20171202 pounding mochi

Rice cake, mochi, is now usually only made for special celebrations such as New Year, but it used to be eaten year-round. To make rice cake, mochi, steam short-grain japonica glutinous rice, mochigome, and pound it while it's hot using a rice mortar, or usu, and a pestle, or kine. A mochi pounding machine kneads, rather than pounds, the rice, and while the finished product seems to be the same as mochi made with an usu and kine, it is actually very different. Mochi made with a machine becomes very soft, has no body, contains a lot of air bubbles and easily melts in soup.

Let's take a look at how to prepare mochi by pounding in the traditional way.

 

Preparation on the day before the rice cake pounding, or mochi-tsuki

 

1. Wash 1.4 kilograms of sticky rice and soak it in water.

2, Pour water into the wooden rice mortar and put the wooden pounder into a bucket filled with water to avoid the wood cracking and the rice getting into the wood cracks.

 

Mochi-tsuki introductionn

 

1, Steam the sticky rice 45 to 60 minutes using a strong heat until it reaches the correct softness.

2, Warm the usu and kine in hot water.

3, Throw away the hot water when the rice is steamed and put the rice in the usu.

 

Pounding mochi

 

1, With all your weight focused on the kine, pound the rice.

2, Hold the kine up to your waist and bring it down several times.

3, While pounding the rice, have someone shift it around to ensure evenness. That person should keep his or her hands wet to help keep the rice moist and prevent it sticking to the usu and kine.

4, Hold the kine high above your head and bring it down. The mochi should be turned immediately after each pound.

5, Pound until the texture becomes smooth.

Done