Tsuyoshi’s organic hand harvested brown rice is the topic for the day.

Our motley crew stands in the Kaizen Centre kitchen and we begin by introducing ourselves.  Tsuyoshi demonstrates the correct procedure for cooking brown rice starting with best ratio of rice to water (it’s 1:1 as long as you use the same cup to measure both).  I am struck by how each grain of rice looks different.  In fact, I notice that a lot of the rice isn’t brown at all, it is green.  Much of it is deformed and wrinkled and some of it even has a reddish tinge.

We move onto the washing of the rice.  This is an important part of the process as it removes a lot of the bacteria that grows on the grains.  Tsuyoshi has developed his own unique method of washing the rice and it looks a lot like kneading bread.  I am dumbfounded temporarily.  The dirt water after the first rinse is collected and Tsuyoshi insists that we bottle it and drink it as a probiotic treat.  My lack of Japanese forces him to put chalk to board in an attempt to explain:

I grasp that 75% of the rinse is bad bacteria and we just want the 25% good bacteria so we must keep it at 36-38 degrees C.  As I stare into the liquid, grey water pops into my mind (the bottle is, in fact, still on the table in my kitchen and it will probably stay there until it becomes toxic waste.  I really don’t feel genki enough to drink rice sweat just yet.)

All but two of us have pressure cookers.  Myself and another lady have standard pots.  We all begin cooking.  When the pot begins to steam, turn it right down and simmer until you smell burning caramel: then it’s done.  In the meantime we do some mochi pounding outside.  Brown rice is very sticky when mashed.

The rice is done, the rice is slightly al dente but edible.  The mochi is lovely combined with radish and soy.  Everyone looks happy and full.  Sawa san even made some ice cream for desert…