Mochi

  Posted on January 11, 2010  by Leslie Blythe  2 comments

I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so……

Mochi is a Japanese sticky rice cake and  is an important food in Japanese culture. For example, people eat zoni (rice cake soup) during Japanese New Year’s holidays.

Mochi 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 a mixture of soy sauce, water and sugar, before finally briefly coating it in kinako (soy flour).

Fresh mochi is soft, but it hardens quickly.

I buy the prepacked mochi blocks, which are flattened and cut into square pieces or shaped into rounds are available at Asian grocery stores.

Hard mochi pieces can be grilled, deep-fried, boiled, and sautéd. Cooked mochi is very sticky, so be careful not to choke it. It’s important to take a small bite at a time.

My daughter, Grace, loves mochi.  She likes to put it in the toaster oven until it gets puffed up and brown.

We went to a friend’s house for dinner last night and had a wonderful Japanese meal of miso soup, sushi, sashimi and mochi ice cream.    My friend said that her favorite way to eat mocha is sautéd in butter and then coated in sugar.  We made some for Grace at lunch and we heard screams of delight coming from the kitchen.

By the way, whatever happened to The Vapors?