Kushi Dango Recipes

MITARASHI KUSHI DANGO

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Preheat a steamer. Combine both types of rice flour and sugar in a bowl.
• Gradually pour the hot water, constantly stirring with a spatula until you've achieved a rough dough.
• Slowly knead with clean hands until the dough becomes smooth. The texture should feel like squeezing an earlobe.
• Divide dough into 15 equal small pieces and roll each into a small ball.
• Place dumplings in preheated steamer and steam on high heat for about 10 minutes.
• Allow the dumplings to cool off a little until you're able to handle, and slide 3 onto each bamboo skewer.
• Mix water, sugar, and soy sauce in a saucepan . Bring to a boil over medium heat.
• Pour katakuriko starch, or cornstarch slurry, into sauce, stirring well. Bring to a boil again and turn off heat.
• Pan-fry skewered dumplings on non-stick pan or on top of hot grill until slightly grill-marked.
• Brush the mitarashi sauce over the dumplings and serve right away.

KUSHI-DANGO (SKEWERED SWEET DUMPLINGS)

Steps:

• Put rice flour in a bowl and add warm water.
• Knead the dough well.
• Make small round dumplings.
• Place the dumplings in a steamer and steam them on high heat for 10 minute
• Cool the dumplings and skewer them in bamboo sticks. (3-4 dumplings each stick.)
• Mix water, sugar, and soysauce in a pan and put it on medium heat.
• Mix the water and potatostarch in a cup and set aside.
• When the sauce boils, add the starch mixture and mix quickly.
• Slightly grill the skewered dumplings and brush the sauce over them.

KUSHI DANGO

Steps:

• Put the cup of rice flour in a bowl and add warm water.
• Mix, then knead the dough well. If it's too wet, add more rice flour.
• The dough is done when it reaches an even, smooth texture. It won't become as stretchy as dough made with wheat flour.
• Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of flour if the dough is too soft, or some water (doesn't have to be boiling) if too crumbly. It should be soft yet firm enough to hold it's shape, like playdough.
• Shape the dough into round dumplings.
• Play around with the sizes. I made some as small as a nickel and some almost as big as a golf ball.
• Grease the inside of your steamer with cooking spray, then place the dumplings inside, Place the balls at least an inch and a half away from each other. This stuff expands and sticks together in a bad way if you're not careful.
• Steam them on high heat for 10 minutes.
• Then take them out and put them on a rice-floured cutting board to cool down.
• These things are sticky, so you don't want to leave out the cooking spray or the flour on the cutting board, trust me!
• When they're cooled, skewer them, three to four per stick.
• To make the sauce, mix the water, ,mirin, sugar, and soy sauce in a pan, dissolving all the sugar, then cover and heat it on medium heat.
• While that's warming up, mix the water and potato starch in a separate cup.
• When the sauce boils, add the starch-water and mix quickly. The stuff will thicken up fast!
• Slightly grill the skewered dumplings, then brush or spoon the sauce over them.
• The dumplings are soft and chewy when fresh.
• Refrigerating or freezing them will make them hard and not-very-pleasant-textured, but you can always microwave them for a half minute on medium power to restore them to their chewy, yummy state.

KUSHI DANGO (JAPANESE SKEWERED RICE DUMPLINGS) WITH MITARASHI SAUCE

Steps:

• Bring a pot with water over medium heat to a boil. Prepare a small bowl of ice water.
• Meanwhile, mix rice flour and sugar for dough in a bowl until well blended. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring well after each addition, until dough is squishy but firm.
• Dust a work surface with cornstarch. Set dough on top and knead until smooth. Pull off small amounts of dough and roll into small, uniform balls (dumplings). Use up all the dough this way.
• Drop a handful of rice dumplings into the boiling water at a time. Cook until dumplings rise to the top, 3 to 5 minutes. Once they have risen to the top, cook for 2 more minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and immediately drop them into the bowl of ice water.
• Remove dumplings from the ice water and thread 3 to 4 a skewer. Repeat with remaining dumplings, adding more ice to the water for the cooling stage once as needed.
• Prepare sauce: Combine 1 cup water, sugar, and soy sauce in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook until sugar dissolves. Stir together cornstarch and 1 1/2 tablespoons water in a small bowl and add to the soy sauce mixture. Cook, stirring, until sauce thickens, then remove from heat and cool slightly.
• Heat a griddle over medium heat. Once hot, grill skewered dumplings on both sides until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Remove to a plate and pour cooled mitarashi sauce on top. Serve.

DANGO (SWEET JAPANESE DESSERT)

Steps:

• Combine tofu and rice flour in a bowl; mix together by hand until smooth and slightly elastic. Pull dough thinly to test consistency; if it feels like your earlobe, it's ready. Add water or more rice flour as needed.
• Separate dough into 3 equal parts. Add red food coloring to 1 portion; mix by hand to evenly distribute the color. Note that color will intensify once dango are boiled. Mix another portion of dough with green tea powder; leave the last portion white.
• Separate each portion of the dough into 3 equal parts; roll into balls to make the dango.
• Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Drop dango into the pot and boil until they float to the top, 3 to 5 minutes. Continue boiling for 2 minutes more.
• Remove dango with a slotted spoon and place into a bowl of cold or room-temperature water for 1 minute until just warm to the touch. Thread them through skewers in order of your liking. The traditional order is green, white, and pink.