Takenoko Gohan

So this morning I gave Takenoko Gohan a shot. It's quite easy to do once you've done the groundwork. The groundwork is basically: bamboo, dried shiitake mushrooms, Aburaage Tofu (type of deep-fried tofu) and less so rice.
　The bamboo was prepared as I stated in the previous blog, see that.
　About 7 medium sized dried shiitake mushrooms were put in 4.5 cups of water to soak for 10 minutes, then brought to a boil on medium heat. Then heat turned off and left to rest for 20 minutes. This forms what's called a shiitake-dashi soup stock.
　Rice is washed vigorously to get the bran out, the way I did it was putting it in a colander and bowl. Basically keep washing until the water becomes clear, instead of murky white and leave to rest for about 20-25. One cup per person.
　Poor boiling water over the Aburaage and leave to soak for a bit, I used a 4 by 8 slab for two cups of rice.

Now to come together:
　Strip a few more layers of bamboo, and slice into thin 2cm by 2cm pieces. Do likewise slices for the Tofu.
　Put the rice into the cooker along with 1.2 cups of dashi soup stock per cup of rice.
　Bamboo shoots and Tofu goes over the top, I didn't mix it through but I will the second time and see how that goes.
　I also added the Shiitake mushrooms I used to make soup stock, I won't the second time to see the difference. But once they are used to make stock, you can eat them like an entree just make sure to cut off the stems before serving.
　For seasoning 1tbsp soy sauce, 0.5tbsp sake, 0.5tbsp mirin, 0.25tspn salt PER cup of rice.
　Rice cooker does the rest :D

I think this is a great home-meal for heaps of people if you have a big enough rice cooker. When the rice cooker was finished all the soup had gone into the rice so it was super moist and tasty to just eat the rice, the bamboo was tender however I didn't use chilli in the preparation process so it didn't have any zing. Warning: extremely filling!