Asian Cooking Adventures!

I really love mochi; a soft, semi-sweet rice based pastry. I also love red bean paste, and since my mother thinks adzuki beans are super healthy and should be bought in 5 lb. bags it wasn't long before I tried to make mochi with red bean.

YouTube was my friend on this endeavor.

Cookingwithdog is basically my hero. Their zenzai and anko recipe is easy to follow and comes out perfectly. Because of the amount of mochi I was making, I turned all my adzuki beans into anko.




I preferred this mochi video because it didn't use a microwave in the cooking process.




Here is my anko, pre-portioned and ready to wrapped in mochi. The toothpick helps so that you don't mar the mochi whiteness.

And here is the mochi, all mixed and pounded to death.

Since I don't own a wok, I set up my own steaming apparatus. This is a combination of a fry pan, egg poaching frame, and a fitted dome lid.

Here are the mochi in a cake pan, ready to be steamed.

Freshly steamed mochi.

Here is the finished product! I dusted them lightly with some tapioca starch to ease storing.

***Side note: The next day these babies were hard as rocks! Still tasty but not really what I was going for. I think it's because after they say it's a little dry in the mochi making video, they don't tell you how much water they end up adding. I think it needed A LOT more water and handling to get the perfect consistency. Maybe I'm wrong though. Would love suggestions!