Asparagus Rice (Asuparagasu Gohan)

^K

evin over at Seriously Good has unleashed the sleeping Asparagus Monster that was apparently lurking just out of sight in the blogosphere. (Who knew?) He's  established Asparagus Aspirations, in which he asked food bloggers and anyone with a computer and a kitchen to send him asparagus recipes all through the month of May. Contributions are pouring in, by all indications.

Kevin's already on his third round of round-ups on for this Knoxville Asparagus Festival, and versions of many of my usual asparagus preparations have already been done by others -- but so far no one has offered one of my all-time favorite ways to prepare asparagus:  Asparagus Rice, which is my adaptation of a recipe in my Japanese cookery bible, Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art, by Shizuo Tsuji.

In this recipe, Japanese short-grained rice is cooked in a mixture of dashi (a broth made from shaved dried bonito), soy sauce and saké. When the rice is about half done, the asparagus is added to the pot. The result is a seductive dish, with a subtle flavoring to the rice that complements and somehow intensifies the flavor of the asparagus. I recently served this with roast pork, with vinegared cucumbers on the side, which in my book is a more or less perfect pairing.

Asparagus Rice
Adapted from Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art, by Shizuo Tsuji

2-1/2 C short grain Japanese rice (I use Kokuho Rose)
1 bunch asparagus
1 qt boiling water
1 tsp instant dashi powder
3 T soy sauce
2 T saké
1 tsp salt
1-1/2 T fresh ginger, cut into shreds

Mix the water, dashi powder, soy sauce, saké and salt. Wash the rice in three changes of water in the rice cooker bowl. Add the dashi mixture to the rice and stir in the ginger. Close the rice cooker and turn it on.

Snap the woody ends from the asparagus and cut the stalks in 1-1/2" pieces. Halve or quarter the stalk pieces if they are thick.

After about 8 minutes, open the cooker and scatter in the asparagus pieces. Close the cooker and allow the cycle to complete. Stir the asparagus into the rice and serve.

technorati: asparagus aspirations

Comments

[Dianka]

Sounds like you paired this dish perfectly. Looks lovely.

~Dianka

[kevin]

Stephen,

"Asparagus Monster" is right. And everyone seems to be having fits deciding what to try.

[bron]

Wow, Stephen this is my kind of comfort food and with roast pork... mmm heavenly!
Unfortunately it is completely the wrong season for asparagus where I am, pumpkins though, I've plenty of pumpkin!

[Andrew]

I dunno, yet ANOTHER fancy ingredient I have to find! Dashi powder... I ask yer.

I'm still mulling over my asparagus entry... think it will be something with with puff pasty.

[Emily]

Hi Stephen! Good to see you back. And even better to know you survived the move and emerged happily into electric-cooktop-land. I'm right behind you, man!

Emily

[MM]

I am so out of it. Did not even know about Kevin's AM. Unfortunately I have no time to participate in anything till end June but I really like the sound of this recipe. What am I talking about? I usually like all your recipes!