Home-Style Red Rice

In Japan, red rice is both simple comfort food and food for celebrations. Red rice is made by cooking sweet sticky rice with red azuki beans. As they cook the beans stain the rice a pinkish red. There are two methods for cooking it. In the first, the two ingredients cook together in water. In the second, the two are steamed together over boiling water after a long preliminary soaking. The first method is quicker, the second more traditional.

Serve red rice in place of plain rice, ac