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Prep time
5 minutes -
Cook time
5 minutes -
Serves
1 X as many as you want
Author Notes
So simple and so easy, so delicious. Kinako is the nutritious ground powder of toasted soybeans. It is used in many Japanese sweets and in this dish from the New Year’s Holiday. Kinako is usually mixed with granular sugar but because I am not a fan of the powdery texture or the sugar grains in my mouth, I created this maple version last year. Packaged mochi is available all year round, but during the holidays there many mochi-pounding festivals and events. This dish is filling for a snack or light lunch, a simple dessert, or in place of pancakes for breakfast –anytime! —BoulderGalinTokyo
Ingredients
1
Mochi, rice cake (if frozen, defrost)
1+ tablespoons
Maple Syrup
1 tablespoon
Kinako, Soy Flour
Directions
- Put mochi in grill basket or grate over a very hot fire (my stove has an open gas flame). When one side gets brown and maybe puffy, turn over to grill the other side. Keep eyes on mochi because grilling doesn’t take long (depends upon mochi size). Bar-B-Q grill is fine too.
- Put directly on the serving plate. Don’t let two pieces touch each other, or will they will stick together.
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Kinako:
(This portion is for one rice cake, my family can eat 2 or 3 at a time, so you need to calculate how many mochi X how many people you are making the sauce for.)
Start with an even 1 to 1 proportion. Mix well. Let sit about 3 minutes. Taste. The Japanese palette will like this. - Add one teaspoon more of maple syrup, mix again. Let it sit. Taste again. The kinako will be absorbing the maple syrup. Add a little more maple syrup (I liked the sauce around a balance of 1 kinako to 1 1/2 maple syrup).
- Serve immediately. If it sits, the mochi will harden as it cools, and the sauce will also harden.
- (From Wikipedia) Mochi is a Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice (not to be confused with gluten) pounded into paste and molded into shape.
