Red rice

Sekihan (red rice), it seems, was originally made by steaming red rice (akamai) in ancient times. It's said that during the Edo period people switched from red rice to the rice we eat today, but the custom of offering rice dyed red survived, and afterward white rice colored with adzuki beans and the like spread as what we now call sekihan.

If the rice isn't allowed to absorb enough water, it will keep a hard core and won't cook up light and fluffy, so wash and rinse it the day before serving or on the morning of, drain it in a colander, and about 30 minutes before cooking, soak it in the seasoned adzuki-bean cooking liquid. Then mix in the rinsed glutinous rice with the liquid from cooking and reconstituting the adzuki beans - but if you mix it in as is, it will end up overwhelmed with adzuki beans, so adjust the amount.

Also, if you simmer the adzuki beans too hard while reconstituting them, the skins will split and the beans won't be presentable for a celebratory occasion. It's best to keep the heat at around medium-low, just enough for the beans to move gently as they simmer. If the cooking liquid is still warm, the color doesn't transfer to the rice well, so let it cool once before soaking. When steaming, opening up the center to form a donut shape improves the convection of the steam, so it steams through evenly and quickly. Also, pouring the seasoned cooking liquid over partway through steaming makes the finished rice come out light and fluffy. Since the rice course uses rice, the staple food of the Japanese, we like to be particular about where it comes from. We blend several kinds of rice at our restaurant; just as with miso, blending different rices improves the texture and stickiness and makes it more delicious. The water used for cooking the rice also has to be good-tasting. Water that's been through a water purifier has less off-odor, so we use a dedicated water purifier.

The rice course is served at the very end of a course meal, and it leaves a strong impression on the guest. Dish after dish comes out, and then, after a brief pause, the rice course is served - so it resets the palate and lets the guest enjoy it with a fresh feeling. If we can leave a good impression there, I believe guests will come back as repeat customers, so we want to serve it, right down to the pickles (oshinko), without cutting any corners.

① Wash and rinse the non-glutinous rice.

② Soak the adzuki beans in water overnight. Then set them over heat and simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes, taking care not to let the skins split. Let cool to bring out a vivid color.

③ Separate the adzuki beans from their cooking liquid. Season the liquid with light soy sauce and salt, add kombu, and soak the glutinous rice in it to color it.

④ Drain in a colander, spread out on cheesecloth, mix in the adzuki beans, and steam.

⑤ While steaming, sprinkle the seasoned adzuki-bean cooking liquid from earlier over it three times partway through.