For these recipes, the mochi is made from “ Hakubai sweet rice “ or “Shouchikubai sweet rice” cooked in a mochi maker. Wash and soak the rice overnight before steaming in the mochi maker. This makes premium silky smooth mochi.
Baked mochi
In the oven at 350 F for 10 to 15 until puffs. Continue baking if you would like to brown and crisp the mochi. Remove from oven and serve with soya sauce (Shoyu) and sugar.
Norimaki mochi – broiled mochi with seaweed
Broiled mochi
Nori for wrapping mochi
Shoyu (soya sauce)
Broil mochi in a toaster oven, browning the outside but not allowing the mochi to balloon. Remove from toaster, and wrap with a strip of nori. And prepare a dip mix of shoyu and sugar to your preferred taste. And then dip mochi in sauce.
Mochi with ham and cheese
Heat mochi round in microwave until hot. Take out of microwave and drizzle with soya sauce. Place a piece of cheese and/or ham on top of mochi and then wrap with nori. Serve. You may also broil in the oven or bbq mochi with cheese and ham. After grilling wrap with nori.
mochi with anko inside or anko mochi
Spread mochi round into a shape of a pancake. Place a teaspoon of anko in middle and then re-shape into a mochi round. Alternatively you can coat the outside of the mochi with anko. Adzuki bean paste can be purchased from a grocery market.
Kinako mochi
Heat mochi in oven or microwave.
Dip mochi in hot water.
Then, coat mochi with Kinako sugar mix. Kinako is toasted soybean powder and has a nutty flavour. Alternatively you can dip mochi into maple syrup before coating with Kinako.
Zenzai or red bean soup
1 cup of Adzuki dry beans
Pinch h of salt
½ to ¾ cup of sugar, suit to taste
Soak Adzuki beans in water overnight. Drain water and rinse beans. Place beans in a pot and add approximately 6 cups of water. Add a pinch of salt and cook beans on top of the stove. When the soup mixture begins to boil, turn down the temperature down and let the soup mixture. Remove any foam at the top with a spoon. Continue simmering the soup for about 45 to 60 minutes. The beans are cooked when you notice beans splitting or using a spoon check if the beans are thoroughly cooked. When the beans are done, add about ½ cup or more sugar to taste. And the soup is ready for mochi!
Heat up your mochi in the microwave for about 45 to 60 seconds or in a toaster oven. It is not necessary to be really hot. Place mochi in the zenzai soup for a minute and then using ladle, scoop the mochi and bean soup into a soup bowl. Source of protein and folic acid.
Ozoni “New Year’s Mochi Soup”
Soup dashi: Water, Kombu, katsuo iriko (small fish). Boil in 6 cups water for 30 minutes.
Ozoni
6 cups of dashi clear soup
½ bunch of spinach
1 kamaboko (fish cake) – 1/8” slices
Gobo. Type of root vegetable. Shaved and cooked separately . Or if you can’t find gobo use carrots, sliced Julienne.
Shitake mushrooms. Soaked overnight and then sliced
Seasoning – salt and shoyu (soya sauce) to taste
Bake mochi in the oven until puffy but not brown.
Boil dashi soup. Turn down temperature to low-medium. Add Kamaboko to the soup, let in cook for 20 seconds. Add shitake mushrooms and let cook for two minutes. When ready to serve ozone, place mochi in soup for 1 minute and some spinach and gobo. Scoop 1 mochi, 2 Kamoboko, few shitake, and vegetables into a soup bowl. Ready to serve.
You may substitute the soup base with a ready made soup packet. Just add boiled water and soup is ready in minutes. Add mochi.
Anko – Adzuki bean paste
4 cups of Adzuki beans
3 cups of sugar
1 tsp salt
4 tbsp of corn syrup
Soak beans in water overnight. Next day boil the beans in water with 1 tsp of salt for one hour or until the bean texture is soft. Drain the water and then using a food strainer, strain the beans into a bowl. Only the skin of the beans will be left in the strainer. Place the bean paste into cloth bag, squeezing out some of the access water. Place the bean paste in a pot with sugar and corn syrup and cook gently on the stove top for about 45 minutes. This is to remove any excess water and towards the end the paste should be quite thick. Let cool before making Daifuku mochi.