How can I make mochi abroad?
If we translate mochi in English, it is a “rice cake. ” Mochi is a traditional Japanese snack which is made by sticky rice. We mostly eat them during New Year’s holiday, as mochi can be kept for some days after being cooked and dried. However, nothing can beat freshly-made mochi. It is chewy, yet soft and full of taste. It goes perfectly well with sweet red beans paste as well as savory, such as with soy sauce or in a soup.
You can probably find dried mochi in a package at an Asian/Japanese supermarket. But again, they are so expensive! In addition, there are some ways to cook mochi with sticky rice or special powder like Joshin-ko or Shiratama-ko (rice flour). Asian markets near you have them too for sure.
Is it true we can make mochi from potatoes?
When I was studying in England, one of Japanese friends cooked mochi made by potatoes, called imo (potato)-mochi. I was impressed by them, and I still can’t forget the taste of them after a couple of decates. The texture was exactly as mochi, and it went very well with soy sauce and nori.
I sometimes cooked Japanese meal to my friends in the UK. More details:
An easy recipe to make imo-mochi at home
Ingredients (for 5 to 6 pieces of imo-mochi like the headline picture)
- Potatoes: 200 – 220g
- Potato starch: 1 table spoon
- Olive/sesame oil: 2 table spoons
- Nori: to taste
- Soy sauce: to taste
Steps
- Peel the potato skin and chop it into small pieces (approx. 2cm dices)
- Put the cut potatoes in a small pot. Pour water as much as it covers the pieces of potato
- Heat the pot on a stove and boil the potato for about 15 minutes until a (chop) stick can easily go through it
- Drain the water and put the pot on a stove again. Vapor the water out of the pot until the potato has been dried
- Remove the pot from the stove and mash the potato until it gets completely smooth
- Leave the potato and wait until there is no heat
- Put potato starch into the pot and mix it with the mashed potato
- Form 6x small flat round cakes
- Heat the pan on a stove and put oil into it
- Fry the mochi cakes both sides until each surface gets brown
- Take out the mochi out from the pan and put a cut nori on top
- Put some soy sauce to taste