Mitarashi Dango

In Japan, there are several annual celebrations related to children and we decorate our
houses with special displays.
 On the Children’s Day, we would display Kabuto (ancient Japanese warrior helmet) and armor.

Mitarashi Dango

Author: Namiko Chen

Serves: Makes 24 Mitarashi Dango

Ingredients

• 3½ oz (100g) Joshinko (Rice Flour)*
• 3½ oz (100g) Shiratamako/mochiko (Sweet Rice /Glutinous Rice Flour)*
• 2 tsp. sugar
• ⅔ cup (150ml) warm water
• 24 Bamboo skewers

Sweet Soy Sauce

• 5 Tbsp. sugar (adjust sweetness to your liking)
• 1 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. mirin
• 4 Tbsp. water
• 1 Tbsp. corn starch
• 1 Tbsp. water for dissolving corn starch
  

Instructions

1. Combine Shiratamako, Joshinko, and sugar in a bowl.
   
2. Stir in warm water a little bit a time and knead slowly until the dough becomes smooth. The texture is like squeezing an "ear lobe" (that’s how we describe the tenderness for this type of mochi in Japanese).
   
3. Divide into 2 equal pieces until you have 8 balls. Then divide each one into 3 equal sized balls. You will end up with 24 pieces.
   
4. Gently place dango in the large pot of boiling water.
   
5. Dango will stay on the bottom first but they will start floating on the surface. Then cook dango for 1 minute. Remove from pot and transfer into ice water.
   
6. Drain well and put three pieces into a bamboo skewer.
   
7. On the stove top, place the skewered dango on the grill on direct heat over medium high for 4 minute and rotate slowly to char (or you can heat a pan and brush with a little oil and grill on it).
   
8. For sauce, combine sugar, soy sauce, mirin and water in a saucepan. Stir occasionally and bring it to a boil.
   
9. Once it boils, add the corn starch and water mixture to the sauce and make sure it dissolves well. After the sauce thickens, turn off the heat.
   
10. Place dango on a plate. Using a brush, coat with sweet soy sauce on dango. Serve dango with green tea.
    

Notes

* Shiratamako is from sweet rice/glutinous Japanese short grain rice and Joshinko is from regular short grain Japanese rice. These flours give different texture. When you make dango with only shiratamako, the texture tends to be too soft. Therefore we usually add Joshinko to make the right dango texture. Of course you can make dango with shiratamako only. It's just the personal preference. 

3 ways to keep Dango:

1) After you form into round dango (Step #3), you put them in a single layer in air tight container. Freeze up to a month. When you use them, boil the frozen dango without defrosting.

2) After cooling down (Step #5), pat dry and pack into air tight container without sticking to each other. Freeze up to a month. When you use them, microwave till they are at room temperature.

3) To keep just for few hours, you can save them in ice water, or in water kept in refrigerator. 

http://www.justonecookbook.com/mitarashi-dango/