Chestnut Rice (栗ご飯, Kuri Gohan)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Small sharp peeling knife
• •Rice cooker, donabe, or heavy lidded pot
• •Rice paddle (shamoji)
• •Fine-mesh sieve

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the chestnuts

   Put the chestnuts in a bowl and cover them with hot water for 30 minutes, or with room-temperature water for 2 hours if you have time. The soaking softens the shell and the inner skin, which makes the knife work cleaner and safer. A chestnut that fights you from the first cut is telling you it needed more time.

   Choose chestnuts that feel heavy and full, with glossy shells and no pinholes. If they rattle, float, or smell musty, don't use them. Sourcing first, always.
2. 2

   Peel them cleanly

   Drain the chestnuts. With a small sharp knife, cut off the flat base, then peel away the hard outer shell and the thin brown inner skin. Work slowly and cut shallowly, following the curve of the nut. Drop each peeled chestnut into cold water as you finish so the cut surface stays pale and clean.

   The inner skin is bitter. Removing it is not fussiness, it is the difference between chestnut rice that tastes sweet and chestnut rice that tastes tired.
3. 3

   Rinse the rice

   Wash the short-grain rice and mochigome together in a bowl of cold water, swirling with your hand, then pour off the cloudy water. Repeat until the water is only faintly cloudy. Drain the rice in a sieve for 20 minutes. This firms the grain so it cooks evenly instead of turning pasty at the surface and hard in the center.

4. 4

   Season the pot

   Put the drained rice in a rice cooker bowl or heavy pot. Add the sake, mirin, and salt, then add water to the 2 1/4-cup mark in a rice cooker, or 2 1/4 cups total liquid for stovetop cooking. Stir once to dissolve the salt. Lay the konbu on top, then scatter the chestnuts over the rice without mixing them in.

   Season before the chestnuts go in so the salt is even. Keeping the chestnuts on top protects the grains below and lets the rice swell without being crushed.
5. 5

   Cook the rice

   Cook in the rice cooker on the regular white-rice setting. For stovetop cooking, bring the pot to a boil over medium heat, cover tightly, lower the heat to very low, and cook for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it rest, still covered, for 15 minutes. The rest is part of the cooking, not a polite pause; it lets the moisture settle through the grains.

6. 6

   Remove the konbu

   Open the lid, lift out the konbu, and discard it or slice it for another use. Don't stir yet. Let the surface sit for 2 minutes so the chestnuts firm slightly. If you stir while they are fragile, they break into paste and the dish loses its quiet shape.

7. 7

   Fold and serve

   With a rice paddle, cut down through the rice and fold from the bottom, turning the pot gently rather than mashing. The grains should look glossy and separate, with chestnuts left in generous pieces. Serve in small bowls, with toasted black sesame and a few grains of salt if you like. Leave the bowl room. A mound too large makes autumn look greedy, which autumn has never needed help doing.

Chef Tips

• •Fresh chestnuts are worth waiting for. In Japan the good ones come in autumn, and outside that season I would rather cook plain rice well than pretend a dried-out nut is the same thing.
• •Mochigome gives a gentle chew and helps the grains cling, but don't use too much. Kuri gohan should still eat like rice, not like mochi.
• •A rice cooker is not a shortcut here. It is a sensible tool for even heat and steady absorption. A heavy donabe or cast-iron pot also works, but watch the heat closely after the boil.
• •Do not sweeten this as if it were dessert. The mirin is there to round the chestnut, not announce itself. If you can taste sweetness as seasoning, you've gone too far.

Advance Preparation

• •The chestnuts can be soaked and peeled up to one day ahead. Keep them covered in fresh cold water in the refrigerator, then drain well before cooking.
• •The rice can be rinsed and drained up to 1 hour before cooking. Don't leave drained rice sitting all day, or the grains dry at the edges.
• •Leftover kuri gohan keeps one day refrigerated. Shape it into onigiri and warm gently in a covered pan or rice cooker rather than stirring it hard.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 255g)