New Year's Day Mochi

Song:  Never Ending Story

Movie Soundtrack

Mochi is a pounded sweet rice formed into cakes...

and is a standard treat in Japan...

especially during holidays.

There are various mochi making machines 

readily available through Amazon.

All you have to do is buy 'Sweet Rice' from any Asian market...

and soak it for 10 or so hours.

You then fully drain the rice in a colander.

This unit is a Panasonic.

You will also need some Sweet Rice Flour

(or regular flour will do).

Simply cover a non-stick baking pan with it.

This is to prepare the mochi forming pan.

BEFORE you do ANYTHING with the machine...

you MUST pour in the requisite amount of water

into the steam making container.

Then...

put in the cooking vessel...

and then the impeller.

Pour the strained rice to the appropriate quantity line.

Simply set the machine to Mochi (regular)...press start...

and in less than 1/2 hour...

the rice will be steamed.

The lid automatically pops open...

and the impeller begins its magic.

You will then see the rice forming into mochi 

as it is spun around and around.

When the machine stops

(this process take about 15 minutes...

for a grand total of about 45 minutes from start to stop).

You then simply pour out the mochi onto the preparation pan

(be sure to remove the impeller from the mixture).

This mixture came out like a roly-poly scarf wearing canine snowman with duck wings  :)

For our first of five batches...

we had eaten much of it.

We like to eat mochi which had been dipped in sugar sweetened soy sauce.

Fresh hot mochi is the best.

We will freeze the rest...

and then have baked mochi...

or seafood mochi soup...

for a long time to come.

My mother likes wrapping bites of mochi in hot and spicy seaweed.

I tried it...

and it was also very good.

For the remainder of the mochi cakes...

I wrapped them in plastic wrap...

and stored them into freezer containers

(I know...my cakes look terrible.

When I make mochi at home...

my wife calls my mochi...

Monster Mochi.

They are, however, delicious :)

This was the last of the three pound hot mochi blobs from the mochi machine.

I quickly formed them into cakes...

individually coated them with the rice flour...

and then packed them for the freezer.

We are going to enjoy this mochi for a long time.

It is very easy to make more mochi year round.

There is hardly a dish more satisfying on a cold Winter's day...

than a hearty bowl of seafood mochi soup.