The Kamado-San Donabe Rice Cooker serves you the best tasting as fluffiest (shushi) rice you can eat. This is why this claypot rice cooker is honored with the Good Design Award in Japan.
Master the easy four steps and of rinsing, soaking, cooking and resting for the perfect plain white rice. Then extend your skills to one-pot dishes like chicken-wing rice or salmon & hijiki rice.
The Kamado-San Donabe Rice Cooker made by Nagatani-en is hand-crafted with care, so every piece is unique and no two pieces are identical. There are slight variations within the color/ shade, shape/ curve, and patterns, among pieces, and that makes each piece so special. The donabe is both a cooking pot and a serving dish, so you can bring your dish from the stove to the table directly.
The Kamado-san in suitable for gas stove only. You can also use for a portable gas burner, if you kitchen doesn’t have a gast stove, or for outdoor cooking.
The Kamado-San 5 Cups Donabe Rice Cooker is the biggest size and cooks 5 cups of uncooked rice (900ml), and serves about 5-8 servings. We also offer the 3 cup version.
The Kamado-san comes with a ceramic trivet and wooden rice spoon.
First use
Before first use the rice cooker should be "seasoned"
Because this Iga-style donabe rice cooker is made of porous clay, without seasoning the donabe, it might cause leaking or cracking. Therefore, we suggest that you season the donabe by making the porridge in it. It might sound like an extra step, but it’s just a simple procedure in order for your donabe to last for many, many years.
- Make sure the outer bottom of the donabe is dry before starting the process.
- Pour the water to about 70% of the donabe, and add cooked rice. The cooked rice must be at least 1/5 of the volume of the water. Stir the water and rice thoroughly.
- Cover the donabe with lid and cook the rice over low to medium-low heat. Once the mixture starts to simmer (approximately after 20-30 minutes for a medium-size donabe), uncover and keep the heat at low (the mixture should simmer, not boil). Continue to cook until the mixture becomes almost like paste. Stir occasionally to make sure the bottom is not burned. Make sure not to let the mixture boil. If you boil, the hot mixture can splash out of the pot and it’s dangerous. Use the proper protection (such as pot holders or oven mitten) when handling the pot (including the lid) when it’s heated, as the donabe can get very hot.
- Turn off the heat and let it cool down for about 1 hour.
- Remove the rice mixture from the donabe. Rinse the donabe thoroughly and let it dry completely before using it for the first time.
How to use Kamado-san
- Take a premium short grain rice.
- Take 540ml rice and rinse thoroughly and drain the water.
- Place the rice in the rice cooker with 600ml* water and let it soak for 20 minutes.
- Place both lids so that the holes of the lids are positioned perpendicular to each other.
- Set Kamado-san on the gas stove top and turn the heat to medium-high (medium-heat for the professional use high calorie burner). Cook for 13 - 15 minutes. The steam should start puffing a couple of minutes before the rice is cooked.
- Turn off the heat and let it stand with lids on for 20 minutes.
- Rice is now ready to eat. It’s shiny and fluffy.
*General recommended ratio of short grain white rice to water is 9:10. For each 1 rice cup (180 ml) of rice, the suggested water amount is 200 ml. Adjust the ratio according to your preference. (The ratio can be close to 1:1 for new crop rice with higher moisture level.)
See Kamado-san cooking chart for cooking amount and Kamado-san size variations.
