(no subject)
so i really like glommy food. gluey things and comforting things, and soft starches.
mochi is right up my alley.
i prefer the savory stuff, the japanese type, grilled or toasted so it's crisp and brown on the outside, eaten with nori and soy or ponzu. it's fantastic, worth tracking down a big bag of hard, plastic rectangles of the stuff at the asian grocery. or the korean sort, discs vacuum sealed in a packet, dried hard or frozen fresh for dropping into the soup pot. or in chewy rice-stick form, cooked into main dishes.
when i was in japan, my friend freya told me a recipe, mochi layered in a deep dish alternating with cheese and spinach and microwaved til it went soft and rich. (i think about how good that would be a lot - but it isn't going to make me get a microwave.)
here all the natural foods stores have the grainassance version, all whole-meal and healthful, strange textured and more sticky, less elastic. unevenly puffing. i like to eat that kind fresh out of the oven, sticking cold chunks of butter in the hollows. but only the plain flavor, the others seem a bit outré. perhaps if the were just called something different: not-mochi.
the newest big asian grocer to the area, hua xing, is the place to go if you want all sorts of wonderful things, but they skew hard toward chinese fare - there aren't any bags of mochi in blocks. (and no instant sweet green milk tea mix, either, though that's probably for the best, what with the sugar-crash-deliciousness of it all.)
they do, however, have a nice, small selection of fresh japanese sweets in one cooler.
so i've been eating kinako mochi.
it's chewy and sticky and not too sweet and frances loves it too, we've been sharing. i've never made it, but i probably should - it isn't exactly complicated - a cup of mochiko (glutinous rice flour), a cup of water, a quarter cup (maybe less? that sounds like too much) of sugar, stirred together, put it a dish and sealed with plastic wrap, nuked for four minutes. cooled and cut in chunks and rolled in kinako (toasted soy flour).
i miss kushi dango. it's almost the same thing, but unsweetened soft mochi, skewered and dipped in sugared soy sauce and maybe run under the broiler. mmmmmm.
here is a song about kushi dango: だんご3兄弟
here is someone else's picture of kushi dango:
mochi is right up my alley.
i prefer the savory stuff, the japanese type, grilled or toasted so it's crisp and brown on the outside, eaten with nori and soy or ponzu. it's fantastic, worth tracking down a big bag of hard, plastic rectangles of the stuff at the asian grocery. or the korean sort, discs vacuum sealed in a packet, dried hard or frozen fresh for dropping into the soup pot. or in chewy rice-stick form, cooked into main dishes.
when i was in japan, my friend freya told me a recipe, mochi layered in a deep dish alternating with cheese and spinach and microwaved til it went soft and rich. (i think about how good that would be a lot - but it isn't going to make me get a microwave.)
here all the natural foods stores have the grainassance version, all whole-meal and healthful, strange textured and more sticky, less elastic. unevenly puffing. i like to eat that kind fresh out of the oven, sticking cold chunks of butter in the hollows. but only the plain flavor, the others seem a bit outré. perhaps if the were just called something different: not-mochi.
the newest big asian grocer to the area, hua xing, is the place to go if you want all sorts of wonderful things, but they skew hard toward chinese fare - there aren't any bags of mochi in blocks. (and no instant sweet green milk tea mix, either, though that's probably for the best, what with the sugar-crash-deliciousness of it all.)
they do, however, have a nice, small selection of fresh japanese sweets in one cooler.
so i've been eating kinako mochi.
it's chewy and sticky and not too sweet and frances loves it too, we've been sharing. i've never made it, but i probably should - it isn't exactly complicated - a cup of mochiko (glutinous rice flour), a cup of water, a quarter cup (maybe less? that sounds like too much) of sugar, stirred together, put it a dish and sealed with plastic wrap, nuked for four minutes. cooled and cut in chunks and rolled in kinako (toasted soy flour).
i miss kushi dango. it's almost the same thing, but unsweetened soft mochi, skewered and dipped in sugared soy sauce and maybe run under the broiler. mmmmmm.
here is a song about kushi dango: だんご3兄弟
here is someone else's picture of kushi dango: