Satsuma Imo Gohan

Namiko Hirasawa Chen’s satsumaimo gohan pairs Japanese short-grain rice with Japanese sweet potatoes. She presents this mixed rice as an autumn dish in Japanese home cooking.

The rice is washed and drained. Sweet potatoes are brushed clean, cut into cubes with their skin retained, and soaked separately in cold water before draining.

Sake, mirin, kosher salt and measured cooking water join the rice. The sweet-potato cubes are layered above it without mixing, and the rice soaks in that same cooking liquid.

The selected rice-cooker umami mode cooks the mixture. For the complete gomashio topping, toasted black sesame seeds are optionally warmed in a dry pan and combined with a separate portion of kosher salt.

The finished rice is gently fluffed into individual bowls and sprinkled with that sesame salt. The author describes a warm dish with fluffy rice and tender sweet-potato chunks, emphasizing the potatoes’ natural sweetness.