All about Japanese Menu (Food)!!: June 2011

Menu Taste and Personal Experience:

Red Bean Mochi

Bought it, tasted it and have tried making it myself. Two words for this menu, delicious and sticky!! In my opinion, the taste of the mochi really depends on the fillings that are used and the one that I really like is the red bean filling. There are lots of other fillings that can be used like coconut, fruits, green bean, ground nut, ice cream, chicken floss, etc.
If you want to try making this menu I really suggest that you pay attention to the stickiness of the dough. Never forget to use either oil or flour to prevent the dough sticking to your finger or kitchenware. Once it sticks, it's like a glue and it's quite hard to wash it. Nevertheless, this menu is one of my favourite Japanese dessert menu.

Menu Description:

Mochi is a Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice (not to be confused with gluten) pounded into paste and molded into shape. In Japan it is traditionally made in a ceremony called mochitsuki. While also eaten year-round, mochi is a traditional food for the Japanese New Year and is commonly sold and eaten during that time.

Preparation

Mochitsuki

Traditionally, mochi was made from whole rice, in a labor-intensive process. The traditional mochi-pounding ceremony in Japan is called Mochitsuki:

Polished glutinous rice is soaked overnight and cooked.
The cooked rice is pounded with wooden mallets (kine) in a traditional mortar (usu). Two people will alternate the work, one pounding and the other turning and wetting the mochi. They must keep a steady rhythm or they may accidentally injure one another with the heavy kine.
The sticky mass is then formed into various shapes (usually a sphere or cube).

Mochi can also be prepared from a flour of sweet rice (mochiko). The flour is mixed with water to a sticky opaque white mass that is cooked on the stovetop or in the microwave. until it becomes elastic and slightly transparent.

Other popular uses for mochi:

Ice cream mochi

Small balls of ice cream are wrapped inside a mochi covering to make mochi ice cream.

Toppings for frozen yoghurt

Frozen yogurt chains (such as Red Mango, J.CO Donuts) also offer mochi as standard topping on their yoghurts.

Moffles

A waffle made from a toasted mochi. It is made in a specialized machine as well as a traditional waffle iron.

Dango

A japanese dumpling made from mochiko (rice flour).

New Year specialties

Kinako Mochi

Kagami mochi is a New Year decoration, which is traditionally broken and eaten in a ritual called Kagami biraki (mirror opening).
Zōni soup is a soup containing rice cakes. Zoni is also eaten on New Year's Day. In addition to mochi, zoni contains vegetables like taro, carrot, honeywort and red and white colored kamaboko.
Kinako mochi is a mochi dish that is traditionally made on New Year's Day for luck. This style of mochi preparation includes roasting the mochi over a fire or stove, and then dipping it into water, and before finally briefly coating it in kinako (soy flour) with sugar.

Soup

Oshiruko or ozenzai is a sweet azuki bean soup with pieces of mochi. In winter, Japanese people often eat it to warm themselves.
Chikara udon (meaning "power udon") is a dish consisting of udon noodles in soup topped with toasted mochi.
Zōni soup. See New Year specialties.

Menu Ingredients:

300g Mochiko (glutinous rice flour/sweet rice flour)

60g Rice Flour
½ cup coconut milk (Optional)
200ml hot water

3 tbsp sugar (Optional)
160ml evaporated milk (Optional, if not using add more water to mixture)
240ml fruit nectar/juice (Optional, depends on the taste you want to make)

Fillings as desired (eg: red bean paste, ice cream)

Butter/Oil to grease

Note: Traditionally it was made from cooked glutinous rice pounded intensively while adding a bit of water between each pound.

Menu Directions:

Mochi
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1. Mix glutinous rice flour, rice flour and sugar into a big mixing bowl.
2. Dissolve sugar in 200ml hot water. Add in the evaporated milk. Pour this into the flour mixture and mix till smooth and well blended. Stir in the fruit nectar. Strain if mixture is lumpy.
3. Pour batter into a greased tray/bowl and steam on high heat for 30 minutes.
4. Remove from steamer and stir the cooked dough with a plastic knife till smooth. Leave aside to cool.
5. Dust your hand with flour, take a small piece of cooked dough and flatten it into a round disc. Wrap in the fillings as desired. Seal the edges tightly and shape them into round balls.
6. Serve.