← Nouns Cooking · Japanese

Ingredients

• 200 g glutinous (sweet) rice
• 80 g Japanese short-grain rice
• 360 ml Water
• 1 pinch Salt
• 500 g sweet red bean paste (anko)
• 4 tbsp Kinako (roasted soybean flour)
• 1½ tbsp sugar, for the kinako
• 4 tbsp toasted black sesame seeds, ground
• 1½ tbsp sugar, for the sesame

Method

1. Rinse both rices together until the water runs fairly clear, then soak in the measured water for 1 hour.
2. Cook in a rice cooker, or bring to the boil in a lidded pan, then cook on the lowest heat for 13 min and rest off the heat for 10 min.
3. While hot, add the salt and pound the rice with a wet rolling pin or pestle for 2–3 min until about half the grains are crushed and it turns sticky. This is called hangoroshi, “half-killed”.
4. With wet hands, divide the rice into 12 balls. Mix the kinako with its sugar, and the ground sesame with its sugar, on separate plates.
5. For red bean ohagi, flatten a ball of anko on cling film, put a rice ball in the middle and wrap the anko around it. For coated ones, tuck a small spoonful of anko inside a rice ball, then roll it in kinako or sesame.
6. Serve the same day at room temperature.

Tips

• Do not refrigerate: the rice turns hard. Wrapped well, they keep for a day at cool room temperature.
• Contains soy (kinako) and sesame.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Just One Cookbook Chopstick Chronicles