Hokkaido Sweet Sekihan (甘納豆赤飯, Amanattō Sekihan)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Seiro (bamboo or cypress steamer), or a metal steamer
• •Mushi-nuno (steaming cloth), or a clean thin cotton kitchen towel
• •Hangiri, or a wide shallow bowl
• •Rice paddle (shamoji)
• •Small dry pan for goma-shio

Instructions

1. 1

   Wash and soak

   Put the mochigome in a bowl and rinse it with cold water, rubbing the grains gently between your hands. Pour off the cloudy water and repeat until it runs almost clear. Cover the rice with plenty of fresh cold water and soak for at least 6 hours, or overnight. Mochigome is steamed, not boiled here, so it must take up water before it meets the heat. Skip the soak and the outside turns sticky while the center stays hard.

2. 2

   Drain the rice

   Drain the soaked rice in a sieve for 30 minutes. This looks like waiting, but it matters. Surface water makes the grains paste together, while well-drained soaked rice steams up glossy and separate, with the chew that makes sekihan worth making.

   A bamboo sieve is lovely, but any wide sieve works. Spread the rice out a little so it drains evenly.
3. 3

   Make color water

   Dissolve the shokubeni and fine sea salt in the warm water. The water should look pale rose, not red. Use less color than seems dramatic, because you can add a trace more later, but you cannot un-pink rice. The salt is small, just enough to season the grains from within before goma-shio finishes the bowl.

4. 4

   Start steaming

   Line a seiro, bamboo or cypress steamer, with a damp steaming cloth, or use a metal steamer lined with a clean thin cotton towel. Spread the drained rice in the cloth, making a loose mound with a few shallow holes poked through it so heat can move evenly. Set over strongly simmering water, cover, and steam for 20 minutes. Keep the water below the cloth, because rice sitting in water becomes heavy instead of chewy.

5. 5

   Color and finish

   Tip the hot rice into a wide bowl, sprinkle over half the color water, and fold with a rice paddle using cutting motions. Return the rice to the steamer and steam 10 minutes. Repeat with the remaining color water, then steam 10 to 15 minutes more, until the grains are tender, glossy, and still pleasantly chewy. Folding in stages colors and hydrates the rice evenly without crushing it.

6. 6

   Prepare amanattō

   While the rice finishes, check the amanattō. If the beans are heavily frosted with loose sugar, set them in a sieve, pass them very briefly under warm water, and pat them dry. Don't soak them. You only want to remove excess surface sugar that would melt into streaks, not wash away the sweetness that makes this Hokkaido sekihan what it is.

7. 7

   Make goma-shio

   Toast the black sesame seeds in a dry pan over medium-low heat, shaking the pan until they smell nutty and a few begin to pop. Tip them into a small bowl and mix with the coarse sea salt. Crush a spoonful lightly if you like, just enough to wake the sesame oil. This is goma-shio, and it gives the sweet rice its balance.

8. 8

   Fold and rest

   Transfer the finished rice to a hangiri or wide bowl. Fold in the amanattō gently, lifting from the bottom so the beans stay whole. Cover with a clean cloth and let it rest 10 minutes. The rice's own heat warms the beans through without melting them into the grains, which is the quiet trick of the dish.

9. 9

   Serve with sesame

   Spoon the sekihan into small bowls, building a little height and leaving the rim clean. Sprinkle each serving with goma-shio at the table. It should be softly pink, glossy, sweet in little pockets where the beans sit, and lightly salted on top. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Chef Tips

• •Buy amanattō that still shows the shape of the bean clearly. If the beans are broken or buried under a thick crust of sugar, they'll smear into the rice instead of sitting there like little sweet stones.
• •The color should be modest. Hokkaido sekihan is pink, yes, but the rice still has to look like rice. A toothpick-tip of shokubeni is often enough for the whole batch.
• •A seiro gives the best texture because the grains are surrounded by heat instead of sitting in water. A rice cooker is a sensible home stand-in: use the okowa or sweet-rice line if your cooker has one, then fold in the amanattō after cooking.
• •Don't skip the goma-shio. Without salt and sesame this becomes sweet rice with beans. With them, it comes back to the table as part of a meal.

Advance Preparation

• •The rice can soak overnight in the refrigerator. Drain it well before steaming, or the grains will turn pasty on the surface.
• •Goma-shio can be made 2 days ahead and kept in a small covered jar, though the sesame smells best the day it is toasted.
• •Amanattō sekihan is best the day it is made. For leftovers, wrap small portions and freeze; rewarm covered with a damp cloth so the rice softens without drying out.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 225g)