Originally Posted by
freecia
AlwaysAisle Thanks for the photos! I bought a bag of kiri mochi earlier this year and thought the scoring lines were to break up the pieces. I see they also serve as puffing up lines. We've been making it Chinese "nian gao" style sometimes by frying in a pan, sometimes dredged in egg first.
I admit to staring at mochi machines once or twice this year on Amazon & Amazon JP. They seem rated for 100V and don't really do export models? I tend to get a hankering for senbei and daifuku but it's not exactly something I should eat often (sedentary life vs extra carbs) and I'm not sure if mochi machines do regular rice for senbei (vs sweet mochi gome). I don't have a stand mixer or bread machine, either, and would probably be more tempted to make mochi than bread. Maybe I could start with an inexpensive bread maker, steam rice first and hand pound with a rolling pin mortar & pestle style to break up the larger grains before transferring to a bread maker? I wonder if there's a similar Korean ttoboki or Chinese nian gao machine to work a rice based dough instead of rice flour or if home bakers always go with rice flour these days?
The other potential option, which I have yet to try as I have an Ankarsrum Assistent Stand mixer which does a splendid job (
and a commitment to reduce my carb intake!) is to use a meat grinder - perhaps without the blades.
We have had such a relaxed, stress free Christmas, that I have not pushed myself into doing even a little more than I had to this year. I still had one of those dried mochi squares
AlwaysAisle used left to slice and toast and drop into Ozoni (a New Year Soup) but never got round to making Ozoni as we instead had Toshi Koshi Soba - and also shared the traditional Spanish dozen grapes on a FaceTime call with my parents. Since we haven’t been visiting our Japanese friends in London (or anyone at all this year), there just wasn’t the motivation to get the sticky rice and then mochify it.
The best “lo-fi” suggestion I can make that requires the minimum of equipment is to take a “boil-in-the-bag” approach. Take a small quantity of cooked mochi rice and pack it loosely into a shallow rectangle which you wind round and cover thoroughly in sturdy Saran Wrap. Put it in when it’s piping hot, place it on a warmed surface and pound/press it firmly with a rolling pin. Assuming it doesn’t turn to mochi before it cools on the first go, put the package into a saucepan of lightly simmering water to warm it up again before retrieving it and pounding/pressing some more. Repeat as necessary, but keep the rice hot as you pound it. (Have no idea if a microwave would be better as I don’t own one)
If you do decide to pound/grind sticky rice into mochi, the key is to make the bowl/utensils as hot as possible for as long as possible and work quickly. Have plenty of boiling water to hand before you start. And you’ll need hot water afterwards to clear the mess, thankfully a long soak will do most of the work for you.
Mochi or no mochi, Akemashite Omedetou everybody!