Red bean Mochi recipe

Mochi is one of my favourite desserts which is a Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice. One of the many Japanese confections such as daifuku, that is mochi stuffed with sweet fillings, like sweetened red bean paste, is very popular around the world. You can stuff any other sweet fillings you like in mochi. No wonder mochi is widely welcome by different people with different tastes.
Its sticky texture is a challenge to handle.

Makes 12

Ingredients

• 220 gm glutinous rice flour
• 110 gm sugar
• 200 ml coconut milk (or milk)
• desiccated coconut (or fried glutinous rice flour) to coat mochi

Red bean paste ingredients:

• 1/2 cup red beans
• 1 1/2 cup water
• rock sugar to taste

Method:

1. Combine glutinous rice flour with sugar well. Gradually stir in coconut milk (or milk) until smooth.
2. Transfer flour mixture in a greased shallow plate (see picture 1), steam over high heat with cover for 30 minutes, or until cooked through (see picture 2). Use a chop stick to test if it’s cooked. If not much flour mixture sticks to the chop stick, it’s done. Let cool down a bit until you don’t feel too hot to handle.
3. Transfer to a greased surface. Cut into 12 even small portions. Knead each into a small disc. Spoon red bean paste in the middle (see picture 3). Fold the edge to seal the mochi. Lightly roll it into a ball shape using both palms, then coat with desiccated coconut. The alternative way to coat mochi is to use cooked glutinous rice flour. Fry some extra glutinous rice flour on a non-stick frying-pan over medium-low heat without any oil. Let it cook for 3 minutes until aromatic. Don’t let it burn by all means. After the cooked flour cools down a bit, you can use it to coat mochi.

How to make red bean paste:

1. Rinse red beans and soak for 3 hours. Drain well. Add red beans in boiling water to cook over medium-low heat with cover until soften. The proportion of red beans and water I usually follow is 1:3, and cook over my electric ceramic stove. When all the water is vaporized, the red beans are cooked, resulting with very soft texture, yet sustaining the whole shape of red bean. I just love this kind of red bean paste, not too hard but not too soggy.
2. While half the water is gone, add rock sugar to taste. When it’s almost done, taste by yourself to adjust the sweetness of the red bean paste. Add some raw sugar to adjust the sweetness if needed.

Tips:

1. The plate you use to steam glutinous rice flour should be big and shallow. Spread flour mixture thin in it. Otherwise it takes forever to be cooked through.
2. Glutinous rice flour is pretty sticky in its own nature even when is cooked. If the flour is steamed for enough time, it’s all right even though it still sticks to your chopstick a bit. If you don’t taste any uncooked-flour flavour, it’s cooked and can use it to wrap fillings.