# Hiruzen okowa ｜ Our Regional Cuisines

**Cuisine Name**: Hiruzen okowa

**Region**: Our Regional Cuisines

## Main Lore Areas
Maniwa City, Hiruzen area

## Main Ingredients Used
Glutinous rice, chicken meat, chestnuts, burdocks, carrots, konnyaku, azuki beans

## History, Origin, and Related Events
Hiruzen Okowa is a type of rice with many ingredients, generally called Gomoku Okowa. It is a local delicacy representative of Hiruzen, and always appears at festivals and celebrations. It is characterized by the sumptuous contents of chicken, chestnuts, burdocks, carrots, konnyaku, azuki beans, and seasonal wild vegetables from the Hiruzen area. It is said that the origin of Hiruzen Okowa is a local dish called "Oyama Okowa," which is said to have been created when the ingredients for chirashi sushi were accidentally added when cooking sekihan (red rice). The history of Hiruzen Okowa dates back to the 1950s, when there were calls for making Gomoku Okowa using local ingredients, and the ingredients and cooking methods were developed in an ingenious way. Around 1972, when the "Let's eat barley rice" campaign was implemented to improve staple foods, the Nutrition Improvement Council of Yatsuka Village added barley to white rice and found that it was well received and caused little stomach upset.

## Opportunities and Times of Eating Habits
Okowa is made and eaten at "shiromite" events after rice planting, festivals, and celebrations.

## How to Eat
Heat oil in a pot, add chicken, dried shiitake mushrooms, fried tofu, water and mirin. Add sugar, soy sauce, and salt, simmer, and separate the broth and ingredients. Steam glutinous rice, barley and ingredients, beat boiled water instead of beating water, serve in a bowl and sprinkle with string beans.

## Efforts for Preservation and Succession
In addition to being made at home for festivals and celebrations, it also plays a role in the revitalization of the town and is sometimes served at events held in Hiruzen. It is also served at local restaurants.

## Ingredients
- Glutinous rice: 4 cups
- Wheat: 0.5 cups
- Chicken meat: 80g
- carrot: 80g
- Chestnut (with skin): 300g
- Sugar flavored string beans: 40g
- oil: 1 tbsp (12g)
- burdock root: 80g (1.5oz)
- 1 tbsp (12g) dried burdock root: 80g
- Dried shiitake mushroom: 1g
- A] Deep-fried tofu: 1 sheet (30g)
- A] Water: 1／1 cup
- A] Mirin (sweet cooking rice wine): 2 tsp.
- B] sugar: 1 tbsp.
- soy sauce: 1 1／3 tbsp.
- salt: 1 tsp.
- oil: 1 tbsp (12g)
- salt: 6g

## Recipe
1. 1. Remove the skin and astringent peel from the chestnuts and leave them in the sun for a day.
2. 2. Wash glutinous rice and soak it in water for a day and night.
3. 3. Soak the barley in water for about 30 minutes.
4. 4. Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms in water.
5. 5. Cut chicken into small pieces. Cut burdock root into small pieces and butterbur into small pieces.
6. 6. Cut dried shiitake mushrooms and deep-fried tofu into 1.5 cm strips, carrots into small chunks, boiled string beans into thin strips and cut diagonally.
7. 7. Heat oil in a pot, fry chicken meat, add [A] and fry. Add [B], cook briefly, drain, and separate the broth from the ingredients.
8. 8. Drain the glutinous rice and barley in a colander. Mix the ingredients, carrots, and chestnuts from 3 into the rice, and steam in a steamer. After the steam rises to the top, steam for about 30 minutes, then sprinkle with the broth from 3 and steam for about 15 minutes.
9. 9. Serve in bowls and sprinkle with string beans.

## Provider Information
provider : Maniwa City Nutrition Improvement Council

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