Recipe: How to Cook Mochi

Many of the great flavours in life come with the warning: "It's a bit of an acquired taste". It took me several teenage years to get my taste buds around the dark mustiness of Parma ham, and it's only lately that I've come to tolerate and grudgingly enjoy those salty bursts of ikura (salmon roe).

My new -- and expensive -- habit of buying random unidentified foodstuffs from the Japanese supermarket, in the hope that Tsuji will shed some light when I get home, most recently landed me with a bag of 'glutinous rice cakes'; flat hard balls, each individually wrapped in plastic.

After staring for a while at the less-than-illuminating instructions, it was time to phone a friend. Ideally, a Japanese one.

"Um, I think I just accidentally bought some mochi. (Pause)  Yeah, I'm pretty sure they're mochi. 85% sure at least.  (Pause)  The round type.  (Pause)  Well, they have them at that place in the centre of town. Anyway, what I meant to do with these?"

Turns out there's many things you can do with savoury mochi, but one simple method is to cook them in the oven, wrap in nori, and dip in sweetened soy sauce.

"How long do I cook them for?" Unsatisfied with the (to my mind) wholly vague answer of 5-10 minutes, I went online in search of further guidance. One inspired forum thread suggested that: "If you take a big bite and you almost choke to death, then it's done." Helpful.

As you may have guessed, savoury mochi is something of an acquired taste. The toffee-stickiness of the unsweetened mochi, combined with the salty nori-and-soy-sauce accompaniment, is a truly perplexing experience. In the end I caved and switched to dipping in honey instead -- I just couldn't fight my brain's insistence that this was dessert.

Give me a few years. Then I'll be choking on my mochi with the best of them, just you wait and see.

How to Cook Mochi - Oven Method

Heat oven to medium temperature, say 180°C.

Place dried mochi on a baking tray, on a layer of baking/greaseproof paper.

Cook in oven for 5-10 minutes, until the mochi start to expand wildly -- it will look like some alien-being is trying to escape from inside (believe me, you'll see what I mean). At this point, remove from oven.

Wrap mochi in layer of nori seaweed (same type as used for rolling sushi), and dip in sweeten soy sauce (use a pan to heat and dissolve a few teaspoons of sugar in dark soy sauce).

Lastly, attempt to acquire a taste for savoury mochi.

Comments

[kate the bake]

I love savoury mochi for the texture but like you, haven't figured out how best to eat them. We tend to dry fry them till they are soft then snack on them dipped in furikake or ume plum seasoning with tamari. I have seen recipes where they are used in soups too but haven't tried that yet.
I have a recipe on my blog for making sweet mochi but I haven't yet tried making a savoury version.
I'm looking forward to seeing what else you come up with!
Thanks, Kate

[Nikki]

hi- i am Trying to find 'fresh mochi' to buy in London- (it's easy peasy in LA)- but can't find it ANYWHERE- especially Organic Mochi... i can only find dried stuff at Wholefoods... Please Help!
cheers much!!

[JenJen]

Hi Nikki - I've not seen fresh mochi in London, except perhaps the ones already sold with fillings, in the confectionary sections at some Japanese supermarkets. (See http://www.dashidashi.com/2009/12/where-to-buy-japanese-ingredients.html for link to some Japanese supermarkets in London.)

I asked a Japanese friend here too - she said she hasn't seen it around either, but what about trying to make it at home? =) If you have any luck (with the search, or making it yourself), do let me know!

JenJen

[Mika]

If you prefer sweet over salty but want to keep it traditional Japanese, you might try wetting & rolling them in sweetened kinako instead of the nori/soy sauce preparation.