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Japanese · Japan

Sekihan Red Bean Celebratory Rice

Sekihan (赤飯, 'red rice') is glutinous rice steamed with adzuki beans whose cooking liquid stains the rice a distinctive pinkish-red. It is Japan's celebratory rice, eaten at auspicious occasions — birthdays, coming-of-age ceremonies, weddings, entering school, new business openings, and festive family gatherings. The colour red has deep apotropaic and celebratory significance in Japanese culture, associated with warding off evil and marking transitions. The technique requires soaking glutinous rice overnight, par-cooking adzuki beans separately until just cooked (not split), then combining with the red-tinted cooking liquid and steaming in a traditional wooden steamer (seiro) or rice cooker with the steaming function. The beans must remain whole and not burst — split beans suggest inauspicious bleeding. The finished sekihan is typically sprinkled with goma shio (black sesame and salt) and served in lacquerware boxes at celebrations. The flavour is mildly sweet from the adzuki, sticky from the glutinous rice, and the sesame salt provides an essential savoury counterpoint to the sweetness.

ServesFour to six portions
Sourced0of 5 in BC
Cook
I

The Market List

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360 g
glutinous rice (mochigome)
soaked overnight in cold water, drained
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
100 g
adzuki beans
picked over, rinsed
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
1 piece
kombu
added to adzuki cooking water
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
For the goma shio
2 tbsp
black sesame seeds
lightly toasted
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
1 tsp
coarse salt
Your own market
II

The Method

1
Place the adzuki beans in a small saucepan with the kombu and cover generously with cold water. Bring to the boil, drain immediately, and discard this first water — this blanch reduces bitterness from the skin compounds. Return the beans and kombu to the pan, cover again with fresh cold water, and bring back to a gentle simmer. Cook until the beans are just tender but entirely whole, with skins intact. The cook is done when a bean pressed between two fingers yields without resistance yet holds its shape without splitting.
2
Drain the beans over a bowl, reserving every drop of the deep red-brown cooking liquid. Discard the kombu. Allow the liquid to cool to room temperature. The darker the liquid, the more vibrant the pinkish-red colour in the finished rice: this is the moment that determines the dish's colour.
3
Drain the overnight-soaked glutinous rice and submerge it in the reserved adzuki cooking liquid. Leave to soak for a minimum of two hours, or until the grains have taken on a uniform pinkish-red stain throughout. Drain, again reserving the liquid.
4
This is where the dish lives or dies. Spread the stained glutinous rice evenly across the perforated insert of a wooden seiro steamer lined with dampened cheesecloth. Scatter the whole adzuki beans across and through the rice. Set over a wok or pot of vigorously boiling water, cover tightly, and steam. Every ten to fifteen minutes, sprinkle the surface of the rice with reserved adzuki liquid to maintain colour and even moisture. Steam until the grains are fully translucent, uniformly glutinous, and no raw, chalky centre remains when a grain is bitten — the consequence of insufficient soaking or steaming is irreversible unevenness. The beans must remain whole throughout: a split bean is the one failure the dish cannot absorb.
5
While the rice steams, combine the toasted black sesame seeds with the coarse salt in a small bowl and mix to make the goma shio. The ratio of sesame to salt should leave the sesame dominant, the salt present but not sharp on the nose.
6
Turn the finished sekihan into lacquerware boxes or serving bowls. Serve immediately, with goma shio offered at the table for each diner to apply to taste. The dish is at its peak on the day it is made; the glutinous rice hardens perceptibly on refrigeration.
III

Quality Hierarchy

01
Reserve — Heirloom mochigome milled to order; small-farm adzuki with deep, uniform skins; hand-harvested black sesame; flaked natural sea salt. Steamed in an aged cedar seiro that has absorbed decades of steam.
02
Estate — Premium bagged mochigome from a named Japanese prefecture; dried adzuki sourced from a specialist Japanese grocer; good-quality black sesame; coarse flaky salt. A new but well-fitted seiro.
03
Market — Standard mochigome from an Asian supermarket; supermarket dried adzuki beans; pre-toasted black sesame; table salt used sparingly. A bamboo or aluminium steamer basket lined with cheesecloth.
04
House — Mochigome cooked on the steaming function of a rice cooker with the adzuki liquid; tinned or jarred adzuki beans used with care to keep them whole; white sesame substituted for black; iodised salt. Colour and texture will be diminished but the dish remains recognisable.
IV

Sensory Tests

◇Sight. The soaked raw grains are stained a uniform pinkish-red before steaming begins — pale or patchy grains mean insufficient soaking time.
◇Sight. Every adzuki bean remains whole and unbroken throughout cooking and serving — split skins are the single visible mark of failure.
◇Sight. Cooked grains are fully translucent with no white, chalky centres visible when a grain is examined or bitten.
◇Touch. The finished rice is uniformly glutinous and cohesive — grains cling together but do not collapse into paste when pressed.
◇Smell. The goma shio smells of toasted sesame first, salt second — if salt dominates the nose, the ratio is wrong.
◇Where it lives or dies. The beans must remain whole throughout steaming — a split bean is considered inauspicious at celebrations, and no subsequent step can restore either the appearance or the symbolic integrity of the dish.
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VI

What to Pour

The pairing
The Yamazaki 12 Year Old Single Malt
Suntory Spirits — Yamazaki Distillery · Yamazaki — Suntory Distillery
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The whole pairing
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