Birthday MITARASHI DANGO Making

 It's fun to make something different for birthday.  I decided to make MITARASHI DANGO for birthday.

 

As before in previous posts for MITARASHI DANGO, I decided to test cooking the MITARE  a bit different.  I heated sugar and soy sauce together.  As the sugar started to melt, I added only 150 ml of water and cook to reduce.  About 8 to 10 minutes into cooking, I mixed the 20 g of potato starch with 30 ml water.   Stir.  The mixture thickens.  This methods seem to have jelled up much faster than the previous few tries. 

Prepare the MITARE syrup.

 MITARE (sweet sauce for the DANGO)
Sugar 100 g
Soy sauce 50 ml
MIRIN   30 ml   (Japanese cooking wine)
Water 180 ml   - separate 150 ml   and 30 ml to mix with potato starch
Potato starch  - KATAKURIKO 20 g    (*or more - test it - DO NOT use CORN starch; arrow root starch is okay.)

 

The syrup should be thick enough to coat the Mochi Dango completely and not slipping off.

The DANGO Ingredients:

250 g DANGO flour/SHIRATAMAKO
250 g GLUTINOUS RICE FLOUR (green bag)
Add 180 ml of warm water, and have another 180 ml of warm water ready.  (You might not need all of second cup of 180 ml warm water.)

Combine with warm water; mix.  Add other 180 ml of warm water 1 Tablespoon at a time.  Mix in until you have a soft supple dough - as soft as earlobe soft but not wet.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.   Put enough water for the dough ball to float during cooking,
Roll into a ball. Divide into quarters.
Roll one into a rope.
Cut into 14 g pieces - weighed on scale or just equally using cookie dough scoop.

 

Get a pot of water boiling to cook DANGO.

 

Hold the dough ball between the palms of your hands.  Press down to squash the dough between the palms at the same time you start rolling the dough in a circular motion until you feel the dough has coagulated smoothly into a ball. 

Place balls into the boiling water.    Cover the rest to keep from drying up.

Notice the water calm down as the water temperature changes after adding DANGO.  Stir once to keep DANGO from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Get a bowl of cold water ready.    As the water come to boil, notice each DANGO begins to float.  Keep an eye to make sure the water do not boil over.  Cook the floating DANGO for 2 minutes.  Take one tester and cut it open.  Make sure it is translucent - no white dough.  When the steam clears, taste it. 

 

Transfer the cooked DANGO into cold water to cool.

At this time, if the DANGO is a large size one, you could fill it in to make other type of DANGO.

Skewer to strand 3 DANGO to a serving bamboo stick.

Coat with MITARE syrup.  Serve.