Kinpira gobou, or simmered burdock, is full of fibre. This is a great item for a lunchbox as it goes really well with rice. You can put it into onigiri or layer it between rice patties like a sandwich. Kinpira gobou can be kept refrigerated for up to 4 days.
Ingredients
- 17 oz (480 g) Cooked Japanese short grain rice
- Toasted black sesame seeds to garnish
Kinpira gobou
- 3½ oz (100 g) Burdock (gobou) peeled and shredded
- 1½ tbsp Sake
- 1½ tbsp Japanese soy sauce (shoyu)
- ½ tbsp Sugar
- 1 tbsp Sesame oli
- ½ Japanese chilli pepper (togarashi), about 3-cm (11/2-in), seeded and thinly sliced
- 1 oz Carrot (30 g) peeled and shredded
- Toasted white sesame seeds to taste
How to Make It
- Prepare kinpira gobou. Soak burdock in water for 10 minutes. Drain well.
- Combine sake, soy sauce and sugar in a small bowl and stir to mix well. Set aside.
- Heat sesame oil in a frying pan and sauté Japanese chilli pepper. Add burdock and carrot and cook for 3–4 minutes. When vegetables are soft, pour in soy sauce mixture from the edge of the pan in a circular motion and mix well. When most of the moisture has evaporated, add white sesame seeds and mix well. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
- To make onigiri, put kinpira gobou and rice in a bowl and mix well.
- Place cling wrap in a rice bowl and scoop one-quarter of the rice mixture into the bowl. Pull out rice together with cling wrap and mould rice into a ball. Remove cling wrap and garnish with some black sesame seeds. Repeat with the remaining ingredients.
