Asari Gohan

This is a basic every day dish that is so amazing that you will be forever checking how you lived your life before it. It's nutritionally complete, visually appealing, complex enough to be served at a state dinner. (In short, the platonic ideal of a Japanese dish.)

It's neither complicated nor hard in the least but it requires a fairly elaborate explanation of how all the pieces actually work.


Ingredients

12-18 clams
1/3 cup sake
1 tbsp ginger (cut into fine matchsticks)

1 cup japonica rice

2 cups kombu dashi

1/4 cup carrots (cut into matchsticks)
1/4 cup shiitake mushrooms (cut into matchsticks)
1 tbsp ginger (cut into fine matchsticks)

2 tbsp tamari (soy sauce)
2 tbsp sake
2 tbsp mirin

1 scallion (white and green parts sliced thin at a steep diagonal)
nori (sliced really thin)

Recipe

The first thing that you must do is wash the rice in cold water. The rice must be "polished" with your hands until all the surface starch is eliminated, and the water runs clear. Typically, this takes anywhere from 4-6 washings.

Drain the rice and let it sit wet for at least 30 minutes. (Yes, this matters.)

Add 1/3 cup of the sake to the ginger. Bring to a boil. Steam the clams. Remove as they open, and shuck them.

When all the clams are done, filter the liquid (= clam broth) through a cheesecloth/paper towel and reserve.

Combine the dashi, clam broth, 2 tbsp of sake, the tamari and the mirin. Add the rice, carrots, shiitake mushrooms and cook till the rice is well done.

The logic of this step is that the rice is cooked in an intensely umami-laden broth that makes it completely irresistible. Add to that the fact that esterification takes place means that it's almost impossible to resist.

Top with the clams, the scallion and the nori, and serve.

The clams add the protein, the scallion and the nori, the textural interest.

Organic Chemistry Rules!

One of the great tricks of Japanese cuisine is to cook "stuff" with sake (or mirin) and dashi.

Traditionally, the simplest dish of rice would have this but it extends in general to tons of dishes.

The reason is something that Coco Chanel would know like (the smell of) the back of her hand.

It's esterification.

When an alcohol and an acid — in this case, the various glutamic acids in the dashi — react with the alcohol, you create a whole range of esters. Esters are what give the fragrant fruity smells that we all love.

Add to that, the umami from the dashi and you realize that just "plain rice" is a killer dish.

As far as the CC is aware, this is unique in the world. He has not seen this technique being used anywhere else.