Content

• Ingredients
• To step
• Tips
• Warnings
• Necessities

Mochi is a type of Japanese rice cake. It takes a lot from your chewing muscles, it is very sweet and takes some effort to make, but making mochi is well worth the effort and indeed both an art form and a tradition. It is often referred to as "o-mochi," an honorable mention to indicate that this is considered a sacred food. Mochi is an indispensable part of the New Year celebration in Japan. Traditionally, mochi is made by steaming sticky rice and then pounding it in a very large mortar. Since this is next to impossible unless you have the right equipment at home, the recipe here provides an easier method using an oven.

Ingredients

You can buy all these ingredients in an Asian supermarket or regular supermarket:

• 1 pound (500g) mochiko (glutinous rice flour, sometimes called sweet rice flour)
• 3 cups of sugar
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 1/2 can sweetened condensed milk (preferably for thicker, sweeter mochi)
• 1 1/2 cups of water
• A few drops of food coloring (preferably red)
• Katakuriko (potato starch) (cornstarch can also be used as a substitute or variation)

To step

1. Serve. If all went well, you will now have the best food you have ever tasted.
   • Mochi can be used in soup. In Japan, mochi is served as New Year's breakfast in ozoni, a warm soup.
   • Mochi is great with a little soy sauce and wasabi.
   • If you have prepared this sweet, serve it with Japanese green tea.

Tips

• Mochi is very sticky, so don't forget to dust it with katakuriko (potato starch).
• This takes a lot of time, so take an entire afternoon to prepare it.
• Mochi making is a winter tradition in Japan; indeed it is a ritual. It is also an exercise in confidence, because in the ritual, the woman turns the sticky rice in a large wooden container and keeps it moist, while her husband crushes the rice with a large wooden mallet.
• If you can't find the ingredients, try to buy them online, but be careful with that.
• You can also make it into a kind of ball, which is quite a popular shape.

Warnings

• Be careful when touching the mochi. You can easily burn yourself.
• Mochi is chewy and sticky, so be careful about eating it and who you give it to. It is possible to choke while eating mochi because of its stickiness, so this is not suitable for everyone.

Necessities

• Round cake tins (20 cm)
• Whisk
• Oil
• Foil
• Come on