[current blogging song: "Semiotic Love" by Blaqk Audio. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuJhSbwm1Es]
The Daifuku Experiment:
Everyone knows I'm something of a Japanophile, especially when it comes to food. It's true, I'm not ashamed. Ramen, Sushi, Donburi, Nabemono, Sake/Shochu, Robatayaki, etc. etc. I love it all! One thing I'm particularly fond of is a particular Japanese confection called Daifuku.
Literally, daifuku means "great luck." They are not only delicious, but also bring good luck!!
[Quick educational side note: 福 is the character for "luck." Everyone knows I love the restaurant Momofuku in NY. Can you guess what that stands for?]
Now daifuku is pretty simple, having only two basic components: mochi and filling. Part 1, mochi, is a "dough" made from glutinous rice flour. Part 2, the filling, can really be anything but classically involves anko(sweet red bean paste made from azuki beans). Now these components can be customized in a variety of ways. Common variations of Daifuku include everything from using green tea/strawberry flavored mochi, covering them with black sesame seeds, filling them with fruits, or freezing them (the two most popular varieties are Ichigo daifuku [strawberry filled daifuku] and Yukimi Daifuku [using mochi ice cream]).
Now getting your daifuku fix is pretty cheap and easy, as they are readily available in most Japanese supermarkets and cost about $1-2 dollars for an individual piece. However, if you don't have access to a Japanese market or live in an ethnically homogeneous place, getting your fix might be a little more challenging. Case in point, my time in Puerto Rico. Not to say there are no asians or asian markets in Puerto Rico; there are, albeit few, which charged upwards of $6-7 for daifuku. This was when I got the idea to make them myself.
So, in the midst of my cooking spree, I decided to make daifuku one night. The ingredients needed are few and pictured below: Mochiko (glutenous rice flour), sugar, water, and anko for the filling. I also picked up some katakuriko, or Japanese sweet potato starch (to help while handling the extremely sticky mochi). All the ingredients come out to about $7 and can yield about 12-15 daifuku, depending on how big you make them (so price checks out).
So making is very simple. Make the mochi by combining the Mochiko, water, sugar (you could add matcha here if you want green tea mochi) then heat it up, stretch it out and cover your filling with it.
So here's a few pictures of my first attempt. As you can see, I experimented with various filling types. I made a total of 8 daifuku using the following fillings: anko alone or anko plus either blueberries, mangoes, peanut butter, or toasted sesame seeds.
So here is a picture of my pathetic daifuku. The individual components tasted great. The mochi was sweet and the fillings were delicious, however they didn't translate into a beautiful end product. Here's where I think I went wrong. One, I added too much filling. Two, and probably most importantly, I used the microwave to heat the mochi. Now i researched the recipe and found that you could either microwave the mixture or steam it with a double-boiler setup. I took the easy way out and paid for it. The mochi was tasty, but it got hard very quickly and was not very malleable when it came time to wrap the fillings (as you can obviously illicit from the picture below).
So I had extra and took some to friends at work who were afraid to eat them! The ones who did, however, said they tasted ok. So, not a total failure but I had lots of room for improvement. Second Attempt: I recruit some Asian dexterity/small-carny-cabbage hands to help out with the next batch. This time, we (me and MDC) decide to focus on one filling and set out to make ichigo daifuku, or strawberry daifuku. This time, however, we decided to do the work (she tried one of my prior daifukus) and steam the mochi good and proper. So we did and they came out perfect!!
Lesson learned: always steam your mochi!! [Although, I still credit the perfection of these daifuku to MDC's carny hands. jajaja]
Wanna make some yourself. Here is a great video to help you out (uses steaming method):
[the channel is called "cooking with dog" and I highly recommend it. It's a good resource for a lot of Japanese recipes and it's actually very entertaining. Check it out and let me know what you think!]
Also, for those who are more curious about daifuku: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daifuku
Enojy!
P.S. (For Natalia, Mariel, Jonathan):
No comments:
Post a Comment