{"id":4896,"date":"2003-12-14T21:54:21","date_gmt":"2003-12-15T05:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/blog\/2003\/12\/14\/4896\/"},"modified":"2003-12-14T21:54:21","modified_gmt":"2003-12-15T05:54:21","slug":"mochitsuki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/?p=4896","title":{"rendered":"Mochitsuki"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pounded rice today- mochitsuki<\/i> at the Palo Alto Buddhist Temple. For the uninitiated, mochi<\/i> is the gooey substance, usually served as a dessert, made from a sweet rice pounded into a solid, uniform mass. Very yummy.<\/p>\n

\nDamn I’m sore.<\/p>\n

\n Mochi<\/i> is a traditional New Year’s treat. Traditionally everyone gathers together and pounds the rice with giant wooden mallets and a stone mortar… there are songs that go with this process and it’s a lot of fun. Next weekend I plan to go to the mochitsuki<\/i> put on by San Francisco Taiko<\/a>, where they play the songs while little kids pound the rice and eat it afterwards.<\/p>\n

\nThis however was a JACL<\/a> benefit, so it was a little more utilitarian- the focus is more on producing the mochi<\/i> for everyone. As with all events at the Palo Alto Buddhist Temple<\/a> it is surrounded by 30+ years of organization and half a dozen committees. <\/p>\n

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  1. Everyone brings in their sweet rice, which they have soaked in water since the previous night.<\/li>\n
  2. The batches are numbered on a first-come, first-serve basis<\/li>\n

  3. Each batch is drained and stacked in an enormous tower over a custom-built steamer made out of 55-gallon drums welded to gas lines made out of lead pipes. The batches are stacked top-down so the hotter steam finishes up the batches ready to go.<\/li>\n
  4. When a batch is ready, it is removed from the bottom of the stack and placed in a converted meat grinder to start mashing the rice together into a single mass. Historically this part would normally be accomplished by five of six people walking around with wood rods the size of broom handles, mashing the rice against the other rods as the participants sing and walk around the mortar. However this takes more people and more time than we have… Every so often the grinder is lubricated with “Pam.”<\/lI>\n
  5. The mass is placed in the mortar, which has been kept warm and wet with boiling water. Some sake<\/i> is added for flavor and texture. Now the pounding starts…<\/li>\n
  6. Three or four hammers are used at a time, the weilders alternating in a rhythm. This is definitely where the taiko<\/i> drums would have helped… A brave person wearing a glove to prevent sticking turns the mochi<\/i> mass over and moves it to the center of the mortar in time. If the mallet-weilders mess up, the person’s hand is crushed.<\/lI>\n
  7. When the mochi<\/i> is almost ready, one of the mallet strikers “finishes up” with the glove-man.<\/lI>\n
  8. The result is very smooth mochi<\/i>. The giant mass is shuttled into the kitchen, where a gauntlet of ladies is waiting…<\/li>\n
  9. The table is covered with mochiko<\/i>, a flour to prevent sticking.<\/li>\n
  10. The woman at the head (lately it’s been Kazi Taga) twists off a ball of dough and throws it down the line to the first person without a mochi<\/i> to work with<\/li>\n
  11. The person pinches the “scar” where the ball was separated and gathers it to be the bottom of the mochi<\/i> ball- making it nice and smooth and pretty<\/lI>\n
  12. some of the mochi<\/i> will get an<\/i> balls put inside them- a sweet bean paste filling<\/lI>\n
  13. Note that the farther down the table you are, the less likely you will get to form any mochi<\/i>… so the pros tend to crowd the head of the table!<\/lI>\n<\/ol>\n

    Note that if the mallet people are sloppy, the mochi<\/i> sufffers… the texture may be too grainy, for example. The mallets work water into the mochi<\/i>.<\/p>\n

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    Mortar-pounded mochi<\/i> tastes better than store-bought or machine-produced mochi<\/i>. This is because of the longer cooking time, and the smoother texture… although there are other possible considerations:<\/p>\n