Kaki Gohan (牡蠣ご飯, winter oyster rice)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Rice cooker, donabe, or heavy pot with a tight-fitting lid
• •Fine-mesh strainer lined with cloth or a coffee filter
• •Small saucepan
• •Shamoji (rice paddle), or a broad spatula

Instructions

1. 1

   Wash the rice

   Put the rice in a bowl, cover with cold water, and stir with your hand. Pour off the cloudy water and repeat until the water is almost clear, not perfectly clear. Soak the rice in fresh water for 30 minutes, then drain it in a sieve for 10 to 15 minutes. Soaking lets the grains hydrate evenly, and draining keeps your measured cooking liquid honest.

2. 2

   Make the dashi

   Wipe the konbu with a damp cloth, but don't wash it. Put it in the cold water and warm it slowly over low heat, about 10 minutes. Pull the konbu when the water trembles and small bubbles climb the sides, before it boils. Bring the water just to a gentle boil, add the katsuobushi all at once, take the pot off the heat, and leave it alone for 2 to 3 minutes. Strain through a cloth or fine sieve and let it drip without squeezing.

   Boiled konbu turns the stock bitter and a little slick. Squeezed bonito flakes give up strong, oily flavors. Both rules are only ways of saying: protect the clarity.
3. 3

   Clean the oysters

   If the oysters came with liquor, strain it through a fine sieve lined with cloth or a coffee filter and save it. Put the oysters in a bowl with the katakuriko and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt. Turn them gently with your fingers until the starch turns gray, then rinse in two or three changes of cold water and drain well. The starch catches grit and surface murk without rough handling. Wash it twice, wash it thrice, but don't bruise the thing you came to eat.

4. 4

   Poach the oysters

   In a small saucepan, combine the saved oyster liquor, 1/2 cup of the dashi, the sake, mirin, shōyu, and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Bring it just to a quiet simmer, then add the oysters. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes, turning once, until the edges curl and the centers turn opaque but still glisten. Lift the oysters out to a plate and keep every drop of the liquid.

   This brief poach gives the cooking liquid the oyster's flavor while keeping the flesh plump. Cook the oysters with the rice from the beginning and they shrink before the rice is ready.
5. 5

   Measure the liquid

   Pour the oyster poaching liquid into a measuring cup and add enough dashi to make 430ml, about 1 3/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon. Taste it. It should be seasoned enough to flavor rice, but not salty like soup gone wrong. If your oyster liquor was very briny, hold back a spoonful and replace it with plain dashi. Rice remembers every extra splash, so measure before it goes in.

6. 6

   Cook the rice

   Put the drained rice in a rice cooker or a heavy pot. Add the measured liquid and scatter the ginger over the top. For a rice cooker, cook on the regular white rice setting. For a pot, bring it to a boil over medium heat, cover tightly, lower the heat, and cook 12 minutes. Turn off the heat and do not open the lid yet. The covered rest finishes the grain as gently as the fire began it.

7. 7

   Return the oysters

   When the rice is cooked, open the lid quickly, lay the poached oysters on top, close the lid again, and rest for 10 minutes off the heat. If using a rice cooker, switch off keep-warm if you can. That rest warms the oysters through and lets their juices settle into the rice without tightening them.

8. 8

   Fold and serve

   Use a shamoji, a rice paddle, to loosen the rice from the sides and fold from the bottom with a cutting motion. Don't stir as if it were porridge. You want separate glossy grains and whole oysters. Serve in small bowls, with mitsuba and a few threads of yuzu peel on top. Leave it room, even in the bowl.

Chef Tips

• •Buy oysters in winter from a fishmonger who can tell you when they were shucked. They should smell clean and faintly of the sea, never sour, muddy, or sharp. Sourcing first, always.
• •Save the oyster liquor, but strain it. That liquid is not waste, it's the dish's backbone. Grit, however, is not flavor, and it has no place in the rice.
• •Don't reach for instant dashi here. A sensible stand-in has its day, but this rice depends on the clean meeting of konbu, bonito, and oyster liquor.
• •Turn off the rice cooker's keep-warm setting after the oysters go back in if your cooker allows it. Long held heat makes shellfish tough, and no seasoning will make that tender again.
• •Serve this with something sharp and simple, such as cucumber sunomono or lightly pickled daikon. The rice is rich with the sea, so the side dish should clear the mouth, not compete.

Advance Preparation

• •The dashi can be made up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated. For a rounder stock, soak the konbu in the measured cold water overnight, then warm it gently before adding the katsuobushi.
• •The rice can be washed and soaked earlier the same day. Drain it well and keep it covered at cool room temperature for up to 1 hour before cooking.
• •Clean and poach the oysters close to cooking time. They can wait refrigerated for a few hours in their poaching liquid, but they are best returned to the rice the day they are cooked.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 300g)