Dish · japanese
Mochi
Glutinous rice flour steamed or pounded into a chewy, stretchy dough, dusted with potato starch to keep it from sticking, sometimes wrapped around sweetened bean paste. Soft and elastic rather than crumbly.
Where it comes from
Mochi comes from mochigome, short-grain glutinous rice pounded in wooden mortars during New Year gatherings, a labor-intensive process called mochitsuki that once required a group working in turns. Modern versions use rice flour instead of pounding whole grains.
What cooks argue about
Cooks disagree over steaming mochiko into a dough versus microwaving it, since the microwave method is faster but can turn gummy or uneven if the batter isn't stirred at the right intervals.
Versions
Nobody has published a mochi here yet. When somebody cooks one from a video and publishes it, their version appears in this list, with a link back to the original.
What goes in it
Each one opens everything else made with it.