Autumn is the season for new crop rice. We call it "Shinmai".
We, Japanese people, always get very excited about cooking the shinmai in the season. I picked up a bag of "shinmai" Koshihikari rice from a Japanese store. Because shinmai tend to contain more moisture than older kind, when you cook it, you want to use a little less water for the best result. Also, because of the same reason, shinmai is not considered to be suitable for sushi (sushi rice made with shinmai tend to become too mushy). Shinmai is best served plain so that you can enjoy the real pure "fresh" flavor and texture of the new crop.
I cooked the shinmai with my donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san". It came out so shiny and nicely sticky. From the plain white rice recipe, I used a couple of tablespoons less water to cook 2 rice-cups of the shinmai.
With the soup and stew donabe, "Miso-shiru Nabe", I also made the hearty Tonjiru (pork soup). This time, I made it with also seasonal Satsuma Imo (sweet yam), instead of the regular potato. Delicious.
