← Nouns Cooking · Japanese

Ingredients

• 150 g glutinous (sweet) rice
• 170 ml Water
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 1 pinch red food colouring (a tiny drop)
• 120 g smooth sweet red bean paste (koshian)
• 8 Salt-pickled cherry blossom leaves
• 8 Salt-pickled cherry blossoms (optional)
• 1 tbsp sugar, mixed with 4 tbsp water, for your hands

Method

1. Rinse the rice until the water runs clear and soak it in the measured water for 1 hour. Soak the cherry leaves (and blossoms) in fresh water at the same time to remove some salt, then pat dry.
2. Mix the colouring with 2 tsp water and stir it into the rice soaking water until pale pink.
3. Cook the rice in a rice cooker, or bring to the boil in a lidded pan and cook on the lowest heat for 15 min, then rest for 10 min. Stir in the sugar while hot.
4. Pound or mash the rice with a wet pestle for 1–2 min until it is sticky but some grain shape remains. Leave until cool enough to handle.
5. Divide the bean paste into 8 balls. With hands dipped in the sugar water, flatten a portion of rice in your palm, put a bean ball in the middle and close the rice around it into an oval.
6. Wrap each in a cherry leaf, vein side out, and top with a blossom. Eat the same day; the leaf is edible.

Tips

• Look for salted sakura leaves and blossoms in Japanese grocers in spring, or online.
• Like all mochi, cut into small bites for children and older people.

Sources

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

Just One Cookbook Chopstick Chronicles