Japanese recipe for Mitarashi Dangos

07/04/2009 - 00:00
Author: Inuchan
Japanese Cooking
1 Comments
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So, here we are with the traditional appointment with the Japanese recipes of Nanoda! You missed them, didn't you? Well, actually it's been some time since I've posted my last one, so today I'd like to show you Mitarashi Dangos. Do you know those little balls on a spit you can often see in anime? Well, it's them!

There are really many kinds of Dangos, like Sanshoku dangos, Chichi dango, Teppanyaki dangos, Hanami dangos and many others! In this article, however, I want to show you how to do Mitarashi Dangos! So, let's see what we need to prepare them with this recipe. To tell the truth, it's really easy to follow it, maybe the greatest difficulty is in finding some ingredients/tools!

INGREDIENTS (six servings):

250 g of rice flour
30 g of sugar (optional)
200 g of hot water

Mitarashi Sauce as seasoning (see bottom of the page)

Time of preparation: 60 minutes + about 5 minutes of cooking

How do I prepare them?

1- In a middle-sized terrine pour the rice flour together with the hot water (not too hot, watch out!)

2- Mix thoroughly together these two ingredients first with a wooden spoon, possibly a flat one, then with your hands, until you get an homogeneous and firm mixture (add now the sugar, if you want them more sweet than they already are)

(Watch out: if you see the prepared mix is too soft, add some more flour).

3- Once you're finished with the mixing, divide the dough in many little equal parts and arrange them distant in a pot to cook them with steam (japanese people use SEIRO せいろ, a sort of wooden pot, but you can also use a typical saucepan with its proper area for steaming).

4- Now boil the water in the pot and cover it with a lid wrapped up in a cloth, letting it steam for about 50-60 minutes. (The cloth around the cap won't permit the steam to condense and fall again on the dough). After that, open the pan and, being careful not to burn yourselves, take a pair of pieces and open them in order to control if the centre of the balls is cooked well, and if there isn't any trace of flour "dust" left. In case there is still some, let the pan steam them a bit more.

5- When it's finished, pull out all the pieces and put them in a big bowl. Get a pounder and start mashing them up; continue for about 5 minutes until they aren't again completely compounded (dip sometimes your pounder in water to avoid the dough attaching to it).

6- Once you've done, create a sort of roll with the mixture and then cut it with a bamboo palette knife. Using this tool, you will already have a kind of a spherical form. Don't do them too big though, the balls should be only a bit bigger than 2-3 Cm.

tagliare i dango

(If you can't find it, you can also use a normal kitchen knife to get many small parts and then model them with your hands).

7- Now that you have these spheres, get hold of some spits, which you will have to pierce the balls with (about 3-4 pieces per spit, although it depends on their bigness).

8- Now you're ready to give them a slight gilding! Catch a pan, possibly nonstick and heated on a medium flame (or on a grill, as Japaneses do) and place on it the Dangos, turning them every now and then to give them a slight golden colour (about 5 minutes). Below here, pictures about pan and grill cooking.

9- And that's all! Now your dangos are ready to be served and sprinkled with the Mitarashi sauce!

How do I prepare it? Well, to know this, you will have to follow this recipe on its preparation ^_^

If you think it's too complicate, or you can't seem to find all the necessary ingredients(since they're actually odd), you can use an alternative sauce...

INGREDIENTS:

Water
Rice vinegar
Sugar
Soy sauce
Potato Flour

How do I prepare it?

Pour in a little pan half a spoon of potato flour and 50 cc of water, letting it cook on a low flame until the water isn't again clear. Then add half a teaspoon of rice vinegar, 2 spoons of sugar and 2 spoons of soy sauce.

Go on mixing on a low flame for 2/3 minuter (until all the sugar isn't completely melted) and you'll have your sauce!

Now, you only have to pour it on your dangos and... Have a good meal!

(Watch out: If you want your dangos to be coloured, you can use without any problem food colourings, adding them to the compound of water and flour ^_^)

hanami dango