mugi-kogashi

Last week, while rummaging through the shelves of a wholesaler that caters to owners of small restaurants and izakaya (drinking establishments that also serve meals), I discovered a packet of brown powder that I had never noticed before. The name of the product was Mugi-Kousen. It turns out that mugi-kousen goes by other names depending on the region of Japan. In some regions it is known as hattaiko, and in others mugi-kogashi. They all refer to pulverized roasted barley. A little googling made it clear that this product, which I will call mugi-kogashi (literally "parched barley"), can substitute for kinako (soybean flour) in many recipes, such as the one in the kinako nejiri post. It can also be mixed with cold water for a summertime drink, or with an equivalent amount of sugar for coating mochi. It has a wonderful fragrance, and a rich roasted grain flavor when used in wagashi.

I decided to make a sweet paste out of it-- an alternative to red bean an-- and serve it with dango (rice flour dumplings). The recipe for dumplings is basically the same one I used for shiratama an'mitsu

ingredients:
silken tofu, 400 gr/14 oz
shiratama-ko (glutenous rice flour), 200 gr/7 oz
mugi-kogashi (parched barley flour), approx. 100 gr/3.5 oz
granulated sugar, approx. 100 gr/3.5 oz (adjust for desired sweetness)

Place drained tofu in medium-sized bowl with shiratama flour, and knead together with your fingers till well-blended and soft, but firm. In Japan, the right consistency for dumplings is often described as "the firmness of your earlobes." Keep some shiratama flour in reserve, and add it little by little till you get the right consistency.

Take spoonfuls of the dough and roll them into balls 1 ~ 1&1/2 inch in diameter. Place the balls in a pot of boiling water. Wait a minute or so after the balls rise to the surface, before scooping them out and transferring them to a bowl of very cold or iced water.

Put the roasted barley flour and sugar in a medium-sized bowl. Blend them together with a fork or your fingers. Moisten the dry ingredients by slowly adding water and stirring with a fork or spoon. You want it to become a paste that is stiff enough to allow you to shape it with your hands.

Take a lump of mugi-kogashi paste and flatten it out a bit on the palm of your hand. Place a shiratama ball in the center of the paste, and gently press on the paste till it encloses the ball. Do this till all the balls and paste are used up. Just before serving, you may want to decorate the balls with a sprinkling of crystallized sugar. Any extra shiratama balls or mugi-kogashi paste can be frozen for future use.

Variations: (1) thread some of the shiratama balls on a bamboo skewer or toothpick and spread a bit of the mugi-kogashi paste over the top. (2) Grill some blocks of mochi till they are crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside, and serve mugi-kogashi paste. (3) Follow basic directions for ichigo daifuku, leaving out the strawberry and using the mugi-kogashi paste instead of the red bean an.

For step by step photos click here.

kinako nejiri

After a class trip to Kyoto in my last year of high school, I developed a craving for suhama dango, the small, very sweet, colorful balls skewered three to a toothpick, packed in gift boxes, and sold at the Kyoto train station for tourists to take back home. I didn't know what they were made of, and this became a problem for me years later when I was in the US, dreadfully homesick for the flavors of home. A childhood friend asked me if she could send me something from Japan, and I described those balls the best I could. But she lived nowhere near Kyoto, and what arrived from her a month later didn't look anything like the colorful balls I had been craving. They were dull-colored flat strips of some kind of dried dough, twisted like a ribbon. When I ate it, though, it had the same taste and texture I remembered. This was how I discovered Kinako Nejiri. I checked the listed ingredients, and there were only two: Mizu-ame (rice syrup) and kinako (soybean flour). I realized then, that the colorful balls were essentially the same thing, just rolled into balls rather than rolled out and cut into strips.

ingredients for 4 servings:
Mizu-ame (rice syrup), 4 Tablespoons
Kinako (soybean flour), 60 grams (3/4 cup) and more for dusting

Place the syrup (it has an odd consistency somewhere between a liquid and a solid) in a heatproof dish, and soften it by heating it in the microwave for one minute. Stir half of the soybean flour into the syrup with a wooden spoon or spatula. When that is mixed in well, add the rest of the soybean flour little by little till the dough becomes stiff enough to roll out on a soyflour-dusted board with a rolling pin to about a quarter-inch in thickness. Add more flour if necessary to get the right stiffness. Cut into rectangles (3/4 inch x 1&1/4 inch), then twist gently like a ribbon. Coat the ribbons with some more soybean flour and store in an airtight container in a cool place.

There is green kinako and yellowish kinako, depending on whether it was made from green soybeans or yellow soybeans. I mixed up two batches of dough, one with the green powder, and one with the yellow. I made the ribbons with part of the dough, and balls with the rest. I also rolled some of the balls in black sesame seed for variety. If you won't be eating it up within a few days, freeze it. If you want it sweeter, roll the balls in granulated sugar, and/or add some sugar to the dough. The stuff they sell at the Kyoto station is much sweeter than my version, and they obviously use food coloring for the bright colors. I have tried this recipe using honey in place of the rice syrup, but I felt the honey taste was too pronounced.

Other variations could include adding cocoa powder or ground sesame to the soybean flour, and coating the strips or balls with colored sugar crystals. I rolled my kinako dough a little too thin, as the photo shows, and must try to make it thicker next time. Refrigeration helps stiffen it, and so will leaving it out to air for a while. But beware letting it go uncovered for too long. For more photos of this recipe, click here.

shiratama an'mitsu

This is a nostalgia-inducing, cool, and colorful summer dessert, greatly loved over the generations. An'mitsu is basically a scoop of sweet bean paste with colorful (often canned) fruit, syrup, and sometimes cubes of kanten (gelatin made from agar-agar). Shiratama are small round dumplings made from shiratama-ko (glutenous rice flour). Together it becomes Shiratama An'mitsu, and it can be upgraded even further with the addition of a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Although the shiratama dumplings can be made from just water and glutenous rice flour, I prefer this recipe using tofu instead of water. It gives the dumplings greater depth of flavor and helps prevent hardening when chilled in the refrigerator.

basic ingredients for four servings (amounts are approximate)
silken tofu (kinugoshi), 200 grams (7 oz)
shiratama flour (shiratama-ko), 120 grams (4 oz)
can of fruit, syrup reserved.
sweet bean paste (an), 200 grams (7 oz)

If the tofu is sold loosely packed in water, drain the water and rinse the tofu gently. Place the tofu in a medium-sized bowl with the shiratama flour, and knead it together till well-blended and soft, but firm. In Japan, the right consistency for dumplings is often described as "the firmness of your earlobes." Keep some shiratama flour in reserve, and add it little by little till you get the right consistency.

Take spoonfuls of the dough and, using your fingers, roll them into one-inch balls. Flattening them a little will help them cook through faster. Place the balls in a pot of boiling water. Wait for 1~2 minutes after the balls rise to the surface before scooping them out and transferring them to a bowl of very cold water. When the balls have chilled, place several in a cool-looking glass dish. Top the dumplings with a scoop of sweet bean paste, and scatter fruit decoratively around everything. Spoon the reserved syrup over all. If you want, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream to the dish.

Variations: Add various things to the shiratama dough for both flavor and color. (1) For the version pictured above, I divided the dough, added crushed red perilla (shiso) leaves to one half, and powdered mugwort (yomogi) to the other half. This resulted in half pinkish shiso-flavored dumplings, and half green yomogi-flavored dumplings. (2) Add powdered green tea (matcha) to the dough for a different version of green-colored dumplings. (3) You can play with the syrup ingredients too. Kuromitsu, a dark syrup similar to molasses, can replace the syrup from the canned fruit. To see a version of shiratama an'mitsu that I made during cherry-blossom season, click here.