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| Mochi |
Hi friends=)) Did you read my last
post about holiday? So, about two weeks ago, at the January the first, almost
all people around the world are celebrating the transition from 2014 to 2015.
Because of that day too, we were given holiday hehe... but now I'm gonna write
just about new year in Japan. Beside all that fireworks, etc. there is a unique
tradition too in Japan: eating mochi.
According to wikipedia, Mochi is
Japanese rice cake made of mochigome, a short-grain
japonica glutinous rice. About the history, some people say it comes from
Tiongkok, but other says that mochi comes from japan. But it is a fact that
mochi exist in japan since Heian periode (794-1885C) as a meal for the nobles
at new year. Varied mochies were used as offerings for the caisars at religious
ceremonies in the beginning of the 10th century. Based on historical records
from 1070C, rice cakes were called "Mochii" with dobble i and new in
the 18 century Mochi were written with just one i. The name "Mochi"
itself comes from the word "motsu" that means 'hold something'. It
means that mochi is given from the gods (in their opinion). Beside that, mochi
is been related to the word 'mochizuki' (full moon) and 'muchimi' (sticky).
Mochi in an Japanese animation
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Back there, before the samurais want to fight at a war to spirit them up people made them mochies. Because of it's size, mochi is easy to bring. And mochies gives stamina to the body too. But because nowadays samurai doesn't exist, Japanese men immortalize it to a tradition, mochitsuki, held every desember-january or at new year.
A little kid eating
mochi
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Presently, there are many kinds of mochies. From ice cream mochi until mochi soup with various flavor, like chocolate, green tea, strawberry, etc. Oh yeah, did you hear about 'Mochi Sukabumi'? People say that mochi came to Inonesia at the second world war by japanese armies. Mochi is known well-born in Sukabumi because the main military headquarters of japan was in Sukabumi. But like I said before, according to the other opinion, mochi came Indonesia from generation to generation by tionghoa people that settle mainly in Sukabumi. Wallahu A'lam hehe
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Mochi Ice Cream
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Mochi as soup
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And now, the Mochi recept:) (notes: it's not the traditional way, it's from http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Mochi)
Ingredients:
1 lb Mochiko (glutinous rice flour,
sometimes called sweet rice flour)
3 cups sugar
1 can coconut milk
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk
(preferred for thicker sweeter mochi)
1 1/2 cups of water
A few drops of food colouring
(preferably red)
Katakuriko (potato starch) (cornstarch
is also a substitute or variation)
Steps to make
1. Assemble the ingredients and items
needed to prepare the mochi.
2. Sift the Mochiko into a large bowl.
3. Add the cups of white sugar.
4. Add the unsweetened coconut milk. Do
not stir.
5. Add the cups of plain water and a
few drops of food colouring. Mix with a balloon whisk until the mixture is
lump free.
6. Preheat the oven to 450f .
7. Line the cake pans with aluminum
foil (bottom and sides), grease the foil with oil or spray.
8. Divide the batter into the three
cake pans. Cover the batter with more greased foil so that the foil is
touching the batter.
9. Bake for 1 hour on the middle shelf
of your oven.
10. Let cool for another hour, then
take off the top foil from one of the pans.
11. Dust a work surface with
katakuriko (potato starch) and invert the mochi onto the surface. Very slowly
and carefully peel off the other layer of foil, and be careful because
it will try to stick.
12. Cut off the crusts around the edge
of the mochi. As the cook's prerogative, you can snack on these while you
prepare the final product.
13. Cut the mochi into triangles or
squares.
14. Dust each mochi triangle or square
on the bottom, top and sides with katakuriko. Do this until all of the
mochi are dusted.
Sweet versions: Mochi can be gently
rolled in desiccated coconut, dusted in cocoa powder or dusted with Matcha
powder for eating as a sweet.
15. Serve. You should now have
the yummiest thing you have ever tasted in your life.
Mochi can be served in soup. In Japan,
mochi is served in a hot soup called ozonifor the New Year breakfast.
Mochi is great served with a little
soy sauce and wasabi.
If serving as a sweet, be sure to have
it with some Japanese green tea.
That's it ^-^. For traditional steps, you can see this (I copy pasted it fromhttp://simplymochi.com/2009/07/20/traditional-way-of-mochi-making-and-the-various-usages-for-it/):
First Step: Soak polished rice
overnight and then cook the rice until it is soft in texture.
Second Step: The cooked rice is
now pounded with a huge, heavy, wooden mallet (kine) in a traditional wooden
mortar (usu). Mochi rice is very sticky and gets hard fast so it
needs to be consistently wetted, pounded, and turned. Because this requires
a lot of physical power it is best to have two people taking turns pounding the
mochi rice with the heavy mallets. If you are ever in Japan, give it a
try! Not only is it great exercise, but you can say that you
were part of a very old japanese tradition.
Third Step: After the rice has
been pounded into a paste, it becomes a sticky mass which is now ready to
be molded into various shapes for many uses.
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Traditional way to make mochi
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And before I end my long story, you
must be very careful when eating this one. This year, 18 people in Japan were
been hospitalized and 9 died. So, don't be in hurry when eating mochi and don't
take too much at once. For more info, you can read here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/indonesia/majalah/2015/01/150105_majalahlain_kuemochi_jepang
I hope you enjoyed reading this, sorry if there were some wrong things. Thanks for reading:)
