[Poppy]

Okay - so what's up with mochi? I bought some based on the Asian grocery thread, and baked it tonight. There were very few directions - basically cut into cubes and bake. So we had it with chutney and jelly...? What do you do with mochi? <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/help.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title=":help:"><br><br><br><br>
And how do you know if it's done? Ours was kind of stiff and sticky all at the same time.

 

[Katt Fink]

All I know is that those yummy little Chinese sesame seed balls are made with mochi and I just ordered some! I've been meaning to pick up some mochi so I can try and make my own <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/lick.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title=":lick:">

 

[Tesseract]

First, can someone explain what the heck mochi IS???

 

[rainbow_clouds]

mocchi is a Japanese rice ball. I've been wanting to try it FOREVER!<br><br><br><br>
Uses:<br><br>
Confectionery<br><br><br><br>
Many types of traditional wagashi (Japanese traditional sweets) are made with mochi. For example, daifuku is a soft round mochi stuffed with sweet filling, for example a sweetened red bean paste. Ichigo daifuku is a version containing a whole strawberry inside.<br><br><br><br>
Kusa mochi is a green variety of mochi flavored with yomogi (mugwort). When daifuku is made with kusa mochi, it is called yomogi daifuku.<br><br><br><br>
Mochi ice cream, is small balls of ice cream wrapped inside a mochi covering. In Japan this is manufactured by Lotte under the name Yukimi Daifuku, "snow-viewing daifuku". It is also popular in California and Hawaii.<br><br><br><br>
Grilled and fried mochi<br><br><br><br>
* Yakimochi is a grilled rice cake. After the rice cake is grilled, it is flavored with soy sauce and wrapped in toasted nori. Mochi and cheese is a version containing cheese, a popular izakaya fare.<br><br>
* Agemochi are deep-fried fragments of mochi. The mochi puffs up like a rice cracker.<br><br>
* Kakemochi or arare are small snacks made from mochi.<br><br><br><br><br><br>
Soup<br><br><br><br>
* Oshiruko or ozenzai is a sweet azuki bean soup with pieces of mochi. In winter, Japanese people often eat it to warm themselves.<br><br>
* Chikara udon (meaning "power udon") is a dish consisting of udon noodles in soup topped with toasted mochi.<br><br><br><br>
New Year specialties<br><br><br><br>
* Kagami mochi is a New Year decoration, which is traditionally broken and eaten in a ritual called Kagami biraki (mirror opening).<br><br>
* Zoni soup is a soup containing rice cakes. Zoni is also eaten on New Year's Day. In addition to mochi, zoni contains vegetables like honeywort, carrot, and red and white colored boiled kamaboko.<br><br><br><br><br><br>
Other<br><br><br><br>
* Warabimochi is not true mochi, but a jelly-like confection made from bracken starch and covered or dipped in kinako (sweet toasted soybean flour). It is popular in the summertime, and often sold from trucks, not unlike ice cream trucks in Western countries.

 

[Morrigann]

Mmmmmmmmm.... *licks lips*<br><br><br><br>
I love mochi!!<br><br><br><br>
Yummy stuff, and very necessary for anyone's diet who is remotely interested in Japanese culture (i.e. how I was first introduced to it).<br><br><br><br>
If you have an Asian market nearby, you must experience the godliness that is mochi!

 

[Poppy]

We cut ours into cubes and baked them. They puffed up and oozed out, and were really strange looking - bloblike. Not much taste, but good all the same.<br><br><br><br>
Perhaps I need to try mochi that has been prepared by someone who knows what s/he is doing!!!

 

[hullmikita]

If you want mochi for dessert add cinnimon and a sweetener such as honey or maple syrup or stevia.<br><br>
If you want it as a staple with a meal add spices such as curry, or garlic.

 

[4EverGrounded]

Everytime I go to the Asian market, I pick up a sweet mochi to eat on the way back home. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/lick.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title=":lick:"><br><br><br><br>
The last one I bought (I think daifuku?) was white and had sweet bean paste in the middle with whole beans throughout the mochi itself. Yummy stuff, that. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/hungry.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title=":hungry:">

 

[surya]

We have ours broiled, when they turn crisp and puffy, and then spread with either miso (in which case broil again) or spread with an eggplant dip. There is a recipe in my japanese vegetarian cookbook: I'll look it up and post tonight.

 

[Tea Mirrors]

I've had mochi ice cream...fantastic!

 

[HandcuffedAngel]

I got mochi at our Japanese buffet and man, that stuff is delicious! They put a little peanut butter in the middle of it.<br><br><br><br>
Yum!

 

[raw jess]

Oh Mochi, you're so fine. You're so fine, you blow my mind. Hey mochi! <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/carrot.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title=":vebo:"><img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/broccoli.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title=":bobo:"><img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/pibo.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="ibo:">

 

[hippymama]

Um, YUCK. I don't think I've had Mochi cooked. I had it a couple of times in Japan, and <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/spew.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title=":spew:"> Nasty stuff.

 

[natto freak]

you can bake it or grill it until it puffs up soft and golden, almost marshmallow like. you can dip it in some soy sauce with a bit of sugar. or sugar and kinako powder ( a soy powder) . It `s made from glutinous rice that has been cooked and while still hot pounded into a " paste" or " mass". If you eat it freshly made, it is stil soft and warm and YUMMY... after it has dried, it needs to be softened somehow. You can also put it in soup.....<br><br><br><br>
each year during the new year holidays in Japan, a few young children and older people die from choking on bits of mochi that get stuck in their throats and there is almost no way to remove it.

 

[WonderRandy]

that stuff that comes in the flat package that you bake is a weird variant of mochi, and is not representative of the real thing.<br><br><br><br>
the real stuff is sweet, chewy, almost sticky, and smooth textured. It's usually made into little confections, and colored pink or green. there may or may not be bean paste inside. There's a local confectionary here that does the mochi covered strawberries, and they are yummy!

 

[Poppy]

I got the weird variant!!!

 

[hippymama]

It was big at the fertility festival in Nagoya and at new yr everyone gathers at the mochi shop to grind rice together. It's icky. to me it tastes like living skin.

 

[funwithyourfood]

Frozen mochi with fruit mixed or ice cream in the center is GREAT!<br><br><img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/smiley.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="">