moon-viewing festival (more rabbit manju)

The Tsuki-mi (moon viewing) celebration is fast approaching, and while debating whether to bother making a pile of the traditional tsuki-mi dango (moon viewing dumplings), I came across these adorable rabbit-shaped steamed manju being promoted as an alternative treat for the occasion. In the Japanese mind, rabbits are closely associated with the moon, as it is not a man's face, but a rabbit pounding mochi that we see when we look up at the full moon on a clear autumn evening.


I know we covered rabbit confections aplenty in honor of the year of the rabbit, but the moon viewing festival is another thing entirely, and rabbit manju is a nice change from the simple, round (i.e. moon-shaped) mochi dumplings that are usually displayed (and eaten) on this occasion. I ordered the rabbit manju shown here from a wagashi confectionery called Piyonta in Kyoto. The box that arrived contained six manju, two each of three different flavors: "plain," "chocolate," and "green tea."

According to my trusty tongue (and the ingredients list printed on the box), the outer layer of these manju is made with wheat flour. The "plain" flavor has a creamy tan-colored outer shell and creamy tan-colored filling flecked with chopped chestnuts and red azuki beans. The "chocolate" flavor has a dark brown outer shell and a light-brown filling flecked with almonds and chocolate. The "green tea" flavor has a green outer shell and smooth green filling, each colored and flavored with powdered green tea (matcha). In each case, and regardless of the color, the filling is White bean An-based.

Further complexity of flavor and a gentle sweetness result from the addition of egg yolk, butter, and sweetened condensed milk, which gives it the familiar fragrance and flavor of Western-style cakes and cookies. I've noticed that sweetened condensed milk pops up more and more often in wagashi ingredients these days.

Someday I'll try to reproduce this wheat-flour manju and post a recipe, but not today. I lost most of the photos I took, and didn't realize it until the manju were eaten up and it was too late to take more photos. Sorry about that. By the way, these manju were delicious! : )

While you're here, check out the rice-flour based bunny manju and bunny mochi recipes too!

usagi manju (steamed dumpling)

These rabbit-shaped dumplings become especially popular in the Year of the Rabbit, such as this year. I made them with traditional tools and cooking methods. No food processors or microwave ovens appear in this post. I was never as fond of manju (which has the texture of steamed bread or cake), as I am of mochi-type confections, and haven't had much experience making them. But these turned out wonderfully moist and flavorful. So much so that I'm determined to devote more time to manju-making in the future.

Yama-imo (mountain yam) is a central ingredient in the best usagi manju recipes, but my experiments with the most commonly available mountain yam-- naga-imo-- failed because this yam is much too loose and watery for the purpose. I was finally able to get hold of a much denser mountain yam called Tsukune-imo. Tsukune-imo is often packed in sawdust to make it stay fresh longer, and has the shape of a fist. This yam is ground to a paste and combined with joshinko (non-glutinous rice flour) and sugar in a ribbed mortar called suribachi, using a wooden pestle called surikogi.

A common filling for usagi manju is shiro-an (white bean an), perhaps flavored with yuzu zest, or blended with mashed cooked egg yolk for a bright yellow color. But for today's filling, I used what I had on hand, and ended up with a combination of kinako (parched soybean flour) moistened and flavored with ume (usually referred to as Japanese plum, though it is really a kind of apricot) jam and umeboshi (salt-pickled ume). This oblique reference to plum blossoms seemed appropriate for this time of year, as they symbolize the beginning of spring.










Ingredients:
Tsukune-imo, cleaned and peeled.............90 grams
Joshinko ....................................................90 grams
Sugar..........................................................90 grams
Kinako .......................................................50 grams
Ume jam............................................50 ~ 80 grams
Large, soft umeboshi.................................1

Directions:
1. Peel the yam and grate 90 grams of it with a metal grater to give yourself a head start. Then place the grated yam in the ribbed mortar and grind it with the pestle until the yam is a smooth paste. Stirring vigorously with the pestle also helps to fold air into the yam.

2. Add sugar a little at a time and keep grinding and stirring with the pestle. You don't have to use all 50 grams of sugar if you prefer it less sweet.

3. Sift the joshinko and add it to the yam mixture a little at a time, mixing with the pestle until the dough is tender, but firm enough to hold a shape. This is hard work, as the yam gets stiffer and more glutinous the longer you stir it.

4. Divide the yam dough into 8 equal segments and make each segment into a ball. Set aside.

5. Place the kinako in a small mixing bowl. Using a spoon or spatula, mix in a little ume jam and chopped umeboshi (seed removed), adding more jam until the kinako mixture is moist enough to roll into balls that keep their shape. Make 8 balls and set aside.

6. With moistened hands, gently flatten a yam ball on one palm. Place a kinako ball in the center of this and wrap the yam dough around it. Using gentle finger pressure, shape the dumpling in the traditional rabbit shape, as explained in the usagi mochi post. Repeat procedure with the rest of the balls. Simple round manju are perfectly fine too.

7. Put some water to boil in the bottom level of a steamer pot. Place the uncooked manju on little squares of wax paper and place them on a rack above the boiling water so that no manju touches another manju or the boiling water itself. Cover the steamer and cook the manju over medium heat for fifteen minutes.

If, like me, you don't have a steamer, improvise with a regular pot and a metal vegetable steamer.

8. When the manju are done steaming, remove them from the heat and let them cool to room temperature. Add ears and face details with food dye as described in the usagi mochi post.

Note:You can also experiment with shaping the yam dough itself to look like each dumpling has ears and a tail. However, this tends to make the dough thinner in some places than others, and the manju may split in the thin places during steaming. The splitting of the manju (thus revealing the filling) is not a bad thing, and some round manju are made like this on purpose to give them character. But if you want your manju to look like a rabbit, it isn't helpful for the dough to split.