Making Mochi

Mochi is a Mystery.

Mysterious Mochi.

The Mystery of Mochi lies not in how it is made or what ingredients can be found in it, or even how it is eaten.

The mystery is simply WHY.

Mochi is one of the weirdest foods, and it's not even the dried fins of a fish, or fish flakes to garnish a meal, or fish eggs, or even bird talons, which are all weird Japanese food items we have seen in stores and restaurants.

Mochi is rice. Its very simple.

There is a special type of rice, called Mochi rice. The grains are smaller than regular rice. That's the only difference I can see. There must be more to it, because this rice you do not eat the same way as we eat any other rice.

Yes, the beginning starts and looks the same. Rinse the rice (mochi rice) in water...probably a billion times....before boiling it over a stove or fire or whatever you use. But, soon after boiling, you realize there is more to it...

Step 1: Make sure you use Mochi Rice.


Step 2: Rinse the rice with water as often as you can and prepare for boiling.

Step 2a: Wrap in some sort of towel for boiling (I believe to make handling after the boiling easier).Step 3: Boil. (I am really not sure for how long....it probably depends on whether you have the luxury of having the next step or not.
Step 4: Use the towel to easily transfer boiling hot mochi rice into an electric mochi maker. (I am pretty sure they did not have these in the earlier days and just had to boil the mochi for a longer period of time and go straight from bowling to pounding.....pounding probably lasted longer without the machine....in fact, the pounding might not be necessary at all with these machines).

Step 5: Whether we needed pounding or not...we got to do it! My students just loved this part!

Step 5a: My Kyoto Sensei (vice principle) helped get the mochi out of the mochi machines and into the mochi pounding pit!

It's pretty sticky, but just use water to unstick.

Rice and water; that's all this is.

Step 5b: Then you can start pounding! So....pick up your wooden hammer and pound and pound.....

....and pound....

......and pound.....

.....and keep pounding until everyone gets a turn!

Watch some old Japanese men pounding the mochi like it was their childhood pastime:

Step 6: Dress the mochi to your liking with whatever food or sauce you want to eat it it with.

These lovely ladies made mochi balls and rolled them in soy sauce: Sjoyu Mochi.

And these marvelous women made Mochi balls and rolled them in sweet soybean powder to create Kinako Mochi.

All finished!!!
Step 7: Eat and Enjoy this mushy sticky rice.

Really it's not bad....it just has the weirdest texture and it doesn't have much of a flavor. Any flavor you try to mix with it, doesn't seem to mix, it just sticks to the outside. BUT it provides for easy dishes, because it sticks to itself so much it doesn't really stick to your bowl!

So, who's up for a bit of MOCHI???