Ginger powder from Wellington’s offers super fresh ginger taste along with a kick- and-spiciness, mellow sweet taste, slight bitterness and some astringency – all of which contribute to produce the perfect flavor in the final dish. I have developed a delicious rice dish, Corn and Ginger Rice with Shoyu and Butter, for my soon-to-be-released book (November 2012) Hiroko’s American Kitchen; cooking with Japanese flavors; 6 easy sauces; 125 Modern Recipes. In this recipe I religiously always used fresh ginger cut it into thin julienne slices. Yes, that requires some time consuming labor. So, I tried the dish with Wellington’s ginger powder. The result was very good. I use a portion during cooking and add a second portion after the rice is cooked. This second addition preserves the pungency and fresh flavor of the ginger. In this recipe I also add shiso leaves (sometimes called beefsteak leaves) that comes to market at the same time as sweet delicious summer corn.
This is an explanatory note about this recipe from my book:
“The combination of corn, shoyu and butter in this recipe may make you think I have strayed far from Japanese cooking, unless you are aware that excellent sweet corn and high-quality butter are produced on Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan. This combination – corn, butter and shoyu – is not at all alien today to my native cuisine. Try the dish with just-harvested moist, sweet summer corn, and I guarantee you and all your fellow dinners with love it.”
Ingredients
2 1/4 cups long grain brown rice
2 large ears corn
4 1/2 cups low-sodium vegetable stock or low-sodium chicken stock
1 tablespoon ginger powder
1 teaspoon Suzu Shio Sea Salt
1 tablespoon Kishibori Shoyu, soy sauce
3 tablespoons unsalted or salted butter
1/2 cup shredded shiso leaves (substitute: parsley)
Preparation
Rinse the rice three times and soak in cold water for 20 minutes. Drain the rice.
Remove the corn husks and quickly grill the ears over a medium open flame on a gas stove, turning them until the entire surface becomes golden. If you do not have a gas stovetop, boil the corn in salted water for 1 to 2 minutes. Cut each ear of corn in half. Place each half ear on the cut end in a large, shallow bowl, and use a knife to separate the individual kernels from the cob. Repeat with all the pieces. This will produce about 1 1/2 cups of corn kernels.
Place the drained rice and the stock in a medium heavy pot. Sprinkle the corn kernels, salt, and half of the ginger powder evenly over the rice. Do not stir the rice. Cover the pot with a lid. Cook the rice, covered, over high heat for 6 minutes or until the boiling water begins to spill out between the lid and the pot. Immediately lower the heat to medium-low so that the spilling stops. Keep up the brisk cooking inside the pot. Cook the rice for 15 to 16 minutes. Lower the heat to very low and cook the rice for 15 minutes.
When the rice is cooked, let it stand undisturbed for 10 minutes. Remove the lid and add the remaining ginger powder, soy sauce, butter and shiso. With a spatula, gently and quickly toss and mix the rice. Divide the rice into small bowls and serve.
4 to 6 servings
