Gohan

Emiko Davies · Gohan

I absolutely love this way of cooking rice, where you simply put all the ingredients into the one pot together, so the rice absorbs all the flavours and the chicken comes out incredibly tender. It is my ideal comfort food, both to prepare and to eat, as it so easy to do both! Literally meaning ‘cooked with rice’, you can actually put anything you like in this — it is usually a dish where you might find many autumnal (fall) vegetables like mushrooms and chestnuts, as it’s a favourite to make with shinmai (new season rice), which is harvested in the autumn. Although I find it hard to go past this classic shiitake and chicken combination, you could use aburaage or fried beancurd, bamboo shoots, clams or gobo (burdock root — although it can be hard to find outside of Japan). For a bit of richness, add a knob of butter before mixing it all together. To make this vegetarian/vegan, simply omit the chicken and perhaps add a few more different mushrooms or another favourite vegetable. Any lefto