Ichigo Daifuku - Strawberry Mochi

Daifuku is a kind of Japanese soft mochi cakes. Can serve with hot tea.

I love mochi, soft and sweet from redbean, sour from strawberry, the mix is just right. I am so crazy about mochi that I even bought a mochi machine, but then, I have yet to grasp the technic of handling the softness of glutinous rice, anyway, once I master the machine technics will intro to you all. So meantime, I will do steaming on stove method.


Ingredients:

1 cup of glutinous rice flour
3/4 to 1 cup of water
2 tbsp of sugar
7 strawberries, rinsed and hulled
1 pack of Tsubuan or redbean paste ( I bought it from Daiso $2 per pack )
Potatoe starch for coating the glutinous rice sticky paste


Method:

• Wrap the strawberry in the tsubuan. Set aside.
• Combine glutinous rice flour, sugar and water, mix well and smooth.
• Pour into a glass bowl suitable for steaming. Cover the bowl with a aluminium foil to prevent droplets of water forming on the paste during steaming.
• Steam over a boiling pan for 10 mins. Take the glutinous rice flour mixture out of the pan after steaming for 5 mins. Give the mixture a good stir. Put it back into the steamer to steam for another 5 mins.
• Dust your counter top or silicone mat with potatoe starch.
• Remove the glutinous rice dough from the steamer, roll on the potatoe starch.
• Sprinkle potatoe starch all over the hot dough, coat your hands with potatoe starch to prevent the dough sticking onto your hands.
• Pinch out a portion of paste, about size of a pingpong ball.
• Flatten it with your fingers, take the strawberry and put in the center of the flatten dough. Pinch it to close so that you will have a nice strawberry ball.
• Should you find it too sticky to handle, put more potatoe starch on your hands.
• Done! Enjoy:))