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Ogokbap — Five-Grain Rice for Jeongwol Daeboreum (오곡밥)

Ogokbap (오곡밥, 'five-grain rice') is the ceremonial rice of Jeongwol Daeboreum (정월대보름, the Korean first full moon festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month) — short-grain rice cooked with four additional grains: glutinous millet (기장, gijang), sorghum (수수, susu), black beans (검정콩, geomjeong-kong), and red adzuki beans (팥, pat). Each grain contributes different colour, texture, and nutritional element; their combination is believed to provide health and abundance for the coming year. Ogokbap is shared with neighbours — the tradition holds that eating the dish with food from seven different households brings fortune.

‹Swipe for the next dish›
ServesFour portions
TotalOvernight soak plus approximately 1 hour 30 minutes active preparation and cooking
Within reach0of 3 in Salt Spring Island

Three not yet within reach.

How the 3 are reached
Not yet within reach
3 · glutinous millet (기장, gijang), sorghum (수수, susu), red adzuki beans (팥, pat)
Cook
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I

The Market List

The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.

300 g
short-grain rice
soaked 30 minutes, drained
Your own market
60 g
glutinous millet (기장, gijang)
soaked 2 hours, drained
Not yet within reach of Salt Spring Island · each reach is counted
60 g
sorghum (수수, susu)
rinsed
Not yet within reach of Salt Spring Island · each reach is counted
60 g
black beans (검정콩, geomjeong-kong)
soaked overnight, drained
Your own market
60 g
red adzuki beans (팥, pat)
rinsed
Not yet within reach of Salt Spring Island · each reach is counted

Within reach counts in town, delivered, shipped and the nearest city. A staple counts once it has a local seller. Charted from each shop's own pages; not yet vouched by a cook who shops here.

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II

The Method

1
Soak the black beans in cold water overnight, the glutinous millet in cold water for 2 hours, and the short-grain rice in cold water for 30 minutes, draining each separately so each grain has absorbed precisely the moisture it needs without borrowing time from another. The black beans are ready when they have swelled visibly and the skins show no wrinkling — a wrinkled skin means the bean will tighten and resist the steamer rather than cook through evenly.
2
Place the adzuki beans in a small saucepan with double their volume of cold water, bring to a simmer, and cook for 30 minutes — starting them in cold rather than boiling water lets the skins soften at the same rate as the interior, so they stay intact rather than burst and lose their pigment into foam. The beans are done when they are just tender to a fingernail press but hold their shape without splitting. Reserve the cooking liquid, since it carries the purple-red pigment that will colour the rice throughout.
3
Combine the drained short-grain rice, drained glutinous millet, sorghum, drained black beans, and the par-cooked adzuki beans with enough of the reserved adzuki cooking liquid and fresh water to moisten all grains evenly, so the pigment reaches every grain before heat sets it in place. Transfer to a steamer basket lined with a dampened cloth — the damp cloth holds fine grains like millet that would otherwise fall through while still allowing steam to pass freely up through the mass. Steam over vigorously boiling water for 30–35 minutes; the ogokbap is done when every grain is fully tender, the rice is cohesive but not mushy, and the surface shows an even reddish hue from the adzuki pigment distributed throughout, with no dry white patches of uncoloured rice remaining.
4
Remove the steamer from the heat and turn the ogokbap onto a serving vessel, working gently so the beans hold their shape and the colour remains distributed rather than smeared. The colour distribution should be visible throughout — white rice tinted red, yellow millet, red-brown sorghum, and purple-black beans dispersed evenly, not clustered — and the aroma earthy and clean, with no single grain dominant. No salt is added; the dish is served pure alongside salty banchan.
III

Quality Hierarchy

01
Reserve — Heirloom short-grain rice from a named Korean terroir; locally grown heirloom pat (adzuki) with deep pigment; all grains sourced from specialist Korean grain merchants with documented provenance.
02
Estate — High-grade Korean short-grain rice (품종 표시, named variety); dried adzuki and black beans from a Korean or Japanese specialist supplier; glutinous millet and sorghum sourced whole and unprocessed.
03
Market — Good-quality Korean or Japanese short-grain rice from a well-stocked Asian grocer; all five grains purchased dried and whole from the same store's grain section; colour and aroma checked before purchase.
04
House — Any short-grain rice; pre-packaged ogokbap grain mix (오곡밥용 혼합잡곡) sold in Korean supermarkets; acceptable for the everyday table, though colour distribution and individual grain character will be less distinct.
IV

Sensory Tests

◇Sight. Black beans have swelled and their skins lie smooth and taut after overnight soaking — no wrinkling.
◇Touch. Par-cooked adzuki beans yield to a fingernail press but hold their shape without splitting at the 30-minute mark.
◇Sight. After steaming, the rice surface shows an even, auspicious reddish hue from the adzuki pigment; no white uncoloured patches remain and the colour is distributed throughout, not clustered by grain type.
◇Touch. Every grain in the finished ogokbap is fully tender under a spoon press — no hard or undercooked centres, particularly in the black beans.
◇Where it lives or dies. The combined steaming step decides the dish: each grain must arrive at this moment at exactly the right stage of pre-preparation — overnight-soaked beans, par-cooked adzuki, two-hour-soaked millet — because once in the steamer together, no individual correction is possible.
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VI

What to Pour

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Ogokbap is eaten within the full Jeongwol Daeboreum ritual meal alongside nine dried vegetable namul dishes. The clean, earthy, unsalted grain flavour is best accompanied by a light, slightly sweet Korean makgeolli (unfiltered rice wine), whose gentle effervescence and mild acidity balance the density of the multi-grain rice without competing with the ceremony of the occasion.

The whole pairing
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