Wagashi: Ichigo Daifuku

I love traditional Japanese sweets, called Wagashi, like daifuku mochi and mitarashi dango. Even as a little kid, I would eat the usually anko filled treats (it originally took some coaxing to convince me that anko wouldn't taste like El Pollo Loco pinto beans). Following is a story of mochi and I, as well as a recipe for ichigo daifuku:








One of my earliest memories I can recall involving my hapa upbringing happens to involve daifuku mochi. When I was around kindergarten age, I brought some over to my next door neighbor, a first generation Korean girl. Her mother asked me what they were called in English (she was learning English) and I said proudly,

"Rice Cakes!"

Bamboo steamer on top of a pot

Later that week, we had as a snack some American rice cakes, and she asked me what they were called in English...

"Rice Cakes!"

She then teased me that apparently everything was called "rice cakes" because somehow both the soft squishy sweet daifuku mochi and the crispy dry salty rice cakes were both the same words. I admitted that it stumped me too, why they were both called rice cakes.

Let the steamed mochi cool!

I marched right next door and accosted my Japanese American grandmother,

"Grandma, why are rice cakes and rice cakes both rice cakes?" (Obviously a career in oration was imminent from my eloquent ways)

Once my grandmother was able to glean what the hell I meant, she explained how the daifuku mochi was a rice cake in Japan and that a rice cake was more of a rice crackerbreadthing in America, and that we ate the mochi because we were originally from Japan. She then told me that the real word for the squishy rice cake was "mochi."

"Mochi! Moooooochi! Momomochi!"

Strawberries wrapped in anko

"Okay, Miss Mochi, be quiet."

Since then, not only have I managed to not yell cool words aloud* but also make my own from scratch wagashi: Ichigo daifuku mochi. Ichigo daifuku mochi is mochi that has been wrapped around sweet azuki bean paste (anko) and fresh strawberries.  *except "Smegma!" at work. It's like smutty magma!

Ichigo Daifuku

bean paste in a can

2 cups mochiko
1 cup sugar
2 cups hot water
1 can anko/tsubushian/Koshian (azuki bean paste)
katakuriko (potato starch)
1 dozen fresh washed strawberries

First, mix mochiko and sugar together, then slowly mix in the water until you have a dough free from lumps. Steam dough on a dishtowel or cheesecloth lined steamer for 30 minutes. While the mochi is steaming, cut the tops off the strawberries and take approx a golfball sized amount of anko and flatten around the strawberry. After you have coated all the strawberries, I like to put it in the fridge. Once the mochi is done, invert the cloth over a pan dusted with katakuriko, and let the blob of mochi cool like 1-2 minutes. After it is cool enough not to burn you, take about a golfball sized amount of mochi and flatten it. Slowly stretch the mochi around the anko/strawberry mix, be careful not to rip the mochi.

SUPER NOT SO SECRET MISS MOCHI TECHNIQUE: Mochi is super sticky, so my probably not very traditional but very helpful trick is to light spray your hands with PAM, then dip them in the katakuriko. The PAM makes the potato starch stick to your palms better, rather than the mochi.