Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Kaki gohan, Japanese Oyster Rice

굴밥[Gool-Bob]

Until I stumbled upon a Japanese food blog few weeks ago, I have never seen or heard of Kaki gohan, Japanese oyster rice before. Having an oyster killer husband, when I saw its picture on the blog, it seemed like something I could easily impress him with. Given available ingredients and equipment on me, I improvised a bit as I cooked. Fortunately, it turned out to be a big success, and we both loved it!

For 2 servings

rice (2 cups)
water (1 1/2 cup, or use the knuckle method for measurement)
dry kelps (16, 1" square size)
oysters (12, I used 1 bag of frozen shucked oysters)
sake (1/2 cup)
soy sauce (2 tsp)
salt (1 tsp)
scallion (1 stalk, coarsely chopped)


1.
Add dry kelps to washed rice and water, and soak for 30 minutes.

2.
Clean oysters in cold water and drain. The original recipe recommends using shucked oysters in their liquor but I used frozen oysters instead and there was no oyster liquor.

3.
In sake, boil oysters over high heat until they become plump. After removing the oysters, boil the remaining sake until it reduces to half in volume.

4.
Fish out the kelps from rice water.

5.
Add the cooked oysters to rice along with soy sauce (2 tsp) and salt (1 tsp).

6.
Add remaining sake from Step 3.

7.
Now you are ready to cook the oyster rice. The original recipe recommends using a clay pot and I used a pressure cooker which turned the rice and oysters just as delicious. I suppose you could try cooking with an electric rice cooker, too.

8.
Add chopped scallion to garnish over cooked rice.

9 comments:

amy said...

Hello! I stumbled on your blog while searching for recipes! I have been curious about cooking rice in a pressure cooker after seeing my mother-in-law use one (she's Korean). I had thought it had to be a special type/size of pressure cooker to cooke rice, but is that the case? How do you know when the rice is done? Would the timing differ between regular Japanese rice, brown rice and sweet rice? Thanks!

Migi said...

Hi Amy,
Welcome! I didn't have all the answers to your questions, so I asked my mom. Here's what she said.

There are several pressure cooker brands in the market and they come in different designs, sizes and types (stovetop or electric). You could cook rice with most pressure cookers. Some popular Korean pressure rice cooker brands are Cucu (electric) and Poongnyun (stovetop). I have a German brand, Fissler, which I am 100% satisfied with. See my post on Pressure Cooker - http://www.koreanhomecooking.com/2008/02/rice-cooker.html

An electric pressure cooker is generally easier to use than a stovetop. An electric kind is very likely to have settings for cooking different kinds of rice and will make a beeping sound and automatically let you know when the rice is done. If you are using a stovetop kind like me, it depends on the product design and it requires more attention when you cook. For example, my Fissler pressure cooker has a little bar with red marks inserted on its lid and the red marks will appear to signal that it's time to remove from heat. So, if you buy a stove top pressure cooker, I would like to advise you to read the user manual to learn its features.

If you are cooking regular rice with a pressure cooker, you will find that the cooking time is much shorter than regular rice cookers. For instance, my Fissler pressure cooker only takes 10 minutes to cook 2 servings of rice as opposed to 30 minutes with a regular electric rice cooker. With brown rice, the cooking method is similar, but you need longer prep time as you would need to soak brown rice (hyunmi) in water for at least half day before cooking. If you are making sweet rice, my mom recommends just using a regular electric rice cooker instead of a pressure cooker as it tends to get too sticky if it's cooked in pressure.

amy said...

Migi,
Thank you very much for your thorough answer! I didn't know that stove top pressure cookers came with a signal on when the remove from the heat! I will definitely have to check it out. And it absolutely makes sense about the sweet rice... I will start looking around for a pressure cooker. :)

I know the brown rice was an odd question; considering the health benefits my husband and I try to eat brown rice as often as possible... It was a big change considering I am Japanese and he is Korean. Brown rice definitely fills us up much more and we are less hungry!

I'm going to have to attempt your tteok bok ggi recipe! I love tteok bok ggi (especially with dried ramen noodles added)!

Again, thank you for your advise!

Anonymous said...

The best pressure rice cooker is th CUCKOO in my opinon. I use to have the Lihom and I hated the rice cooker. It made the brown rice hard and didnt cook it through. But I love the Cuckoo...I bought mine here www.keycompanyusa.com

Migi said...

I am very satisfied with my Fissler pressure cooker right now. I believe Cuckoo makes electric (as opposed to stove-top) pressure cooker. Maybe I'll try that next time.

Anonymous said...

i liked u r blog.
red rice cooker

Anonymous said...

The cuckoo is very convenient but I wonder if the rice has a different flavor/texture in stove top pressure cooker? The cuckoo only reaches an internal pressure of 9 p.s.i., but most stove top cookers are 15 p.s.i. and thus should cook the rice at a higher temperature.

Migi said...

Hi there,
My Fissler pressure cooker has two pressure settings (i.e., 6 and 11 psi). I use lower psi for slow cooking grains like brown rice, and the higher pressure setting for white rice. In general, I find my stove-top pressure cooker makes rice chewier than my mom's electric (liHom) pressure cooker. I am hesitant to generalize this for the difference between stove top vs. electric though, since some variations may be present for different brands.

pressure cooker said...

I like the taste of Japanese food but it take too much time to cook it. So I just bought new pressure cooker from kitchen ware direct.it helps me a lot.