Dec 31

Dec 31 Homemade Mochi with Kinako

One of my favorite Japanese New Year’s traditions.

The backstory

I had the honor and privilege to share one of my favorite family traditions with my Target work fam and all of you - mochi pounding! Watch and learn how we celebrate and get the recipe below.

The recipe

Homemade Mochi with Kinako
Makes 8-10
Time: 1-2 hours, depending on your mochi pounding pace 🤣

Note: This is not how a mortar and pestle are intended to be used. You may blemish or damage them in the pounding process.

Ingredients:
2 cup short grain sweet rice (I picked up Koda Farms sho-chiku-bai rice from a local Asian market.)
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup kinako
2 tbsp granulated sugar
Water
Salt
Potato starch

Instructions:
Rinse the rice so that the water is more or less clear. You just don’t want it murky.

Cook the rice in a rice cooker to avoid needing to soak it before steaming. If you don’t have a rice cooker, follow the stove-top instructions on the bag of rice. But really, get a rice cooker 🤗

Pounding the mochi:
Fill your mortar with hot water and let it sit for 5 minutes. This is to prevent it from cooling your rice when you first begin to pound.

Dust a baking sheet with potato starch and set aside.

Fill a bowl with hot water. You’ll use this to wet your rice paddle and pestle throughout the process to prevent rice from sticking to them.

Dump out the hot water from your mortar. Scoop 1/3 cup of rice into your mortar. No need to be exact. You just don’t want the mortar to be too full. Otherwise, it will be more difficult to get the ideal smooth texture in your mochi.

Dip your pestle in the hot water and begin to pound, striking the rice in the center of the mortar. You’ll want to use more force than you think.

Continue to pound. As the rice sticks to the pestle, use your hands, the rice paddle or a spatula to scrape it off and return it to the mortar. As the pounded rice spreads to the edges of your mortar, fold it back toward the center as if you were kneading dough.

Once you can no longer see the individual rice grains, pinch some of the mochi and see if there is a grainy texture. If there is, keep pounding. If not, remove the mochi from the mortar and put it on the baking sheet dusted with potato starch. It will be sticky!

Repeat with the rest of the cooked rice.

Begin to shape your individual mochi. With both hands covered in potato starch, take one of the mochi masses and pull it apart in half. With the palms of your hands and fingers, shape it in a ball until smooth. Flatten the ball slightly so that it is more of a chubby disk. Return it to the baking sheet.

Repeat with the remainder of the mochi.

Serving with kinako:
Melt enough butter to coat a medium-sized pan on medium heat.

Once hot, place 4 mochi and fry until the bottom takes on a golden crisp, 2 minutes. Flip and fry the other side.

Repeat with the rest of your mochi, using more butter as needed.

In a bowl, combine the kinako, sugar and a pinch of salt. Place the cooked mochi in the bowl and toss until the mochi is covered. Remove mochi and repeat with the other pieces.

Once plated, top off with what’s left of the kinako so you have more powder to pair with each bite of mochi.

Itadakimasu!