Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Matcha Mochi with Anko Filling (Red Bean)



It all started when I had my first taste of Mitarashi Danggo (Sweet Glutinuous Rice Balls covered with Soy Sauce). I was surprised because I had expected the soy sauce to be salty. The entire concoction was sweet.

This got me surfing the net for danggo receipes and tripeed into the bigger world of Wagashi instead.

Strangely enough, I got sidetracked and started reading about how easy it was to make mochi. I even read about mochi being made into savoury dishes.

So after ensuring no oven baking was required (read my earlier blog on making Rachel's Fuwa Fuwa Soy Milk Cakey) I set about creating my first ever batch of Mochi filled with Anko (sweetened red bean paste). This was how it turned out:

They didn't taste half bad although I could be a little more light handed with the Katakuriko Flour (Potato Starch Flour) and also I might reduce the amount water from 1 cup to 3/4 cup.

Instead of adding all ingredients together and nuking it, I decided to boil the water and add it into the well-mixed flour and sugar combo, stirring vigorously once boiling water is added.

Here's the simplest receipe I have found:

Mochi

1 Cup Mochiko Sweet Rice Flour (Glutinous Rice Flour)
1 Cup Water
¼ Cup Sugar
Katakuriko Flour (for dusting) [Optional: Matcha Powder]

1. Mix Mochiko flour, sugar & Matcha powder in a bowl.
2. Add boiling water to dry mixture, stirring thoroughly.
3. Cool for a few minutes. Cut & Serve.

4. For filling: Dust mochi with Katakuriko or Kinako to prevent mochi from sticking everywhere. If you don't have these, you can just put the mochi on cellophane.
6. Variations for Filling: You can add red bean paste, ice cream, chocolate, etc. in the middle if you want BEFORE you dust. Add a teaspoon of filling and pinch edges closed.
* Variations for Dough: Add a few drops of food coloring into batter for color variation. A few drops of flavoring (strawberry, grape, orange, blueberry, etc.) may also be added. >> For chocolate flavor, stir about 1/4 cup melted chocolate chips into mochi batter before cooking.

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