[Autumn flavors] Tried making takikomi gohan in a donabe! How a couple spends their holiday on the balcony

I had always wanted to make it someday, but had never cooked takikomi gohan even once. I tried it for the first time in my life, and in a donabe at that. On a holiday afternoon, the two of us decided to enjoy it together on the balcony.

Today’s the day I try making takikomi gohan! And in a donabe, too

When autumn arrives, you start seeing takikomi gohan at supermarket entrances and in posts online. Every time I saw photos of steaming bowls topped with mushrooms and other ingredients, I thought, “Someday I want to cook this myself.” But in reality, I had never made it even once.

The reason was that it seemed difficult, and I was bracing myself for what would happen if it didn’t turn out well. Before I knew it, I kept thinking, “Maybe next time,” and somehow I had watched autumn pass by again and again. This autumn, no, today, I wanted to challenge that image of it as “the kind of dish made by capable people.”

Takikomi gohan may seem impressive, but I bought an easy-to-make Muji Matsutake Gohan takikomi gohan base. The package says the approximate cooking time is 60 minutes, which seemed just right for a holiday lunch. The amount used for 2 cups of rice also seemed appropriate, and I felt encouraged by the thought, “Maybe I can do this after all.”

Product name / Takikomi Gohan Base, Matsutake Gohan
Price / 690 yen
Ingredients / Matsutake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, chicken, fried tofu, kombu, seri (Japanese parsley), dashi soy sauce made with kombu (separate dashi)
Best-before date / 545 days from the date of manufacture
⚫︎Ryohin Keikaku

Just adding water was nerve-racking, but after that it was only a matter of adding the ready-made ingredients

The instructions are to wash 2 cups of rice, transfer it to the donabe, and add 400 ml of water. Unlike a rice cooker, the inside of the donabe has no measuring marks, so I found myself gripping the measuring cup tightly. Just adding water made me more nervous than I expected.

Then, when I added the packaged ingredients and broth, the contents of the pot immediately took on the look of takikomi gohan. Once I got this far, there was no more wavering. I put the lid on, almost as if praying and leaving the rest to the donabe.

7 minutes on high heat, 10 minutes on low, 10 minutes to steam, just wait patiently

I set it over high heat on the gas stove and let it go for about 7 minutes. I kept wanting to check what was happening under the lid, so I found myself peeking in front of the stove again and again.

Eventually, when steam started coming out of the vent in the lid, that was the signal to switch to low heat. Just having a visible sign made me feel, “Okay, it’s cooking properly,” and the tension I’d been holding onto began to loosen a little. Instead of leaving everything to the rice cooker, I had to watch the flame and make my own judgment. That felt fresh, and before long it started to become fun.

After switching to low heat, it was about 10 minutes. I wanted to open the lid partway to check, but I held back and waited. I want to open it, but I won’t. That small inner conflict began to feel like part of the fun of making donabe rice for the first time.

Even after turning off the heat, I kept the lid closed and let it steam for about 10 minutes. High heat for 7 minutes, low heat for 10, steaming for 10—about 27 minutes in total. The “waiting time” that I’d never really thought about with a rice cooker felt like part of the cooking process here.

In the meantime, I took a table out to the balcony and prepared the meal setting. I lined up two bowls, set out a rice paddle and a trivet, and kept a kitchen towel nearby for handling the hot donabe. During those 10 minutes of steaming, I enjoyed how the “place to eat” gradually came together.

The moment I opened the lid, the holiday lunch turned into autumn

After the 10-minute steaming period, I lifted the donabe and carried it to the table on the balcony. When I raised the lid with the kitchen towel, it was covered in tiny droplets of water. Along with the rising steam, the aroma of mushrooms spread gently through the air. “Ah, it’s autumn,” I thought wistfully, and we both ended up smiling at each other. The joy of opening the lid—the moment you can’t experience with the electronic beep of a rice cooker—is what makes donabe special.

When I mixed it from the bottom with the rice paddle, I found crispy scorched rice at the bottom of the pot. I had worried whether this first attempt would turn out well, so I was relieved that it had cooked so nicely. There were some darker, more strongly browned spots too, and I did wonder, “Maybe it’s a little too burnt?” Still, including that little thrill, it seems like it will become part of the memory of my first donabe rice.

Lunch on the balcony table. The scent of freshly cooked rice drifted up with the steam. Eating in the open air felt much more liberating than our usual dining room, and it eased my heart.

The first thing I noticed when I tried it was how well the rice was seasoned. Then the aroma of the mushrooms slowly spread through my mouth. I found myself saying, “This is delicious,” and I may have been the most surprised of all that I had made it myself.

The savory fragrance of the scorched rice made me think, “So this is the real appeal of cooking in a donabe.” The texture was different from ordinary takikomi gohan, and searching for the scorched bits while eating was a little delight of its own. I couldn’t stop eating, and as we had second helpings again and again, the contents of the pot disappeared before our eyes.

Finishing our first donabe rice together as a couple, with the sunlight on the balcony feeling lovely

To be honest, I had assumed that takikomi gohan cooked in a donabe would be much more difficult. But when I actually tried it, I just had to switch to low heat once steam appeared, then wait without opening the lid. The steps were simple, so even as a beginner I hardly ran into any moments of confusion.

What stayed with me most was eating rice I had cooked myself on the balcony. It was a slightly different holiday lunch than usual. I felt satisfied to have fulfilled one of the things I’d always said I wanted to try, and even after finishing the meal I stayed in a good mood for a while.

This time I made it easily using Muji’s packaged ingredients, but next time I’d like to choose the ingredients myself and try again. I hope I can continue enjoying the time spent waiting while watching the steam rise from the donabe in the autumns ahead.

Interview and text / SYURI

Search Takikomi gohan base on Amazon