Beyond Plain Rice II--A Recipe for Take No Ko Gohan

You know what that dark brown thing is... right?

It's Take No Ko... a bamboo shoot.  A baby bamboo (or, well... maybe an elementary school bamboo, judging by the size).

You can cook with these-- I got one of these once a year after Koshi started kindergarten, as the third year kids were taken out to dig bamboo shoots.  The first time he came home with a large something wrapped in newspaper, I'll admit, I panicked slightly.

I knew that it could be cooked with, though, since I'd seen them at our Daiei packaged with what looked at the time like sawdust (couldn't imagine what *that* was for).

That one ran me about Y498-- not bad.

Yes, it's fuzzy.  See?

You don't eat that part, though.

Chop off a big hunk of the bottom and peel off several of the thick outside layers
(I know-- I see you all.  Racing to your local Asian market to get bamboo shoots as is, right from the ground.  Rest assured that you can make this with the kind that's already sliced and boiled;-)

Use your Big Knife and put a slice into the center, top to bottom, so that it will finish cooking in your lifetime.

Put the Take no Ko (Bamboo's Child, literally) in your Big Pot, and fill with water 'til it's covered.  Dump that little pack of sawdust nuka (rice bran--it's *very* good for you, and it figures as an ingredient in lots of Japanese facial skin care products.  Ever notice how Japanese tend to look a lot younger than they really are?  This may well be one of the reasons.)

Simmer it for an hour, then turn off the fire and let it just sit there in the pot for two more hours.  That way, it won't be over-boiled, and will also be easier to peel away the rest of the fuzzy layers when it's cooler.

Always ends up *much* smaller than what you thought it would be..

Make sure to take off all the fuzzy-- it's nice to pet, but not to eat.

Slice it in half, then into smaller, bite-sized pieces (not too thick).

Other ingredients (though this can vary) are:

1. One piece of aburage (bean curd) cut into four pieces then sliced.
2. About half a carrot, thinly julienned.
3. Konnyaku (solidified jelly made from the rhizome of Devil's Tongue), cut small.  Or, use the noodles (about 50g).  I cut them in two places so they wouldn't be too long.

San go of rice... three of those cute little wooden measuring boxes if you have one.  If not, 450g of rice (in ounces?  *No* idea.  But I think that's a pound.), rinse it well and put it into the rice cooker and fill to the line for 3-go of rice (or 450g).

Dump the vegetables on top.

For the soup, you need:

1. Light (Usu-kuchi) Soy sauce, 1Tbsp
2. Cooking Sake, 2Tbsp
3. Hon Dashi (powdered stock--in the box on the left), 1 Tbsp
4. Shio (salt), 1tsp

Put all that into the water in the Kama (you can see my rice-cooker pot on the right) and mix it all up.

 
Put the Kama into the rice cooker and hit Go!  This rice is fairly filling (or maybe my kids just like it a lot, and eat more of it than usual), so you don't really need to have a huge meat dish with this.  Bamboo Rice is nice to have with tofu and miso soup and a couple of vegetables for a vegetarian dish that I never notice is vegetarian.  Just Japanese.  Take no Ko Gohan also makes *great* onigiri the next day (if there's any left over;-))

Itadakimaa---su!

Enjoy!

Mata asobou, ne!