Kiri Mochi (Grilled Mochi With Soy Sauce & Nori) Recipe

Yearly, just a few days after Christmas, some households in Japan collect to have fun Shogatsu, the Japanese New 12 months, by pounding sizzling, steamy rice into mochi. Utilizing a big wood mallet referred to as a kine, they take turns hitting the steamed grains in a one-meter diameter usu (mortar) carved from a tree stump, rhythmically turning the rice by hand between strikes, till the rice transforms right into a easy, sticky dough. “It’s a household affair,” says Nancy Singleton Hachisu, who has resided in rural Japan since 1988 and is the James Beard Award-winning creator of Japanese Farm Meals and Preserving the Japanese Approach. “Mochitsuki is a time for group and gathering.”

What Is Conventional Mochi? Why Ought to You Make It?

Smooth, chewy, and sticky, mochi is a rice cake that  could be served in a mess of the way: grilled, boiled, wrapped round anko (crimson bean paste), dipped in kinako (roasted soybean flour), and even deep fried. Its title, “mochi,” comes from mochi gome, the kind of short-grain glutinous rice it’s made out of.

Mochitsuki (mochi pounding) is a practice courting again to at the least the eighth century, with origins going again a lot farther to historical China. All through historical past, mochi has held cultural significance for a number of events, from celebrating the New 12 months to childbirth and marriage, however by far the commonest time for making and consuming mochi is throughout Shogatsu.

For a lot of, the notion of mochi evokes multicolored shapes (fruits, even animals) and molded confections standard in Japanese comfort shops and sweet outlets. For a lot of extra, mochi is perhaps most carefully related to ice cream. However Hachisu is fast to level out that these meals are sometimes not made with mochi in probably the most conventional sense. “These [confections] are the furthest factor from mochi,” she says. “It doesn’t style the identical, as a result of it’s made out of mochiko flour—not from freshly steamed rice.” The overwhelming majority of mochi you discover commercially is just not hand-pounded.

Fashionable meals processing has made it attainable to combine mochi at dwelling from a positive, boxed powder or flour. You combine mochiko (or shiratamako) with water, cook dinner it over the stovetop or microwave, and increase—mochi on the fly. However all that comfort comes at a worth. “That stuff is just about flavorless as compared,” Hachisu says. There’s nothing flawed with it. But it surely lacks just a few issues: taste and texture, and in a extra sentimental sense, the sentiments of custom, course of, gathering, and group which make mochi such a particular meals within the first place.

The Problem of (and Resolution to) Making Pounded Mochi at Residence

Creating a pounded mochi recipe for the house cook dinner presents a number of challenges. For one, I’m fairly positive most individuals don’t personal both an usu or a kine. Second, mochitsuki is historically carried out outdoor or in a big, open space with loads of room to swing an enormous outdated mallet. “You’re by no means gonna be capable to do it at dwelling,” Hachisu says. No less than, not within the conventional manner.

Third, there’s the communal facet of creating mochi. “Ideally, you’d make mochi with your loved ones, or with buddies, with individuals within the neighborhood,” Hachisu says. “The concept of group is so important to creating mochi.”

Whereas I can’t essentially clear up these points—in spite of everything, recipes are sometimes written for a single consumer, and we recipe builders are usually loner varieties to start with, faffing round with culinary trivialities—I thought-about just a few options to the normal pounding course of.

• Giant Mortar and Pestle: A mortar and pestle appeared an apparent alternative to copy the pounding and kneading of mochitsuki. I had satisfactory outcomes with small volumes of rice, however the yields have been pitiful; a typical mortar merely doesn’t have sufficient capability. And due to that small capability, the rice tended to chill down too rapidly earlier than forming a cohesive, easy paste. The speedy cooling made pounding prohibitively tough because the paste thickened. This technique took upwards of quarter-hour for a cup of dry rice, and the end result was grainy and unappealing.
• Mochi-Making Machine: For these intent on commonly having fun with pounded mochi at dwelling, you should purchase devoted mochi-making machines from respected rice cooker firms like Zojirushi and Tiger. Marketed as all-in-one rice cooking and mochi-making gadgets, these machines set you again anyplace from 200 to 500 {dollars}. Whereas I used to be tempted to attempt these machines out, I concluded that the majority dwelling cooks wouldn’t be prepared to drop that form of cash for such a specialised piece of kit.
• Stand Mixer: Once I advised utilizing a stand mixer to copy the pounding and kneading course of, Hachisu was skeptical. “You recognize, I had a kind of Cuisinart stand mixers as soon as. I’m fairly positive I threw it out,” she joked. In her estimation, the mochi dough would possibly overwhelm the mixer, burning the motor out. “I’m unsure that it could work,” she mentioned. “However I’ve additionally by no means tried it. So be at liberty to show me flawed.”

The stand mixer does, actually, work. Utilizing a mixture of the dough hook and the paddle attachments yielded one of the best outcomes. The dough hook completed the preliminary kneading and helped to type a cohesive mass; whipping the dough with the paddle attachment broke the grains additional aside, yielding a smoother end result. And one of the best half? The work could be achieved rapidly whereas the rice retains its warmth.

There are nonetheless limitations to this technique. In comparison with the feel of store-bought mochi or mochi made the normal manner, the ensuing dough isn’t completely easy—simply ever-so-slightly grainy if you happen to maintain a cross-section as much as the sunshine. However by way of consuming high quality and the dealing with of the dough, that graininess is imperceptible. Moreover, I discovered that there was an higher restrict on the quantity of rice my 7-quart KitchenAid mixer may deal with—round 3 cups of dry rice. So relying on the mannequin and capability of your stand mixer, your mileage could range. 

Different Keys To Mochi Success

Sort of Rice

Good mochi begins with choosing the proper rice selection and high quality. For one, mochi gome, or short-grain japonica glutinous rice, is important. Glutinous rice is almost 100% amylopectin, one among two foremost polysaccharides present in starch, together with amylose. Amylopectin tends to type a sticky, viscous however flowing gel. Increased amylose rice varieties, comparable to jasmine rice, are usually not appropriate for making mochi, since they don’t type a sticky gel when blitzed aside or pounded.

Rice Cooking Strategies

The normal technique for cooking rice is twofold: the rice is first soaked in a single day in water, then it’s wrapped in muslin fabric and steamed for about an hour beneath a heavy wood lid over an iron pot of water till the grains are tender. Soaking ensures that the rice cooks evenly when steamed, and a few research recommend that it reduces the protein content of the rice and likewise improves each shine and consuming high quality.

I attempted to copy this steaming technique with cheesecloth and both a bamboo steamer or a heavy-lidded Dutch oven. Whereas the Dutch oven produced good outcomes outcomes, it was a finickier course of that required having to persistently verify the grains by opening up the cheesecloth. The bamboo steamer, however, didn’t produce evenly cooked grains, and tended to stain the grains barely brown.

Hachisu additionally really helpful utilizing a rice cooker (with out soaking the grains beforehand)—although that is removed from a conventional approach. This gave me constant outcomes, so I may actually dial the ratio of water to rice to imitate the feel of correctly steamed rice. I used to be curious if omitting the soaking step affected the feel and look of the dough, however I discovered the variations too minute to inform. When you’re a purist, follow steaming. In any other case, rice ready in a rice cooker works simply positive.

Warmth

One other basic facet of mochitsuki entails sustaining warmth whereas pounding the rice. If the rice cools an excessive amount of earlier than the paste reaches the goal consistency, then pounding turns into more and more tough, and the completed texture isn’t excellent. It’s additionally a ache to deal with the dough when it’s chilly, so the blending, pounding, or kneading have to be achieved rapidly. “It’s a race towards time,” says Hachisu.

Luckily, the stand mixer does the heavy lifting right here. However to take care of the temperature of the dough, I discovered it useful to maintain a inflexible silicone spatula dipped in boiling water close by. That sizzling, moist spatula made it straightforward to scrape down the edges of the bowl and fold the dough over itself, mimicking the motions of folding by hand.

Rolling, Shaping, and Katakuriko

As soon as the mochi is blended, it’s often shaped into shapes and eaten immediately. It doesn’t matter what type mochi takes, it’s customary to coat the work floor with katakuriko (potato starch). In actual fact, with out potato starch, the mochi dough is almost inconceivable to deal with due to how sticky it’s. A liberal dusting of katakuriko makes portioning, rolling, or urgent a comparatively painless endeavor.

Drying

For the particular model of mochi referred to as yakimochi (grilled mochi) proven on this recipe, it’s useful to dry the mochi earlier than reducing and cooking. These minimize squares, often known as kirimochi, are sometimes offered commercially in vacuum sealed packs. The drying course of kinds a pores and skin on the floor of the mochi, which permits the mochi to puff up dramatically over the grill or when toasted. The result’s a crispy, crunchy exterior that provides approach to a delicate, chewy inside.

Serving Solutions

There isn’t a scarcity of serving choices for mochi. Whereas this recipe produces a mochi dough appropriate for enrobing or rolling into numerous shapes, I wished to supply mochi in its extra unadorned type. “My favourite approach to eat mochi is simply toasted within the oven, possibly brushed with a little bit soy sauce,” says Hachisu. “Mochi is all in regards to the rice, that delicate taste.”

Ideally, yakimochi are cooked on a Japanese grill referred to as a konro, ideally over binchotan coals. To copy this at dwelling, I go for the strategic use of a blowtorch to get these charred, smoky edges and encourage the mochi to puff on all sides (if you do not have a blowtorch, you need to use a broiler, although it will likely be harder to get even browning). The grilled mochi are brushed with a easy tare thickened with potato starch, wrapped in nori, and eaten sizzling—a serving model often known as isobeyaki.

When you don’t have a grill or a blowtorch, a toaster oven (or an oven) is your subsequent most suitable choice. The broiler setting produces an analogous impact as a grill, albeit with much less pronounced blistering or charring.

When you choose sweeter choices, you may drizzle the mochi with brown sugar syrup and serve it with some kinako (roasted soybean powder) or with globs of anko (crimson adzuki bean paste).

Persevering with Traditions

A number of years in the past, Hachisu stumbled upon individuals making mochi whereas touring by way of an airport. “It was most likely a PR occasion,” she says. They wore gaudy, extravagant Japanese costumes, which have been pretend. They have been shouting in a touristy, obnoxious manner. “It was form of sickening, to be sincere. That’s not mochi.”

However throughout Japan, there are enclaves of individuals carrying on the true traditions of mochitsuki, largely in rural areas. “There are many younger individuals who come to our farming space, looking for a extra pure life,” says Hachisu. They be taught the custom, revive it, and carry it on. Past the motion itself, mochitsuki is about group and gathering.

How do you deliver that feeling to your house? Hachisu recommends inviting buddies over to make mochi—even if you happen to occur to be utilizing a stand mixer, with no usu or kine in sight. And if you happen to can’t collect? You would possibly as properly share. As we wrap up our interview, Hachisu remembers to ship a little bit mochi to her son who’s moved throughout the ocean to Brooklyn—so he can take pleasure in a little bit style of dwelling.