Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Craving For Ochazuke :>

I have been searching online for recipes of this Japanese dish after seeing it on my favorite Japanese drama "Hotaru no Hikari" where Takano cooked it for Hotaru to reward her for working hard on a project and she was so happy and looks so blissful while eating it. I'm not sure if it is as delicious as what she portray in the scene or because she was just so happy and touched that Takano had specially prepared it for her :)




Anyway I'm planning to eat it at a Japanese restaurant or try cooking it myself if i can't find a restaurant that serves the dish as i'm really curious how it taste like hehe.... It seems to be a light and healthy dish and I found out online that it's quite easy to prepare.

Ochazuke is commonly served at the very end of an elaborate Japanese full course meal. It's also favored as a midnight snack, a hangover cure, or just when you want something hot and filling. It's commonly made with leftover rice, though ideally the rice should be heated up if it's cold. The stuff that goes on top makes it flavorful. Nowadays most people use ready-made ochazuke packets, from companies like Yamamotoyama. These come in flavors such as pickled plum, salmon, wasabi and sea urchin.

I managed to find the recipe online and will most probably cook it since it seems quite easy....

Ochazuke Recipe found online (http://www.justhungry.com/2004/01/ochazuke_rice_w.html ):

For one serving:
  • 3/4 cup of rice. If it's cold, heat it up a bit in the microwave.
  • Hot green tea - I like to use ho-ji cha, but any green tea will do. Not chai or "gunpowder tea" etc! Use green tea made from tea leaves. Genmai-cha, which has toasted brown rice in it, or Oolong tea would also work.
  • Toppings: basic ones are arare, tiny rice cracker pellets or crumbled rice crackers of another sort, and shredded nori seaweed. Optional: wasabi, pickled plum, salted salmon bits, mitsuba (a kind of herb), tiny semidried fish called jako, bonito flakes.
Put the rice in a bowl, Put on the toppings, and add a bit of salt to taste. Pour over hot green tea.
I will post more about it when I have gotten all my ingredients and try cooking the dish.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chazuke )
(Source: http://www.justhungry.com/2004/01/ochazuke_rice_w.html )

Chazuke

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