Nara Tea Porridge (茶粥, Chagayu)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Medium donabe clay pot, or a heavy saucepan
• •Tea sachet or fine-mesh strainer
• •Rice washing bowl and sieve
• •Wooden rice paddle or spoon

Instructions

1. 1

   Rinse the rice

   Put the rice in a bowl, cover it with water, and swish it with your hand. Pour off the cloudy water and repeat until the water is almost clear, then drain the rice in a sieve for 15 minutes. This washing removes loose surface starch, which is the difference between a clear, loose chagayu and a gluey porridge. The grains should stay themselves.

2. 2

   Brew the tea

   Bring the 6 cups water to a boil in a medium pot. Add the hojicha in a tea sachet, or add loose tea and be ready to strain it. Simmer gently for 3 to 5 minutes, until the liquid is amber and smells roasted, a little stronger than tea you'd drink from a cup. Remove the sachet, or strain the tea back into the pot. Leaving the leaves in too long gives bitterness and muddies the clean taste you want.

   Use hojicha or coarse bancha, not delicate sencha. Sencha's green bitterness takes over when it is boiled, while roasted tea stays round and calm.
3. 3

   Cook it loose

   Add the drained rice to the amber tea and bring it back to a lively simmer. Lower the heat so the bubbles move steadily but do not toss the grains around, and cook uncovered for 25 to 30 minutes. Stir once near the beginning and once or twice later to keep the rice from catching on the bottom. Don't fuss with it. Too much stirring breaks the grains and releases starch, and then the broth loses its clarity.

   Chagayu should be pourable from the ladle, with rice suspended in tea. If it begins to thicken like ordinary okayu, add hot water or freshly brewed hojicha a little at a time.
4. 4

   Season and rest

   When the rice is tender but still intact, stir in the salt and taste the liquid. It should taste lightly seasoned, not salty, because the umeboshi will bring its own sharpness at the table. Turn off the heat and let the pot stand for 5 minutes. The rest finishes the rice gently and lets the tea settle back into itself.

5. 5

   Serve with umeboshi

   Ladle the chagayu into small bowls, filling them only halfway to two-thirds. Set one umeboshi on each bowl or just to the side, and serve pickles separately if using. Break the umeboshi into the rice as you eat. Its sour saltiness gives each spoonful a clean edge, while the tea remains the quiet center of the dish.

Chef Tips

• •Choose a roasted tea with a clear, nutty smell. If the leaves smell flat or dusty, the porridge will taste flat too. There is nothing hidden here, so the tea has to be worth tasting.
• •Don't make this rich. Dashi, sesame oil, and extra toppings turn it into another dish. Chagayu's strength is its restraint: rice, tea, salt, umeboshi.
• •For a weekday stand-in, use 2 cups cold cooked rice with 4 cups brewed hojicha and simmer about 10 minutes. It will be softer and cloudier than the raw-rice version, but it keeps the spirit honestly enough for breakfast.
• •If you're serving it cool, let it come down naturally, then refrigerate it. Loosen with a little cold hojicha before serving, because rice keeps drinking even after the pot is off the heat.

Advance Preparation

• •The hojicha can be brewed one day ahead and refrigerated. Bring it back to a simmer before adding the rice.
• •Finished chagayu keeps for two days refrigerated. It thickens as it sits, so loosen it with hot water or brewed hojicha when reheating.
• •For a make-ahead breakfast, cook the porridge slightly looser than you want. By morning, the rice will have taken up more liquid.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 340g)