I wish everyone knows Japanese rice needs to be well ‘washed’ before cooking.
Until my Italian friend had asked me one day,
“why do you wash your rice?”
I never thought it was the unique thing for Japanese rice, and other type of rice normally don’t need.
This thoughtless assumption must be very normal for Japanese, if I can justify myself, as most Japanese cookery books often state “Do not wash the rice” for a risotto recipe.
Why Japanese rice need to be washed?
It because to take rice bran off, which exist on the surface of the rice, to avoid having unpleasant earthy smell by gently scrubbing in water.
Actually in Japanese, this process is called ‘polishing rice’ rather than ‘washing’.
Interestingly, though it is a very simple work, pouring water into a bowl of rice and drain, we talk a lot about ‘how to do it’ and verify the effect of the each process.
This makes me think of a bit of tea ceremony.
It seems slightly tighten up but to look for the depth and meaning of it.
But more delightfully, this process makes the result quite different, especially if you are cooking non-Japan imported rice.
So here’s ‘How to polish rice’
- The Rice Ceremony!
1. Measure the rice and put it in a bowl then pour some fresh water. (Please be careful that ‘cup’ for rice in Japanese recipe is 180ml so as the scale for water of rice cooker.)
2. The water has to be cold and preferably, soft. This is because that as soon as you pour water, the rice starts absorbing it so the water itself is also significantly influential for the taste and texture of the final result.
3. For the first batch, you just lightly stir around and drain quickly.
We don’t want the most ‘brany’ water of the first batch getting into the rice too much.
4. Then pour fresh water again.
For the next and after batch, you don’t need the water to cover the rice completely, as excess fluid doesn’t give polishing effect. Each piece of rice should act as a small plane sharpening other rice.
5. Stir the rice around with your hand rhythmically, probably creating crispy sound. Then drain.
Repeat this 3 to 5 times until you get the water transparent but with a slight cloudiness.
6. Drain well and dry in a strainer for 30 minutes.
That’s it!
(And before cooking, you need to leave the rice in the water up most 2 hours. This is very very important for getting beautiful moist texture.)
As autumn seems arriving now and the water is getting cold, my childhood memory comes out.
I guess, for most of Japanese kids, their first mother’s help is this, polishing rice.
I didn’t like it at all, especially in winter.
When my mother comes back from work, she was always in a hurry to make dinner for us and would ask me to do the rice.
I step on a small stool in front of the sink and stand on my toes to reach the tap.
Water flashes out and I wait and see until it covers the rice.
I put my hand in the milky coloured water hesitantly, always finding it icing cold.
I would normally change the water 7 times, and often more than 10 as my mother wants it completely transparent and each time I felt the water become colder.
At around 4th rinsing, my hand starts getting numb and becoming red.
I would feel desperate to see the inside of the bowl which was always still cloudy and my hand was so sore.
Only way to escape from the severe job was to do it quickly, but it always ended up spilling around the rice while draining.
I would wonder why the water has to be so cold as I felt so miserable but my mother always say ‘it has to be cold’.
It was many years later when I found my mother’s insistence, I once thought of careless, was anything but love of her who simply wanted to make her children enjoy the pure taste of rice.
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