The benefits of glutinous rice
Links on this page include advertising.
What glutinous rice does
What this vegetable does
It replenishes the Spleen and Stomach, builds strength, and is looked to for loose bowels and a weak constitution.
How to eat it
Eaten as mochi or okowa, its nourishing quality is easier to feel.
A yakuzen note
An ingredient to suggest for a weak constitution, to help the gut work and to restore strength.
Glutinous rice is held to replenish the Spleen and Stomach and to build strength. It suits loose bowels and a weak constitution in particular, and is at its best when you want your strength back. Taken as rice cooked with seasonings, as okowa or as mochi, you get that effect efficiently. Being warm in nature, it also suits those who feel the cold.
TOC
When glutinous rice is in season, its types, and how to choose it
If you want to enjoy what glutinous rice does, it helps to know its season, its types and how to choose it. Loved for its strong stickiness and sweetness, it is the rice behind mochi, okowa and the food of Japan's occasions.
In season as new rice in autumn, and how it differs from uruchi rice
Glutinous rice comes from the same plant as the uruchi rice of everyday meals, and its season is autumn. The new rice harvested around September to November has a scent and a stickiness all its own. What separates the two is the nature of the starch: cooked, glutinous rice turns strongly sticky, and since it does not harden as it cools, it suits mochi and okowa. Its milky, opaque look is another way to tell it from half-translucent uruchi rice. Dried, it stores well, so it can be used all year even after the new-rice season has passed.
White, red and black glutinous rice
Glutinous rice comes in different colours, and you can choose to suit the dish.
| kinds | What stands out |
|---|---|
| White glutinous rice | The most common. The base for mochi, okowa and sekihan |
| Red glutinous rice | One of the ancient grains. Cooked with uruchi rice, it tints it faintly red |
| Black glutinous rice | Another ancient grain. Cooks to a purplish colour, for okowa and ohagi |
White glutinous rice for everyday okowa and mochi, and a little red or black glutinous rice mixed in when you want colour or a change: it is a pleasure to look at as well. Ancient grains need only be added in small amounts to uruchi rice to give both a chewy texture and colour.
How to choose it, and how to soak it
To choose good glutinous rice and prepare it well, these points keep you out of trouble.
- Grains of an even size, milky white and glossy
- Few cracks or splits, and no stale smell
- For okowa, wash it and then soak it well, for several hours to overnight
Glutinous rice takes up water quickly, and soaked well before steaming it cooks plump right to the centre. In a rice cooker, using a little less water than for uruchi rice keeps it from turning sticky. Mixed into uruchi rice at about twenty per cent, it keeps the rice from hardening as it cools, which suits a lunchbox.
How to eat glutinous rice
The strong stickiness and sweetness of glutinous rice carry it from rice dishes to festive food to snacks. Here are the usual ways.
As okowa, sekihan and ohagi
Okowa, made by steaming glutinous rice, is the leading glutinous rice dish. Sekihan, cooked with adzuki, is the standard for a celebration, and the fillings can be varied, with mountain vegetables, mushrooms or chestnuts, or in the Chinese manner with dried shrimp and char siu. Cooked soft, lightly crushed and wrapped in sweet bean paste, it becomes ohagi. Freshly steamed it is fragrant, and you get the chewy texture in full.
As mochi, chimaki and dessert
Mochi, made by pounding steamed glutinous rice, can go Japanese or Western depending on the seasoning, in zoni, with kinako, grilled and wrapped in nori, or in zenzai. Chimaki, steamed in bamboo leaves, and the Chinese-style okowa chimaki are dishes particular to glutinous rice as well. It is strongly sweet, which suits it to snacks with the feel of a dessert, such as mitarashi, abekawa and okowa dango. Eaten warm, the softness and the sweetness come forward.
How to keep glutinous rice
Glutinous rice is a dried good, so keep it away from damp and insects. Left in its bag it takes on smells and dries out, so move it to an airtight container or a zip bag and keep it somewhere cool and dark out of direct sun. In summer, or in damp weather, the fridge is reassuring. Cooked okowa and mochi can be wrapped in film in single portions and frozen, and then only need warming to give you something close to freshly made.
Alongside this, the same rice in its everyday staple form, The benefits of Japanese short-grain rice and one also used as a filling for okowa, The benefits of chestnut as a guide for everyday cooking.
Strongly sticky and sweet, glutinous rice is the rice behind okowa, sekihan, mochi and ohagi, at home on a festive day and in an everyday snack alike. Everyday white glutinous rice, and red or black glutinous rice for colour: use each type for the job and it shows its best. As a warm rice that warms the body, bring it to the table in the cold season.
