Okayu

Okayu is a Japanese rice porridge. It is often eaten when people are feeling sick. Okayu has a very mild taste, and it’s easy to digest, making it a perfect food when you don’t have much of an appetite.

Okayu is also eaten for breakfast sometimes. For example, some hotel restaurants in Japan serve okayu in a breakfast buffet.

There are different kinds of rice porridge all over the world, but in Japan it’s usually made from white rice and water (plain and simple, right?).

The water-to-rice ratio could be anything from 20 to 5 times as much water as rice. It could be a very watery porridge if you add a lot of water, or it can have almost no liquid left if you use less. It all comes down to how you personally like it the best.

Depending on your liking, change the amount of water and cooking time. You could also use precooked or leftover rice instead of raw rice to make okayu, but cooked rice can break apart more, and the water becomes very thick, giving you that nice porridge texture.

For flavouring the porridge, the most popular topping is umeboshi. Umeboshi is a sour and salty pickled plum, and its taste goes very well with rice. You could also cook okayu with eggs or sweet potatoes and/or even mushrooms, scallions and little pieces of fish. Okayu is also used today as a weight loss diet food to eat less rice.

I made mine for the first time when I had a bad throat infection and added honey to my porridge. It did taste amazing.

Chagayu is another type of rice porridge. It is a tea porridge and originally comes from the cuisine of monks, but it’s also a popular regional food in the old cities of Nara and Kyoto. You can also eat a kind of okayu called nanakusagayu with seven spring herbs on January 7th to hope for a good new year.

Whether you are on a diet or sick, it is still a tasty rice dish, so mix it up and try it!

Here is what you need: ( This is for a base porridge, feel free to mix it up with ingredients, more or less rice/water)

• 1/2 cup (120ml) white rice
• 3 1/2 (780ml) cup water
• 1/4 tsp salt

Here is what you have to do:

Wash the rice and put rice and water in a pot. Be sure that it’s one with a thick bottom. Set on the stove at medium heat, add the salt, and stir.

When it has started boiling partially cover with a a lid and cook at low heat for another 30-40 minutes.

I prefer not to make it in my ricecooker. I have done it once with my old ricecooker and because of the pressure of that ricecooker it became one big mess. It was literally cooking out of the side edges of my cooker. It ruined the entire cooker. So use a pot with a thick bottom to prevent it from burning on the bottom.

If you choose to add vegetables or any kind of meat/fish. Be sure to add it to your porridge when it still has around 20 minutes left to cook. Be carefull with chicken. Pre-cooking your meat is the best option, and let it heat along with your porridge.

If you have any questions, please feel free to use the comments down below!