Where's the Rice?

I was so excited when I got home from the Saigon Oriental Market. I had in my possesion so many lovely ingredients. Feeling a bit sad about the fact that Japan is so far away along with all of her delicious foods. I got out my Sushi cook book. I wanted to take the time to make the rice the traditional Japanese way. This is when I realized that with all the trouble I had taken to get just the right ingredients to make my food taste like I remembered it tasting...I had forgotten to buy rice. There was not a single grain of rice in my house. Back to the store.

I still have not found Sake, but otherwise the dinner turned out pretty good. I still miss Japan. Jeff, who had lunch at a Japanese restaurant last week said at least my meal tasted more like Japan than the one he had at the very expensive Japanese retaraurant. Oh well I guess you can never go back. My rice turned out perfect though. Here is the recipe in case you would like to eat Japanese sticky rice.

Be prepared to have a ton of rice that will last all week.

5 cups calrose rice
5 cups water
1 large pot
1/2 cup sake (optional)

put 5 cups rice in large pot. fill pot with water. run the rice through your fingers. pour out water (not rice). fill pot with water again. run fingers gently through the rice. pour out water (not rice). One last time, fill pot with water, run fingers through rice, dump water (not rice). (this process is called rinsing the rice) Some books say that at this point you should put the rice in a strainer and drain the water for at least a 1/2 an hour. I do not do this step because my dear friend and the world's best Japanese cook Ritsuko doesn't do this...

Now add 5 cups water to the rice in the very large pot. Cover the pot and put on the stove over medium heat. Do not remove lid at any point from now until the end. Heat until the water begins to boil. (usually takes 10 to 15 minutes)

Once the water has started to bubble (I use a clear lid) turn up the heat to high for 3 minutes. If your pot is not big enough it will start to boil over at this point and you may have to reduce the heat a bit sooner.

Now reduce heat and boil for 5 minutes over medium heat.

Now reduce the heat again and boil for 5 more minutes over the lowest possible heat.

Now remove the lid, add the sake, give it a good stir with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat. Return lid to pot. Let finish cooking for 15 minutes. Now your Rice is ready to eat.

Great for kids. Lily always eats several bowls full. The Japanese eat the rice plain. They eat their food separate from their rice instead of mixed together. Just a bowl of rice to accompany almost every meal.

In China they also eat the rice separate and do not pour their meat and veggies with the delicious sauces over the rice. In China they do not eat rice until the end of the meal. They had a specific order in which food is eaten. All I can remember is that the rice came last. Because this was the only thing Lily could eat, she was terribly hungry and they would absolutely refuse to bring us rice until everyone was done with their meal. So frustrating. Luckily I had a $2 Gucci purse filled with bananas.