Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

Hello UYDers,

Last night my partner and her committee put on Festival of Lights, a celebration of winter holidays, for La Patera Elementary School. My family did a workshop on Japanese's New Year, which Cheryl (the Italian-Irish ) wrote. My favorite part was talking about mochi-tsuki. We have a video (http://shop.pbshawaii.org/catalog/produ ... ts_id=3461) of my uncle Paul's family who has been practicing mochi-tsuki for over 100 years now. When my parents lived in Hawaii we were able to participate a couple of times.

Here's a Youtube video of another Japanese Hawaiian family's tradition of mochi-tsuki. It very similar to my experience but my uncle's family uses two mallets at the same time (watch out for smashed fingers - timing is key).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q1eQmoT ... ef=profile

Peace, maka

Sharon's side of the family still makes mochi every year. They used to do it the traditional way, but bought a mochi-making machine about 14 years ago.

A friend makes mochi, so we get it fresh every year. Hannah's favorite is the brown rice mochi for its nutty flavor. They even make a few with "an" (sweet bean paste) in it.

Dear Readers,
My family makes mochi from steamed organically grown local sweet brown rice.
We grind it in a Hobart meat grinder.
Mugwort is my favorite.
I am currently working on my green tea mochi recipe.
Enjoy!
Best wishes to all!
go
ps we cook mochi in a waffle iron and serve with tamari and tahini or for breakfast, top with maple syrup .....

go wrote: ps we cook mochi in a waffle iron and serve with tamari and tahini or for breakfast, top with maple syrup .....

That sounds good! Yum!

Peace, maka

Stan Sakai wrote: A friend makes mochi, so we get it fresh every year. Hannah's favorite is the brown rice mochi for its nutty flavor. They even make a few with "an" (sweet bean paste) in it.

My mom used to make it once in a while when I was growing up. Now-a-days, on rare occasions pick up the omochi with the red beans inside. The following is something I copied from a blog I found:

"Mochi is a kind of gooey rice cake, which is eaten in many forms throughout the year. There are very soft sweet mochi cakes with red bean paste inside called Daifuku. We can also buy hard mochi in square shapes, called kirimochi. We heat kirimochi in a pan or grill over fire till it gets soft, then coat it with soy sauce, wrap it in nori and eat."

So, the daifuku has always been a fave, but, when I read the kirimochi description it brought back a flood of memories of what my mom made that tasted oh so good!!

Cool post, thanks for sharing everyone!