Kuchinashi gohan / ohan / steamed rice colored with dried gardenia fruit

This cheerful yellow rice pleases the eye. You can look forward to opening the cover and seeing how the color turned out. It’s lightly salted, yet the mochigome mixed in makes it sweetly aromatic.

<Ingredients>

4/5 180 cc cup* regular rice
1/5 180 cc cup mochigome sweet rice
1-2 kuchinashi dried gardenia fruit
*1 rice cooker cup; see Notes below for water measurement tips when cooking rice in a pot.


<Directions>
1.

Wash regular and sweet rice together, and soak for at least 30 minutes.
Water will be drained later, so the amount of water does not matter at this point.

2.

Meanwhile, prepare kuchinashi water. Crush or cut kuchinashi and soak in 100-150cc warm water.

Color is immediately drawn out but wait at least for 30 minutes to get a strong enough hue (burnt orange), as the color will fade at the end of cooking.

3.

When ready to cook, drain water, add salt and kuchinashi water, to slightly below the 1-cup mark.

If kuchinashi water is not enough, add water.

Cook.

4.

When done, wait 10 minutes, and gently turn.

<Notes>

• When cooking in a pot, use slightly less than 200 cc water (10% more than for regular rice in volume; when sweet rice is added, use slightly less). Use 2/3 of the water to soak rice, and the rest to make kuchinashi water.
• Sweet rice is optional. It can be made with only regular rice or only sweet rice. The more sweet rice you add, the sticker, richer and more aromatic the result is.
• Ohan is the local name for kuchinashi gohan in Oita Prefecture. It is also called kiihan.