sakura mochi

What better way to welcome the spring cherry blossom-viewing season than with cherry blossom-scented wagashi and a cup of fragrant, newly-harvested green tea (shin-cha)? Sakura-mochi is one of my absolute favorite wagashi of all time, and I was thrilled to discover it can be easily made at home. There are two main regional variations for sakura-mochi. My preferred version uses doumyouji-ko （道明寺子粉）, granules made from mochi rice that has been soaked in water, steamed, dried, and then coarsely ground. If doumyoujiko is not available at a market near you, it can be ordered online, or you may be able to persuade a wagashi shop to sell you some from their stock.



Ingredients for 8 confections:
Koshi-an (smooth red bean an).....160 grams/6.5 oz
Doumyouji-ko (mochi granules).....100 grams/3.5 oz
sugar.....1 Tablespoon, or more to taste.
very hot water.....150 cc/5 oz
red/pink food coloring, the barest pinch
cherry leaves preserved in salt.....8
cherry blossoms preserved in salt....8 (optional)





Directions:
1. Soak cherry leaves in cold water for 15 ~30 minutes to remove excess salt. Pat dry.

2. Divide the koshi-an into 8 equal lumps, and roll each into a ball. Set aside.

3. Put doumyouji-ko, sugar, and very hot water in a microwave-safe bowl. Stir it around, and add just a pinch of red food coloring so that the mixture turns a pale pink. Let this sit for 10 minutes.

4. Microwave the bowl with its contents for 2 minutes, uncovered. (My microwave oven only does 500 W, and is a bit on the weak side, so I nuked it 1/2 minute longer). Let this sit for 15 minutes.

5. Use a wooden spatula to stir the contents of the bowl, to bring out the stickiness of the mochi.

6. Moisten your hands and separate the mochi mixture into 8 equal lumps. (I moisten my hands from a bowl of slightly salty water. This adds just a hint of salt to the mochi to supplement whatever salt remains in the cherry leaves, and helps bring out the sweetness of the confection.) Gently flatten each lump into a circular patty.

7. Place a ball of an in the center of one of the mochi patties and gently stretch the patty so that it envelopes the an ball. Do this to all the mochi and an.

8. Place one of the an-wrapped mochi balls on a cherry leaf, on the half nearest to the pointy end, and bring the rounded end of the leaf over the top of the ball. Do this to all of the balls and leaves. Press gently to flatten the balls just a bit, to insure that the leaves adhere.

9. Let the sakura-mochi settle for a while before serving. The fragrance of the leaves will transfer to the mochi. The leaf is edible, but you may want to pull away the tough center vein in the middle of the leaf if you decide to eat it along with the mochi. (This is what I do).

Traditionally the mochi is wrapped so that the smooth side of the leaf (the side where the veins don't show prominently) is visible. The veiny side had a brighter green, so I tried it both ways; some with the smooth side facing out, and some with the bumpy side facing out.











Variations: You can decorate some of the mochi balls with cherry blossoms (gently rinse the salt off the blossom and blot dry) instead of wrapping them in leaves. Or try stirring minced cherry leaves into the mochi mixture before you microwave it, for another flavorful, un-wrapped version of sakura mochi. Garnish tops with cherry blossoms. The blossom is edible.

The leaves are where the cherry blossom fragrance is strongest. The blossoms are mainly for show. Click to see my recipe for Sakura Cheesecake.

plum blossoms (gyuuhi series)

Though in northern Japan we are still snowbound, and will be for at least three more months, we were comforted, along with all of Japan, when the TV weather girl announced last week that plum blossoms had begun to bloom somewhere down south. Plum blossoms are one of the official harbingers of Spring. Yes, it's that time of the year when any self-respecting, Japan-based foodie will insert something plum-related into the menu.

Today's recipe is for a plum blossom-shaped, plum-flavored confection made from gyuuhi, a mochi-like dough that is tender and easier to mold than mochi. The original recipe uses plain white bean an (shiro-an) as the filling, but I mixed preserved plums into the an. Half with chopped red pickled plums, and the other half with chopped sweetened green plums left over from making plum wine. Sometimes you can find these green plums at the bottom of a bottle of plum wine. Don't throw them out. Freeze them and use them for just such a recipe as this.

Ingredients (for 8 confections):

shiratama-ko (glutinous rice powder)...50 grams/1.6 oz
granulated sugar..................50 grams/1.6 oz
water.................................80 cc/ 1/3 cup

katakuriko (potato flour, may substitute corn starch).....1/2 cup or less
shiro-an (white bean an)....................160 grams/ 5.5 oz
soft umeboshi (red salt-pickled plums) and ao-ume (preserved green plums)...2 each
the yolk of a boiled egg, for decoration



Directions:

1. Finely chop the red and green plums, discarding the pits. Mix half of the an with the pickled plums, and the other half with the green plums. Divide each half into four equal portions (eight total) and roll them into balls.

2. Place the shiratama-ko, sugar, and water in a microwave-safe bowl. Stir with a whisk till any lumps are gone. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and cook in microwave at 500 watts for 3 minutes. When done, use a wooden spoon or spatula to stir the mixture thoroughly. This is the gyuuhi dough.

3. Dump the gyuuhi dough onto a surface sprinkled with katakuriko (or corn starch) and divide into 8 equal portions. Roll each portion into a ball, then flatten each gyuuhi ball and wrap it around one of the an balls.

4. Use the dull edge of a knife to press 5 lines from the outer edge of each ball to its center, to represent the petals of the plum blossom. The gyuuhi will bounce back, so press firmly.

5. When all eight balls look like plum blossoms, place a pinch of boiled egg yolk in each center.







notes: The red plum-an mixture was very soft due to the moisture in the umeboshi. It was hard to form it into balls. But the flavor balance of the sour umeboshi and the sweet shiro-an was fantastic. The green plum-an, on the other hand, had the interesting crunchy texture of green plums without much added moisture, so the an was easy to handle. I liked the flavor of the red plum-an filled confections best.

My conversions into ounces are always approximate. Please use metric if possible, and if not, check the conversions with your own reference books to make sure.