Tomato Ginger Rice

Tomato to Shoga no Takikomi Gohan

Half-cut tomatoes are cooked together with rice in the donabe and becomes an extremely luscious dish. Tomatoes break so easily with a rice paddle and once you gently mix the contents, the beautiful red color coats the rice and imparts the sweet aroma of tomatoes and ginger. While this dish is completely vegan, even my meat-loving friends go crazy over it. (And, they fight over Naosco, the Yuzu-Kosho flavored hot sauce I make as a condiment for this dish.)

I love making this dish while the tomatoes are in season during summer. But, tomatoes don’t have to be very ripe to make this dish, so you can enjoy making this dish any time of the year.

Vegan option

This is a vegan dish.

Equipment

Kamado-san 3 rice-cup size

Servings

4 - 5

Ingredients

3 medium tomatoes (about 1 lb/ 450 g total)
2 1/2 rice-cups (450 ml) short grain rice, rinsed
1 1/2 cups (360 ml) kombu & shiitake mushroom dashi
2 tablespoons sake
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 oz (30 g) ginger, peeled and finely julienned
2 shiitake mushrooms from kombu & shiitake mushroom dashi above, stems discarded, and thinly sliced (optional)
Minced shiso leaves for garnish
Naosco (recipe below), optional

Procedure

Cut shallow X on each bottom of the tomatoes with a small knife. Bring water to a boil in a medium sauce pan and add some salt. Blanch the tomatoes for about 15 seconds and transfer to a bowl of ice water. Peel the skin. Cut out the stem end. Halve each horizontally and remove the seeds. Set aside.
Combine the rice, dashi, sake, sea salt and sesame oil in Kamado-san. Let the rice mixture soak for 20 minutes.
Spread the ginger, followed by the shiitake mushrooms over the rice, and arrange the tomato halves, cut side down, neatly on the top.
Cover Kamado-san with both lids and cook over medium-high heat for 13 – 15 minutes, or until 2 – 3 minutes after the steam starts puffing out of the top lid.
Turn off the heat and let it stand for 20 minutes.
Uncover and gently toss the contents by breaking the tomatoes with a rice paddle. Serve into individual bowls. Garnish with shiso and drizzle some Naosco, if you like.

Naosco (Naoko’s tangy yuzu-kosho hot sauce)

Whisk together 1 tablespoon yuzu-kosho, 2 tablespoons rice vinegar, and 1/2 teaspoon shio-koji. Naosco can keep in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Once the rice is ready, gently break the tomatoes with a rice paddle and mix with the rice.