Ochazuke (Rice in Tea and Dashi)

Variations

• Sake chazuke: with grilled salmon. The commonest version and the one this recipe is built on.
• Ume chazuke: one umeboshi and nothing else. The most austere, and the morning-after version.
• Tai chazuke: sea bream sashimi coated in a sesame sauce, half-cooked by the hot tea poured over it. This one is close to restaurant food (sushi).
• Natto, mentaiko, tarako, shio-kombu: anything salty and savoury goes on top. The whole structure works because the liquid is barely seasoned.
• Dashi chazuke: no tea at all, dashi only. Less aromatic but softer, and common as the closing dish in a restaurant.
• Yuzuke: the form that came before tea, with only hot water poured over. Tea became common in the Edo period and ochazuke as it is now followed.
• The instant version: Nagatanien's sachet, from 1952, is what put it in every cupboard. What is in the packet is powdered dashi, nori and arare.
• What leftover rice becomes: the same slot as onigiri — two ways of turning yesterday's rice into a meal, and a rice ball is sometimes dropped straight into the bowl.
• Built on the same dashi: miso soup, udon, soba.
• Other things over rice: gyudon, oyakodon. In the shape of liquid poured over starch it also overlaps with tteokguk.

Tips

• Do not use rice straight from the cooker. There is a reason this dish was born out of leftovers. Steaming rice is already saturated, so poured liquid simply breaks it down. Cold rice has set starch that holds its shape, and the grains survive in the bowl (cooking rice).
• Rinse cold rice. A pass of hot water through a sieve washes the sticky surface starch off and warms the rice at the same time. That single step is what keeps the liquid clear.
• Liquid only to the level of the rice. Submerged, it is porridge from the start and the last few spoonfuls are watery. Rice half in the liquid with its top standing clear is what you want.
• Do not season the liquid. The seasoning is the salt in the salmon, the sourness and salt of the umeboshi, and the pickles. Salt the broth as well and the contrast disappears, and it is just rice in soup (salt and seasoning, balancing flavour).
• Brew the tea hot and short. Tea for drinking is brewed slowly at 70-80C to draw out sweetness; here 90C for a minute is right. The bitterness that remains is what cuts the oil of the fish and the sweetness of the rice.
• Hojicha suits the fatty toppings. Roasted, so lower in caffeine and toasty, it goes with salmon or eel. Sencha is clearer and sharper and belongs with umeboshi and lighter things.
• Mix the tea with dashi. Tea alone is aromatic but thin; dashi alone drifts towards soup. Three to two keeps both characters (stocks and broth, building umami).
• Pour down the side of the bowl. From above it scatters what you arranged and mats the nori down. Filling from below leaves the top of the bowl dry.
• Nori and arare go on last. The crunch of the arare is the only contrast in the bowl and it begins to go the instant it touches liquid. Scatter and serve (serving temperature).
• Flake the salmon coarsely. Broken up small it disperses into the liquid and is nowhere. Pieces big enough to catch on a spoon are better.
• Do not stir the wasabi into the liquid. Left sitting on the rice and mixed in as you eat, it lasts the whole bowl; dissolved at the start, the hot liquid takes its aroma straight off.
• Do not make it ahead. Within minutes the rice drinks the liquid and swells into something else. Everything is prepared in advance and the liquid goes on at the very end (reviving leftovers).