Mixed Seafood and Rice

Name: Mixed Seafood and Rice
Yield: makes 4 servings
Ingredients: 4 cups Dashi, preferably homemade (page 162); 5 fresh or dried shiitake mushrooms (caps only); 2 tablespoons neutral oil, like corn or grapeseed; 1 medium onion, chopped; 1/2 pound cleaned squid (page 98), tentacles halved and bodies sliced into rings, or shrimp, peeled; 1 3/4 cups short-grain rice; 1 cup fresh or thawed frozen peas; 2 tablespoons soy sauce; 1 tablespoon mirin or honey; 1/2 pound shrimp, peeled and cut into small pieces; Salt if necessary

December 14, 2011

Non-Japanese may think of this as Japanese paella. Like paella, it may be made with or without seafood. Like paella, it relies on good ingredients, including rice and stock, and, like paella, it’s pretty straightforward to prepare and easy to vary. (You can make the recipe below not only with chicken but with almost any combination of seafood. You can also make it with vegetables; see page 510.) There is, however, a critical difference. Whereas paella usually relies on chicken stock, wine, and tomatoes, Kayaku Gohan (along with, it seems, about a million other dishes in Japan) uses dashi. This isn’t a problem, since dashi is easily made, as long as you stock kelp, a dried seaweed also known as kombu, and dried bonito flakes (bonito is related to tuna). Fortunately, each of these ingredients keeps forever, and each is readily available at Asian markets.

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