📕 Important: Be sure to use the same measuring cup for all dry and wet ingredients. For example, if you use the cup that came with your rice cooker to measure your rice, you must use that same cup to measure the water, too. If you use the standard US measuring cup (8oz) to measure your rice, you must use that same cup to measure the water. If you mix and match these cups, your sekihan may turn out too wet or too dry. While this recipe doesn’t explicitly state it, I believe this recipe is written based on using the cup that came with your rice cooker.

Sekihan is my spirit food—a dish that runs through my veins. It is one of my favorites, which means that every time I visited my grandma, she had a huge batch of it ready when arrived. She made it the “old fashioned” way, using a stovetop steamer. This recipe uses a rice cooker, which I can handle! The dish is meant to bring good luck with its red color, which it gets from the liquid used to pre-cook the azuki beans. The beans infuse the rice with a subtle nutty flavor, which is heightened by a sprinkling of salt and sesame seeds before serving.

Legend has it that breaking beans brings bad luck. I haven’t mastered that part, so you can see at least one broken bean in the photo below. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Sekihan, while technically red beans with rice, is very different from the Louisiana Creole dish, red beans and rice. Sekihan uses azuki beans, short-grain sticky rice, and no seasonings during cooking. Red beans and rice uses kidney beans, long-grain rice, and lots seasonings while cooking.