MITARASHI DANGO FOR THE THANKSGIVING DAY DESSERT

 It turned out great.  Thanks to my grandson's help.

Follow the Mitarashi Dango recipes in my blog previously posted .  This https://rockdavinci.blogspot.com/2019/05/mitarashi-dango-4.html or  https://rockdavinci.blogspot.com/2020/09/birthday-mitarashi-dango-making.html 

 

Enjoy!

July 4th Celeb Fam Cooking

 Wow, We were all dazzled by Amy's cooking.

Beautiful INARIZUSHI

OKONOMI YAKI

OKONOMI YAKI - "as you like it" - shredded cabbage, flour, beaten eggs, bacon, topped with Katsuobushi (dry bonita shavings), Tonkatsu sauce or Okonomiyaki sauce, optional mayonnaise.

INARIZUSHI - each one is so intricately filled with rice, slice of KAMABOKO, Cucumber, Avocado, Egg Crepe, (imitation) Crab, Unagi, Tobiko.

Cooking OKONOMI YAKI

BBQ Prawns and Scallops

Teriyaki Beef Kebabs

Teriyaki Chicken

And there is MITARASHI DANGO with Ground FLAXSEED Mill to add to empty carb for health. And there is the ones with MATCHA or YOMOGI (Mugwort leaves).  Ingredients and cooking/preparation method is the same as previous post's.

The slight greyish green is the MATCHA, and the greenest ones is YOMOGI, tan white ones are the regular DANGO with specks from ground flaxseed mill.

MITARE prepare with KATAKURIKO always give the translucent shine.

The other one is Chinese ALMOND Jello - SHIN REN TOFU.  Making them with AGAR AGAR threads, Lactose free milk, Cook's Pure Almond Extract, Del Monte's Fruit Cocktails in Juice (drain most of the juice), home made simple syrup.

 

When the jello is formed, cut them into squares into the serving dish.  Add slightly drained fruit cocktails, add simple syrup, and serve cold.

 

Heat Milk and dissove AGAR AGAR threads.

The formula in the back of the package instructed dividing the package of 42.5 g/pkg, into two.  Bring 20 bowls of clean water in a pot to boil.  Add AGAR AGAR and stir to dissolve.   Add add 1-1/2 lb of sugar, and 1 can of milk, 1/4 tsp Almond extract.  Transfer to a dish, let cool, then, chill till firm.

 

I washed AGAR AGAR thread in a clean bowl of water till clear.  I used 5 bowls of clean water and 15 bowls of Lactose Free Low Fat Milk.  1+ Cup of sugar - Taste and add more as needed.  *Remember that simple syrup and fruit cocktak in juice would also add to the sweetness.   Carefully bring liquid to boil to avoid spill over.  Stir in the clean AGAR AGAR threads till dissolved.

Transfer to a large flat dish with large surface.  Let Cool, then, chill in refrigerator.

Make simple syrup and open a can or two Fruit Cocktail with Juice.  Chill.   Depending on your taste, you might want to drain some of the juice as the acidic taste might overcome the overall taste.  Add a teaspoon and half of Cook's Pure Almond Extract to the liquid.  

Slice into 1/2 inch squares.  Add chilled syrup and Serve.

 

A Can of Lychee is added to this one.

Time for MITRASHI DANGO - MATCHA with Ground Flaxseed Mill

 The ingredients and recipes are no different than all other previous posting of MITARASHI DANGO. 

Did you notice in most of the ingredients in pre-packaged Japanese food contain Corn Syrups, Heavy Sugar Syrups, syrups, syrups... OMG.  I wish someone would tell them to stop it.

Anyways, until that is changed, I have to make my own.

Instead of eating an empty carb, I thought why not mix some ground flaxseed mill and matcha.  So, I did.   The result is Delicious!

To the basics MITARASH DANGO recipes, I added 1 TBsp of Organic MATCHA and 2 TBsp of Ground Flaxseed Mill.  Add enough water and  Knead the dough till earlobe smooth.

Basic ingredients:  https://rockdavinci.blogspot.com/search?q=MITARASHI+DANGO

Use a 1 inch cookie dough scooper to make even numbers of balls, then, roll them into ball between palms of your hand.

Bring a pot of water to a full rolling boil.   Drop rolled DANGO without letting them touch each other. Quickly stir them off the bottom to prevent them from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Stir and loosen from the bottom of the pot.

Wait for the water to return to full boil.

Boil 2 minutes to come to rolling boil.   DANGO should float to surface as they are cooked.

Boil 3 to 4 minutes longer depending on the original size of your rolled DANGO.  Take one out and cut, if you are not sure.  If the entire DANGO is translucent, it is ready.  If you see any milky center, the rolled dough is still raw.  Cook longer.   The DANGO should / maybe double in size by now.

Transfer to a strainer.  Separate them and do not let them stick to each other.

Moisten your hand and skewer them onto Japanese Teppo Gushi - bamboo skewers.  It can be found at  Amazon or DAISO.  https://www.amazon.com/JapanBargain-1598x8-J-1598x8-Bamboo-Style-7/dp/B00OJVM54U    Normally three DANGO to a stick.

If you are going to make YAKI MITARE DANGO, be sure to place bamboo skewers in water for 30 minutes before placing skewered DANGO over the grill.  The other way is just place DANGO in a skillet with ceramic surface, for example, and bake one side brown is an idea. 

Roll the skewered DANGO with MITARE (syrup).  Enjoy!

Ready to make the MITARE SYRUP.  At the last minutes, I found out that I ran out of the KATAKURIKO - Potato starch.  So I used corn starch, knowing that the result would be different.  As you can tell from the photo, whether I cook it for 10 minutes or 20 minutes, the corn start MITARE will look muddy, not translucent.

 

MITARE (sweet syrup for the DANGO)   Double the batch if more Dango is made.
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  to 25 g   (*or more - test it - DO NOT use CORN starch; arrow root starch is okay.)

The syrup should become shiny and translucent, but with corn starch, it is as good as it can get in this case, but the syrup should be thick enough to cover the air dried boiled DANGO.

 

 

Using KATAKURIKO - Potato Starch

The one in the back is Corn Starch MITARE and the ones in the front is KATAKURIKO MITARE

It tasted so good that I ate 10 Dango out of 25!!!

 

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.