This is my absolute favourite food that my mother cooks. This is one of the recipes that I must have, but I have never had until today. I have never seen the written recipe as it’s been in my mother’s head. She is 91 years old now, and I finally learned it and I tried to make it into this written recipe. Now I can share it with you.

My mother always cooks this ‘Okowa’ with 10 cups Rice, so that she can share it with family members and neighbours. Not many people have such a large steamer that cooks 10 cups Rice with ingredients. This recipe is for 5 cups Rice. Any leftovers can be stored in freezer.

Makes

8 to 10 Servings

Ingredients

5 cups (*180ml cup) Short Grain Glutinous Rice
2 Chicken Thigh Fillets *about 300g, cut into bite-size pieces
100g Gobō *I used Frozen Sliced Gobō

100g Shimeji
*Note: Today I added a Chikuwa (Japanese Tabular Fishcake), that was about 40g.
Oil for cooking
1 & 1/2 tablespoons Soy Sauce *alter the amount
1 tablespoon Mirin
1/2 Carrot *about 80g
1/2 cup Peas
Salt for cooking

Soup
1 cup (250ml) Dashi Stock *OR 1 cup Water & 1/2 teaspoon Dashi Powder
1/4 teaspoon Salt *OR 1/2 teaspoon for stronger flavour
1 tablespoon Soy Sauce

Method
  1. Rinse Short Grain Glutinous Rice, and soak in water overnight. This process is essential.
  2. Prepare Gobō if you use a fresh one. Wash it and use the back of a knife to scrape skin off. Slice it as if you were sharpening a pencil with a knife. Place the sliced Gobō in water and set aside for a while, then drain well.
  3. Heat a frying pan over medium heat, add a small amount of Oil if required, and cook Chicken, Gobō and Shimeji (and Chikuwa). Season with Soy Sauce and Mirin, and stir until the liquid is gone. *Note: Alter the amount of Soy Sauce and Mirin to suit your taste.
  4. Boil Carrot and Peas in salted water in a saucepan. When firmly cooked, drain, cool under cold water, and drain.
  5. Heat the Soup ingredients in a heat-proof jug in the microwave OR a saucepan over cooktop. Alter the saltiness to suit your taste.
  6. Wet steamer cloth with water completely, squeeze to remove excess water, then line the steamer with the cloth. Drain the soaked Short Grain Glutinous Rice, spread in the steamer that is lined with the cloth, wrap the Rice with the cloth, cover with a lid, and place it over the boiling water in a pot.

  7. Steam the Rice until half cooked, that is when the Rice is still firm but edible. It would take for 7 to 8 minutes after steam started coming up.
  8. When the Rice is half cooked, carefully tip over the Rice into a large bowl, return the steamer cloth back on the steamer. If there are some Rice grains staying on the cloth, do not worry about it too much.
  9. Pour the soup over the Rice, mix to combine as the Rice sucks up the soup. Add all ingredients to the Rice, mix to combine, then return to the steamer. *Note: You need to top up the boiling water in the pot if required. If the Rice mixture won’t fit in the steamer, don’t panic. You can steam it in two patches.

  10. Wrap the Rice with the cloth again, cover with a lid, and steam for 20 minutes OR until desired softness is achieved.