Kuri Gohan Chestnut Rice Autumn Seasonal

Ingredients

• 300 g Japanese short-grain rice, washed and soaked 30 minutes
• 75 g mochi rice (glutinous short-grain rice), washed and soaked 30 minutes
• 300 g fresh chestnuts, unpeeled, X-scored on flat base
• 600 ml kombu dashi, cold-steeped or lightly simmered
• 2 tbsp sake
• 1 tsp fine sea salt, added near end of cooking
• 1 tsp light soy sauce (usukuchi), use sparingly to avoid darkening rice
• 1 gardenia pod (kuchinashi no mi), whole, lightly cracked; added to chestnut boiling water for golden colour
• To garnish
• 1 tsp black sesame seeds, scattered at table
• 6 sprigs mitsuba (Japanese parsley), stems trimmed

Method

1. 1
   Score an X on the flat base of each chestnut with a sharp knife. Submerge in cold water, then bring to the boil and simmer 5 minutes. Working with the chestnuts hot and one at a time, strip away both the hard outer shell and the papery inner skin. The flesh should be firm and barely yielding at the centre — it will finish cooking in the rice.
2. 2
   Place the peeled chestnuts in fresh cold water with the cracked gardenia pod. Bring to the boil and par-cook until the chestnuts reach 80 per cent doneness — a skewer enters with firm resistance at the core. Drain. The gardenia pod will have tinted the flesh a clean golden yellow. Discard the pod.
3. 3
   Drain the soaked short-grain rice and mochi rice and combine them in a heavy pot or rice cooker bowl in the ratio 80 : 20. Add the kombu dashi, sake, and light soy sauce. Because the chestnuts will continue to release moisture during cooking, the total liquid should be reduced by 10–15 per cent from the volume you would ordinarily use for the same weight of rice. Stir once to distribute the seasoning.
4. 4
   Nestle the par-cooked chestnuts across the surface of the seasoned rice without pressing them in. Do not stir. Cook by your preferred method — covered pot over high heat brought to a boil, then the lowest possible flame for 12 minutes, then off heat to steam 10 minutes — keeping the lid sealed throughout. This is where the dish lives or dies: opening the lid during cooking releases the steam that is simultaneously cooking the rice and keeping the chestnuts moist; a disturbed cook produces either wet, starchy rice from excess chestnut moisture or hard, undercooked grains.
5. 5
   Add the salt in the final minutes of steaming if it was not incorporated with the dashi, then lift the lid. Using a shamoji (rice paddle), rake the rice gently from the edges inward with folding strokes — do not stir. The grains should be distinct, glistening, and lightly cohesive from the mochi rice; the chestnuts intact and golden. Taste for salt.
6. 6
   Serve in individual bowls. Scatter black sesame seeds and lay mitsuba sprigs across the surface at the table. The golden chestnuts against white rice is the visual signal of correct preparation.