Takikomi gohan (炊き込みご飯, 炊き込み御飯) is a Japanese rice dish seasoned with dashi and soy sauce and mixed with mushrooms, vegetables, meat, or fish. The ingredients are cooked together with the rice.[1] The dish is consumed by people in Japan around the fall season since many root vegetables and mushrooms are harvested during this season in Japan.[2] Ingredients will vary based on the seasonal vegetables and fish. Since the dish has nutritional value, and uses a small amount of rice with vegetables and proteins, some Japanese people eat it for dieting purposes.[3]
History
Takikomi gohan was created during the Nara period.[4] Rice was scarce then, so people conserved rice by adding millet or other cereals, wild vegetables, yam or Japanese radish, creating an early form of takikomi gohan called katemeshi.[4] During the Muromachi period, katemeshi became popular, turned into a dish called kawarimeshi using ingredients such as barley, beans, and vegetables. Over time people became creative and made a variety of dishes with seasonal ingredients.[4]
Difference from maze gohan
Takikomi gohan is prepared by adding the ingredients, broth and seasonings to raw rice and cook them together. In contrast, maze gohan(混ぜ御飯) ('mixed rice') is prepared by first cooking rice alone, then mixing the ingredients into it.[5]
Gomoku meshi (五目飯) 'five ingredients rice' (or gomoku gohan (五目御飯)): Combination of ingredients such as shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, burdock root, carrots, konnyaku, chicken,[7][6] or white-fleshed fish. In the Osaka dialect, this dish is called kayaku gohan (加薬御飯).[6]
Kamameshi (釜飯): Takikomi gohan cooked and served in a single-serving pot.[8]
^ abc"takikomi gohan" たきこみごはん. 米穀安定供給確保支援機構 (Rice Stable Supply Support Organization) (Japan) (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2004-12-31. Retrieved 2022-11-03.
^Hosking, Richard (1996). "gomoku meshi". A dictionary of Japanese food : ingredients & culture. Tokyo, Japan: Tuttle Publishing. p. 46. ISBN0804820422.