Mochi...heard of it?

Ok, so I need to be better about blogging.  I also need to be better about taking pictures when (ok, more like if) I bake/cook. Hmm, it’s the start (actually already the middle – holy cow how did that happen?!) of January so maybe it’s a year to actually make and keep some new year’s resolutions?  We will see…

But one fun thing I did recently was make mochi!  Have ya heard of it?  I really hadn’t until recently.  There is a place in midtown that is called mochi and it’s something you can put on your fro yo and that was the extent of my knowledge but that was all about to change.  Enter some of our wonderful Japanese-American volunteers at the museum.  For new years they make mochi the old fashioned way and they invited us along.  No machines, no shortcuts, nothing modern. 

Let me back up a lil bit for those of you that I lost at the first mochi.  Mochi is kind of like a Japanese dessert or treat.  You can stuff it with anything, drizzle anything on the little balls or even add ice cream.  It is basically steamed pounded flour formed into little balls but I don’t want to jump ahead of myself too much!

First the steamed 10 lbs. Of rice at a time (they did 70 lbs. in total that day!)  Then when the rice was soft enough (when pressed between your fingers you could no longer feel individual grains) then you but it in the giant granite bowl (brought over decades ago from Japan) to start pounding it into a dough for a lack of a better word.  Usually to the beat of a drum two people use 25 lbs. (read: heavy!) mallets to pound the rice mixture.  Water is sprinkled in to keep it from sticking and some brave person sticks their hand in every once in a while to turn the mixture.  This was kinda the man’s work but we did it too!

Now onto the inside (and warmer) lady’s tasks.  Here the dough like mixture is formed into smaller balls.  Some we filled with a sweet bean mixture and some we just made into balls.  Then the rest and kinda hardened up and then you can eat them! You can toast them, put soy sauce on them, eat them plain or my favorite: hot fudge sauce!

So fun learning a new culture’s tradition!