Showing posts with label What Is Mochi?. Show all posts
Showing posts with label What Is Mochi?. Show all posts

What Is Mochi?

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Mochi is one of my favourite things to eat. There are endless ways to prepare and flavour mochi - only limited by your imagination (and stomach). 

When heated, mochi melts and becomes like that of a thick piece of mozzarella cheese, in a way. Basically, it tastes like what it is made from, rice. Flavourings are often added, although it is fine to eat plain - especially if it is made from unpolished-rice (brown) which I find to be more flavourful than (white) polished rice.

Most companies, make mochi with polished-rice (white rice) in Japan. I just end-up using lots of sauce to compensate for the bland flavour. None-the-less, I eat what I can get and usually what I get is the now typical polished-rice mochi.&nbsp

In places like Canada and the U.S.A. locally made mochi is seen more as a "health" food. Thus, it is mostly found in health-food stores made with organic whole-rice-grain, but it is (in the polished non-organic variety) also in many Japanese and Asian markets. 

 Traditionally, mochi is made by steaming sticky rice (A.K.A. sweet rice, glutenous rice, mochi rice, sushi rice) then pounding it into a dough. Next, the dough is made into balls and set to cool into a flattened-ball shape. Different individuals, regions, and countries follow this same basic recipe, but different shapes, colours, and flavours vary. It can be eaten immediately, or allowed to dry, or even frozen. Historically, it is said to have become popular, in its dried form, for its portability. 

*For more information about mochi see the "Mochi Facts" post below

*More information on polished verses unpolished rice, see this page: Polished Vs. Unpolished Rice.

*More information on the history of rice, see this page: The Cambridge World History of Food - Rice.

*More information on the history of food in Japan, see this page: The Cambridge World History of Food - Japan.


Image is in public domain
Woodblock print, Preparations for New Year's Day (Pounding Mochi)
Date: 1834/1867

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