Sekihan
Local name : 赤飯
Glutinous rice stained pink by the cooking liquid of azuki beans, steamed and served with toasted sesame salt.
Photo : 663highland · CC BY 2.5
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 60 min
- Total
- 80 min
- Serves
- 6
- Difficulty
- Medium
Method
- Rinse the azuki and cover with cold water. Boil for 3 minutes, throw away that first water, then add the litre of fresh water.
- Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. The beans should give under a finger while their skins stay whole. Drain, keeping the cooking liquid.
- Pour the red liquid from a height into a bowl several times to aerate it and set the colour. Leave to cool.
- Soak the glutinous rice in the bean liquid for at least 6 hours, or overnight. Drain, keeping 100 ml of the liquid.
- Spread the rice and beans in a steamer basket lined with a cloth. Steam for 40 minutes, sprinkling over the reserved liquid, salted, halfway through.
- Toast the sesame in a dry pan for 2 minutes, crush with the salt and scatter over the bowls as you serve.
Glutinous rice is steamed, never boiled. Submerged, it collapses into porridge. In Japan sekihan marks births and first days of school, the red colour meant to turn away misfortune.
