Mochi (餅), Japanese rice cake, is made by pounding hot, steamed mochigome (glutinous rice) into paste and molded into round or cut into square cakes. Glutinous rice, sometimes called sweet rice, is used in rice dishes where more stickiness is called for. Traditionally, the cooked rice is pounded with a wooden mallet (kine) in a mortar (usu). Two people alternate the work, one pounding and the other turning and wetting the mochi, keeping a steady rhythm
lest they accidentally injure one another with the heavy kine.
Most mochi these days is machine made.
Sato Kirimochi is a high-quality mochi product from Japan. Some lower-quality mochi contains starch making them less sticky. Another advantage of Sato Kirimochi is that each piece of mochi is individually and aseptically packed so it keeps for a long time without getting moldy. Mochi is usually served hot. It gets hard when cool, requiring you to reheat it.
Grill, or use a toaster oven, to heat the mochi. The cake will soften and expand to three times its original size: crisp on the outside and soft and stretchy inside. A tip I found on-line is to put a drop of soy sauce on top to ensure that the cake will expand more evenly. To microwave mochi, cover loosely—remember, it will expand!—with plastic wrap and zap for a minute or two. Watch carefully or you’ll melt the cake into a pool of starch!
For soft and chewy mochi, cut the cakes into quarters, and drop into boiling water until they are soft and rubbery. They won’t expand when boiled. Drop individually into cold water until you are ready to add them to soup. Or serve immediately with soy sauce and butter. For a sweet snack, roll the mochi in kinako (toasted soybean powder) and sugar, or try ground sesame seeds mixed with sugar or salt.
Mochi, boiled, then coated with shoyu and butter.
These mochi seem to be scored, into quarters on the surface, and thirds on the edge.
Be careful when you eat these! They are very soft and chewy, but you don’t want to swallow a whole piece all at once.
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Tess's Japanese Kitchen 
we love mochi! (but only know one way to prepare it) thanks so much for the recipes
Oh! be sure to check out my next post about moffles, too—very fun.
Hi Tess, I have just bought a pack from UK ! Thanks for the tips. My best friend in HK has used it once when we went for an outdoor BBQ.
I can’t always find them here, so when I come across them it’s a treat. Whole Foods sells them in their refrigerated section, but they are soft, square, and often flavored. They are also very expensive, hence the nickname for that store: Whole Paycheck.
Okay, apparently I am toaster oven impaired. What settings do you use? Do you flip it?
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Hi! I found your blog very interesting, and you gave me some nice ideas for a special dinner!
Wanna ask you just a thing: how can I make daifuku with Sato Kirimochi? Is it even possible?
Thanks in advance for your help, and keep up the good work! =)
I have not tried to make daifuki with kirimochi. But I found this recipe on the eGullet forum.
Ingredients for 10 daikufu:
4 (200 g) kirimochi
60 to 80 g sugar
60 cc water
350 g anko (azuki bean jam)
Potato starch
Steps:
1. Make 10 anko balls, 35 g each.
2. Put potato starch in a vat.
3. Place kirimochi in a heat-resistant bowl, pour hot water enough to cover kirimochi, and heat the bowl in a microwave for about 4 minutes.
4. Make syrup: Mix sugar and water in a nonstick pot or frypan, put it on stove to dissolve. Take care not to scorch.
5. When kirimochi soften, drain water, knead with a moistened wooden spatula until smooth. Add hot syrup in 3 to 4 portions.
6. Transfer kirimochi to a pot, and knead over low to medium heat until a good texture. If it becomes too hard, add a little water.
7. Transfer kirimochi to a vat of starch, put starch on your hands, and divide kirimochi into 10 equal parts.
8. Spread each part into a circle, place an anko ball, and wrap it.
Thank you!!!
Next, I’ll try the soup version! :)
Take a look at Ozoni: New Year’s Day Soup. It’s soup with mochi and other ingredients traditionally eaten for the New Year, but there is no reason not to eat it at any other time!
I just recently tried making pizza with Kirimochi! So delicious! I love pizza but am always looking for an alternative to pizza bases. Making my own base seem to take too much time and cleaning up the floury mess makes it worse. But with kirimochi, it’s really easy and my pizza is done in 15 minutes! It’s also naturally gluten and wheat free. Recipe on my blog:
https://breakfastandsalads.wordpress.com/2016/10/01/chewy-mochi-pizza-naturally-gluten-free/
Is that the basic mochi above? You can really tell that the Japanese doesn’t use the same cooking measurements as other people & curious about the other other countries and continents; their is no mochi in the Japanese asian store; I was hesitating on making my own; I had found one particular receipe earlier this year but can’t locate it once again; I don’t want to make the dessert version of mochi!!!