Mochi

[therese]

And, don't forget the Toaster Oven thread.  See post #1.

Grill mochi in your toaster oven!

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Thanks for the link. Cool trick about putting a dab of soy sauce on the surface want to "puff" the most.

I don't have a toaster over, but the smaller of my regular ovens should work just fine.

A recipe using kirimochi to make daifuku would be very cool. Thanks in advance.

I've never bought mochi-ko. Would I buy it fresh? Or frozen, or vacuum-packed?

[Hiroyuki]

A recipe using kirimochi to make daifuku would be very cool. Thanks in advance. 

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Note: If mochiko is readily available in your area, please don't bother yourself trying this recipe; instead, try the recipe I provided above.

Ingredients for 10 daikufu:

4 (200 g) kirimochi

60 to 80 g sugar

60 cc water

350 g anko (azuki bean jam)

Potato starch

Steps:

1. Make 10 anko balls, 35 g each.

2. Put potato starch in a vat.

3. Place kirimochi in a heat-resistant bowl, pour hot water enough to cover kirimochi, and heat the bowl in a microwave for about 4 minutes.

4. Make syrup: Mix sugar and water in a nonstick pot or frypan, put it on stove to dissolve. Take care not to scorch.

5. When kirimochi soften, drain water, knead with a moistened wooden spatula until smooth. Add hot syrup in 3 to 4 portions.

6. Transfer kirimochi to a pot, and knead over low to medium heat until a good texture. If it becomes too hard, add a little water.

7. Transfer kirimochi to a vat of starch, put starch on your hands, and divide kirimochi into 10 equal parts.

8. Spread each part into a circle, place an anko ball, and wrap it.

[Hiroyuki]

I've never bought mochi-ko. Would I buy it fresh? Or frozen, or vacuum-packed?

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Okay, so I've just figured out that mochi-ko is apparently the flour.

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Right, mochiko flour.

ko (粉 in Kanji) means flour or powder.

http://www.hormel.com/kitchen/glossary.asp...7695&catitemid=

http://images.google.co.jp/images?q=mochik...ja&start=0&sa=N

[chibirisu]

Anybody have opinions on mochi makers? (like <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0001ZPWDO/ref=pd_pym_ka//002-0320402-7935266?v=glance">this one?</a>

Local club's thinking about making mochi and dango for a fundraiser, but I'm torn between the box-of-mochiko-and-hot-water method and the get-a-machine-and-start-from-mochigome method (since we don't have access to the big mortar and pestle rigs around here, "here" being the midddle of soybeansville Illinois).

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

You can make your own uzu (mortar) to make mochi in.

The big Buddhist temple that my family goes to in Los Angeles made uzus out of galvanized washtub that they filled with cement and sunk a metal mixing bowl into while the cement was still wet.

[Hiroyuki]

As I mentioned somewhere else, my father owns one of those machines. He wanted to get a second-hand kine and usu for a long time, but now he is quite satisfied with his machine. I think that a mochi-making machine will be a good investment if you are going to organize such an event regularly. Otherwise, mochiko sounds more practical.

[AzianBrewer]

Hiroyuki....Deep fried mochi??? Now you're talkin'! Is it the tempura/beer battered style, coated with panko or just throw it in hot oil without coating?

[Hiroyuki]

Hiroyuki....Deep fried mochi???  Now you're talkin'!  Is it the tempura/beer battered style, coated with panko or just throw it in hot oil without coating?

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Which post of mine are you referring to?? Anyway, no coating. I wish I could eat it now, but it's too high in calorie, I think.

[AzianBrewer]

First of all, Sato's Kirimochi is one of the high-quality mochi products available in Japan.  Some lower-quality mochi products contain starch, are less sticky, and are somewhat translucent.

Mochi is usually served hot.  It turns hard when cool, requiring you to reheat it.

If you want to know the details of any of the dishes shown on the page you mentioned, please let me know.

Here is a brief description of the dishes shown on the page:

1.  Deep-fried wonton mochi

2.  Okonomiyaki with mochi

3.  Izobe (nori) mochi with butter

4.  Porridge with mochi

5.  Nori-wrapped, deep-fried mochi

6.  Mochi pizza

7.  Ramen with mochi

8.  Diced and deep-fried mochi

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This one here.

[chibirisu]

As I mentioned somewhere else, my father owns one of those machines.  He wanted to get a second-hand kine and usu for a long time, but now he is quite satisfied with his machine.  I think that a mochi-making machine will be a good investment if you are going to organize such an event regularly.  Otherwise, mochiko sounds more practical.

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Thanks for the info! We're probably going to do them about six times a year, for about a hundred people at a time. I'm on the fence about whether that makes it worth it -- on the one hand, when making mochi for a hundred people, a machine WOULD be pretty darn handy, but on the other hand it's not happening all THAT often... ponder ponder. Glad to hear the things are parentally-approved though!

AzianBrewer: I know kiri-mochi goes straight into the fryer as is, without any batter coating. I don't know if you'd want to put fresh soft mochi in a fryer, I get the feeling the moisture might make it sputter a lot, but I've never tried it so it might not be so bad. (I'm a little paranoid about fryers to begin with, though; my mom tipped one over on herself when I was about 8, she's still got the scars, and I've still got the nightmares, so I'm really really cautious about anything I put in boiling oil...)

[Hiroyuki]

First of all, Sato's Kirimochi is one of the high-quality mochi products available in Japan.  Some lower-quality mochi products contain starch, are less sticky, and are somewhat translucent.

Mochi is usually served hot.  It turns hard when cool, requiring you to reheat it.

If you want to know the details of any of the dishes shown on the page you mentioned, please let me know.

Here is a brief description of the dishes shown on the page:

1.  Deep-fried wonton mochi

2.  Okonomiyaki with mochi

3.  Izobe (nori) mochi with butter

4.  Porridge with mochi

5.  Nori-wrapped, deep-fried mochi

6.  Mochi pizza

7.  Ramen with mochi

8.  Diced and deep-fried mochi

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This one here.

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OK, thanks.

1. Deep-fried wanton mochi:

Wrap diced mochi in wanton skins and deep-fry quickly. Eat with ketchup and so on.

8. Diced and deep-fried mochi:

Make "arare" (sembei-like snack made from glutinous rice) by deep-frying diced mochi without coating until crispy, sprinkle some salt, ao nori, ichimi togarashi, and so on.

The age mochi (deep-fried mochi) that my mother used to make when I was a teenager was kiri mochi simply deep-fried without coating. I used to eat it with soy sauce.

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I found an error in 3. above. Not "Izobe" but "Isobe".

3. Izobe (nori) mochi with butter

[torakris]

chibirisu,

6 times a year for 100 people???

Get a machine!

I know people that have machines and they use it once a year for way less people...

[sanrensho]

^__^ My mom's telling me that too, and she doesn't do Japanese cooking at all. I just keep thinking how many boxes of mochiko I could buy for the price of that machine... ^^;;

I agree with your Mom (and Torakris). Get a machine! My parents have owned a mochi making machine for over 20 years and they only use it one or two times a year.

[chibirisu]

I agree with your Mom (and Torakris). Get a machine! My parents have owned a mochi making machine for over 20 years and they only use it one or two times a year.

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I'm thinking about it pretty seriously -- one of the main reasons I haven't already jumped at it is because so many of the recipes out there for mochi-related sweets (daifuku, dango, etc.) call for the mochiko method of making instead of the pounded-rice method of making.

Is that just because it's easier to find mochiko, and would mochi from a machine be better for making things like dango and daifuku? Or does the texture need to be more like mochiko when making desserts, and the mochi pounder's specifically for plain-rice-no-sugar-no-fillings, New Years-type mochi?

My original impression was that the mochiko method would be better for daifuku and the pounding method would be better for dango, because dango would need to be a little stiffer in order to survive skewering, but I just got done looking at a page on the Japanese-language Tsuji Institute site that has them making dango from mochiko, and I figure they're pretty authoritative, so I'm still scratching my head...

[Hiroyuki]

I agree with your Mom (and Torakris). Get a machine! My parents have owned a mochi making machine for over 20 years and they only use it one or two times a year.

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I'm thinking about it pretty seriously -- one of the main reasons I haven't already jumped at it is because so many of the recipes out there for mochi-related sweets (daifuku, dango, etc.) call for the mochiko method of making instead of the pounded-rice method of making.

Is that just because it's easier to find mochiko, and would mochi from a machine be better for making things like dango and daifuku? Or does the texture need to be more like mochiko when making desserts, and the mochi pounder's specifically for plain-rice-no-sugar-no-fillings, New Years-type mochi?

My original impression was that the mochiko method would be better for daifuku and the pounding method would be better for dango, because dango would need to be a little stiffer in order to survive skewering, but I just got done looking at a page on the Japanese-language Tsuji Institute site that has them making dango from mochiko, and I figure they're pretty authoritative, so I'm still scratching my head...

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If you are so serious about the texture, why not make mochi from mochi rice, using a mochi making machine, and mochi sweets from mochiko, like we usually do in Japan?

But think about this: You can make decent daifuku from kiri mochi, not from mochiko or shiratamako (finer than mochiko), as my wife once proved by following a recipe (I posted another recipe here), and I once made mitarashi dango for my children from leftover cooked rice, not from joshinko (regular rice flour), which was different in texture from regular mitarashi dango, but was not bad at all.

As for dango, recipes differ greatly: Some recipes for mitarashi dango call for joshinko only, and some call for both mochiko and joshinko. As its name suggests, shiratama dango calls for shiratamako.

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I forgot to include a link to this webpage, which describes how to make mochi from mochiko. It's in Japanese, but I assume you can read Japanese. Am I right?

Edited November 4, 2005 by Hiroyuki (log)

[chibirisu]

If you are so serious about the texture, why not make mochi from mochi rice, using a mochi making machine, and mochi sweets from mochiko, like we usually do in Japan?

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Because I have a feeling that the people in the club are getting their terminology mixed up! ^^;; A lot of mochi-sweets are sold in the US just identified as "mochi," including some stuffed with ice cream and frozen, and so when someone uses the word "mochi" the things people think of can be wildly different.

Some of them may be thinking of New Year's mochi, but I suspect most of the group is thinking of daifuku or the ice-cream-containing frozen ones, because those are the type seen most frequently around here. Although everyone's enthusiastic about having "mochi", I need to figure out for sure whether the group is wanting "pure" mochi or "sweets" mochi before I start making them, and I have a sinking feeling their answer is going to be "we want all of 'em of course!" which would mean a whole lot more work than even the amount of work involved in making any one type of mochi for a hundred people.

So if the machine made something I could use for both types, then I wouldn't have to worry about the "dough," so to speak. But if most people in the club are thinking of sweets and the machine doesn't make the right type of mochi for sweets, then I should stick with the mochiko... I think I need more information on both ends really...

Thank you for the links! Yeah, I can read Japanese, though slowly and often with the help of a kanji dictionary... must look them over!

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

When the temple my family attends does their yearly mochitsuki, they make both the plain mochi (the special ones for butsudan and the kind for eating) and a basic daifuku style stuffed with typical red anko or the white an. I didn't know that daifuku had a separate name until I started reading here.

Edited November 5, 2005 by MomOfLittleFoodies (log)

[chibirisu]

When the temple my family attends does their yearly mochitsuki, they make both the plain mochi (the special ones for butsudan and the kind for eating) and a basic daifuku style stuffed with typical red anko or the white an. I didn't know that daifuku had a separate name until I started reading here.

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So you use pounded mochigome rather than mochiko and end up with daifuku? What's it like to handle? / is it easier or harder to shape? (I've never had the chance to work with real pounded mochigome before...)

[torakris]

We had the first mochi of the season, with kinako (roasted soy bean powder)

[chibirisu]

I have invented something INSANELY good. Mayan hot chocolate daifuku mochi.

It's not very traditional, of course, but Torakris mentioned liking cafe au lait mochi, and I'm allergic to something in coffee, so it got me started thinking about hot chocolate mochi, and Mayan-style -- with cinnamon and nuts -- is one of my other addictions, and hey if you can do ice cream mochi, surely the other end of the temperature scale is doable too, right? Anyway... YUM.

Based on Konny's ichigo daifuku recipe online, but adjusted to taste... I cut down the sugar some, and I don't usually have a scale around so I worked with cups instead...

Makes about a dozen.

1 cup mochiko

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/4 cups water, separated

1 tsp almond extract

3/4 tsp cinnamon

Pinch of salt

Semisweet chocolate chips

Mochiko, cocoa powder and sugar mix for rolling them in

A Silpat and heat-proof spatulas are your friend here.

Microwave 1/4 cup water for about a minute, then add 1/4 cup sugar and stir. Microwave for another 45 seconds. Add another 1/4 cup sugar, stir, microwave another 45 seconds. Add the last 1/4 cup sugar, stir, microwave 45 seconds. (It should be bubbling at this point.) With a heatproof spatula or wooden spoon, mix in the almond extract and cinnamon. Don't freak out when it crystallizes like mad; just mix it together until it's the color of fudge and set it aside.

Mix together a cup of mochiko and a cup of water and a pinch of salt in a microwavable bowl. Cover with saran wrap, microwave a minute and stir; repeat until it starts getting puffy (about 5 minutes). Rewarm the sugar syrup for about 20 seconds (because it's probably set up into a solid mass while the mochi is being microwaved), then pour the syrup over the mochi and stir like mad for a long time until it's turned smooth and brown-sugar-colored again. (It'll look like a gloppy mess at first but it does mix up fine... just keep at it. Have discovered a heat-proof silicon spatula is REALLY your friend when mixing mochi.)

Scatter the cocoa-mochiko-sugar mix all over your Silpat or whatever you're using for a catcher. Pour the mochi-napalm over the mix. Scatter more coca-mochiko-sugar on top and put a piece of Saran wrap over it and roll it flatter to cool (take the Saran wrap off when done, it's just there to keep the mochi-napalm from adhering to your hands and burning you).

When it's cool enough to handle, cut or tear off bits and make thin palm-sized disks out of the mochiko. (If you cut them in rectangular shapes, you can get little mochi pillows instead of balls, and they're a bit easier to handle.) Either way, put some chocolate chips in the center and pinch the edges closed and roll into a ball shape and then re-roll in the cocoa-flour-etc mix. (Stop and reroll everything whenever anything starts sticking, actually.)

When you're done, put them in a pile on a small plate and put them back in the microwave for two or three 15-second shots. The chocolate melts in the center but doesn't get scalding, and you bite into this oozing chocolate center...

It's a good thing I could get those out of my apartment and unload 'em on the club kids, 'cause otherwise I would've eaten 'em all!

Edited November 12, 2005 by chibirisu (log)

[RosalindD]

Can anyone tell me how long Mochiko keeps? Thank you

[mochihead]

Can anyone tell me how long Mochiko keeps?  Thank you

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It will keep like any other grains/flours that you have around the house. You want to be careful of bugs and critters if you keep it in your cupboards - whether open or unopened. You can avoid the bugs by putting it in the freezer. We've kept it for several months in the freezer, unopened. (We make a ton of mochi throughout the year, so always have at least 8 boxes in the freezer at any given time.)

[torakris]

Like mochihead said, it will keep about the same as other flours.

I keep mine in the cupboard and have often had it in there for over a year before I use it all. If you live in a warmer climate though I would definitely suggest the refrigerator/freezer though.

[torakris]

isobe mochi (brushed with soy sauce and wrapped in nori) in a cup

this was lunch yesterday along with a daifuku

[mochihead]

Here's the new year mochi. Green Tea & plain, filled with tsubushian. Process