Obaku Soft Barley Rice with Beans and Root Vegetables
Quick answer
- Total time
- 630 min
- Level
- Hard
- Servings
- 20 servings
- Ingredients
- 12
About this dish
Obaku is a thick mountain staple from Yamanashi that cooks hulled whole barley, rice, and red kidney beans in abundant water, then folds in potato, sweet potato, taro, and daikon.
Read more
In communities where wet-rice farming was difficult and rice was precious food for celebrations, barley supported ordinary meals. The appeal lies in whole grains that still pop gently within the soft roots and porridge-like rice. Barley is soaked for three to four hours and cooked separately the day before, while the beans soak overnight. In a large pot the beans cook first, followed by thin-cut daikon and the cooked barley. Once bean and radish begin to soften, soaked rice and all its water enter and the bottom must be stirred continuously. When the rice has bloomed and a spatula briefly exposes the pot floor, separately boiled potato, sweet potato, and taro are folded in. Obaku itself remains unseasoned; each diner adds negi miso mixed with scallion, bonito flakes, and a little sugar.
Instructions
Read the steps as a cooking flow: prep, heat, seasoning, doneness control, and finish.
- 1Heat
Rinse 500g barley and soak in cold water for 3 to 4 hours.
Drain, cook with 800ml potable water on a grain or brown-rice setting, spread in a wide container, cool, and refrigerate.
- 2Step
Soak 125g red kidney beans in at least three times their volume of cold water for 8 hours and discard the soaking water.
Rinse 300g rice until clear and soak in 800ml potable water for 30 minutes.
- 3Heat
Combine the soaked beans and 3L potable water in a large pot.
Bring to a boil, lower the heat, skim foam, and cook 40 to 60 minutes until a bean is only slightly firm at the center when pressed.
- 4Heat
Cut 200g daikon into strips 2mm thick and 4cm long.
Peel potato, sweet potato, and taro, cut into 1.5cm cubes, and boil each separately for 8 to 12 minutes until tender but intact.
- 5Control
Add daikon and the cooked barley to the bean pot and simmer 15 minutes, scraping the bottom every 3 minutes.
When bean and daikon are nearly tender, add the soaked rice with all 800ml soaking water.
- 6Control
Keep low heat and scrape the pot bottom continuously with a long spatula for 25 to 35 minutes.
When rice is fully bloomed and stirring exposes the bottom for about 2 seconds, lower to minimum heat.
- 7Heat
Add the boiled potato, sweet potato, and taro and fold bottom to top only four times without breaking them.
Warm 5 minutes, turn off the heat, and rest 10 minutes.
- 8Finish
Thinly slice two long onions and mix with 200g miso, 10g bonito flakes, and 3g sugar for negi miso.
Divide obaku among twenty bowls and serve the seasoning separately for each diner to add.
Practical Cooking Checks
The cues that matter most while cooking.
- Key technique
- 500g whole barley with 300g rice
- Finish cue
- When bean and daikon are nearly tender, add the soaked rice with all 800ml soaking water.
- Storage and reheating
- Barley is soaked for three to four hours and cooked separately the day before, while the beans soak overnight.
Cooking decision evidence
Calculated Charim data and applicable official food safety guidance.
This recipe
630min, 12 ingredients
Category median
38.5min, 8 ingredients
Based on 214 recipes
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