle to catch up. It's a very satifying meal on it's own as all the veggies and meat are put together in the rice. Of course it woud be even more complete if served with a bowl of miso soup, plus other additional veggies and meat, which I usually do.

On my previous recipe, I didn't follow the traditional method. This time, instead of just water, I used dashi, a commonly used Japanese stock for cooking here, made basically of kelp and bonito fish flakes. I got the recipe from here, and this is how it looks like. 

I was surprised at how easy it is to make basic dashi.

On Hallowen party I made Gomoku Gohan for a potluck lunch and it was my first attempt at using dashi. I also used dried shitake mushrooms and gobou (burdock root). The result was surprisingly tastier and the dashi stock gave the dish a darker hue. This may also be partly due to adding some of the soaking mushroom water as well. The gobou gave an earthy and nut like flavour. I liked it much better with dashi and now I understand why dashi is such an intergral part in Japanese cooking.

The recipe itself is very versatile, you can use, in my opnion, whatever veggies in season or meat you like. Here's mine, an improved version.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups rice (Japanese short grain rice-you can use other types of rice)
• 2 cups dashi (recipe here)
• 150g chicken cut into little cubes (I used thigh meat with skin on)
• 4 dried shitake mushrooms, soaked in water*, cut into strips
• 1/2 cup of carrot, cut into strips
• 1/2 cup gobou (burdock root), cut into strips
• 1/2 cup konyaku, cut into strips
• 2 tablespoons soyu (Japanese soy sauce)
• 1 tablespoon unrefined cane sugar (or sweetener of your choice)
• 1 tablespoon mirin 

Method:

1. Place and mix gently everything into a rice cooker
2. Push the button and cook as per normal
3. Leave for 5-10 mins before serving

* I replace 1/2 cup of dashi with the soaking mushroom water. This is optional but I think it enhances the flavour.

Gomoku Gohan for Roy's obento with pickled radish

The day when I made obento for Roy with the improved recipe using dashi, he sent me a text that said "Wow! Gomoku is REALLY good!"

So there, if your husband approved and complemented your cooking with so much gusto, you've craked it! The proof of the pudding (in this case, gomoku) is in the eating indeed.

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