Mochi Pounding

On Sunday, Ben and I made mochi.

Mochi is delicious, it’s a sort of sweet sticky mass thatgoes well with dozens of toppings/fillings. My favorite mochi is topped withmiso paste and Nori, Ben’s favorite is kinako a sweet powder made from soybean flour.

For anyone who has not had mochi before, it has the consistencyof uncooked bread dough, and is slightly sweet, though otherwise mostlyflavorless.

We made mochi the old fashioned way. The glutinous stickyrice (mochi rice) was steamed, and then added to a hollowed out stump (mortar).We took a giant hammer (pestal), and smashed up the rice the rice quicklybecame crushed, and started to form a homogonous mass. One person would hammerthe mochi, another would fold the mass in a neading fashion.

Food tastes better when you’ve made it yourself, and ittastes way better when cooking it involves using a giant hammer.

Check out this website if you are interested in making your own mochi.

Mochi Making Recipe