<Skill Level: All>
Making Japanese sweets on weekends:
週末は和菓子づくり
しゅうまつはわがしづくり
Shuumatsu wa wagashi zukuri
Here is a photo of 桜 SAKURA (a cherry tree) in front of my house.
It will probably take a few more days to fully bloom.
I was thinking about making some 桜餅 (Sakura-mochi), the seasonal pink rice cake that I mentioned yesterday, but I never really liked them. Instead, I probably should have made some 花見団子（Hanami-dango）, skewed tri-colored (ピンク pink / しろwhite / みどり green) sweet rice dumplings, which are also popular during this season. .What I actually ended up making was きなこ大福（kinako daifuku）, rice cake with sweet red azuki bean paste filling, coated with きなこ Kinako that is sweetened roasted yellow soybean powder.
* あん or あんこ (an or anko): sweet red azuki bean paste
* つぶあん: coarse sweet red bean paste
* こしあん : smooth sweet red bean paste
Boil red azuki beans with lots of water. I changed water twice. After cooking/boiling for a hour and a half, add lots of granulated sugar. (Don't use brown sugar.) Simmer it down till all the juice is all absorbed.
きなこ：きなこ, kinako, roasted yellow soybean powder
大福：だいふく, daifuku, rice cake with sweet red bean paste filling
餅粉：もちこ, mochiko, glutinous rice powder
砂糖： さとう, satou, sugar
I am sure that there are many different ways to make it. Since I normally don't bother looking up recipes in cookbooks, this is how I do it. Add warm water to 餅粉 (mochiko) to make it into the playdough-like consistency, make ball shaped dough pieces, then boil them. (You can also steam instead of boiling, then separate the dough into smaller pieces afterwords.) Rinse the dumplings with cold water quickly, then air-dry. (Make sure they are dry enough so that Kinako does not get wet. It probably takes only for a couple of minutes. Don't leave it out too long otherwise the cake will turn hard.) Stretch the dough and stuff あんこ red beans. Mix きなこ kinako and 砂糖 satou + a dash of にっき cinnamon . Sprinkle sweetened きなこ over 大福.
Other vocabularies:
* cooking: 料理, りょうり, ryouri
* cook: 料理(を)する, りょうり（を）する, ryouri (wo) suru
* sweets: 菓子, かし, kashi
* Japanese sweets: 和菓子, わがし, wagashi
* make ～: ～を作る, ～をつくる, ～ wo tsukuru
* boil ～: ～をゆでる, ～wo yuderu
* cool down ～: ～を 冷ます, さます, ～ wo samasu
* color(s): 色, いろ, iro
* pink: ピンク, pinku, or "桃色（ももいろ, momo-iro, peach color）"
* red: 赤, あか, aka
* blue: 青, あお, ao
* green: 緑 , みどり, midori
* purple: 紫, むらさき, murasaki
* white: 白, しろ, shiro
* black: 黒, くろ, kuro
* brown: 茶色, ちゃいろ, chairo
* gray: グレー, gree, or 灰色, はいいろ, haiiro (which means ash-color)
These Japanese sweets go very well with green tea to have a nice relaxing weekend (other than the fact that I need to cook and clean up).
Making Japanese sweets on weekends:
週末は和菓子づくり
しゅうまつはわがしづくり
Shuumatsu wa wagashi zukuri
Here is a photo of 桜 SAKURA (a cherry tree) in front of my house.
It will probably take a few more days to fully bloom.
I wish it were a little warmer...
 |
| さくら |
 | |||
| つぶあん |
* つぶあん: coarse sweet red bean paste
* こしあん : smooth sweet red bean paste
Boil red azuki beans with lots of water. I changed water twice. After cooking/boiling for a hour and a half, add lots of granulated sugar. (Don't use brown sugar.) Simmer it down till all the juice is all absorbed.
 |
| きなこ大福 |
きなこ：きなこ, kinako, roasted yellow soybean powder
大福：だいふく, daifuku, rice cake with sweet red bean paste filling
餅粉：もちこ, mochiko, glutinous rice powder
砂糖： さとう, satou, sugar
I am sure that there are many different ways to make it. Since I normally don't bother looking up recipes in cookbooks, this is how I do it. Add warm water to 餅粉 (mochiko) to make it into the playdough-like consistency, make ball shaped dough pieces, then boil them. (You can also steam instead of boiling, then separate the dough into smaller pieces afterwords.) Rinse the dumplings with cold water quickly, then air-dry. (Make sure they are dry enough so that Kinako does not get wet. It probably takes only for a couple of minutes. Don't leave it out too long otherwise the cake will turn hard.) Stretch the dough and stuff あんこ red beans. Mix きなこ kinako and 砂糖 satou + a dash of にっき cinnamon . Sprinkle sweetened きなこ over 大福.
Other vocabularies:
* cooking: 料理, りょうり, ryouri
* cook: 料理(を)する, りょうり（を）する, ryouri (wo) suru
* sweets: 菓子, かし, kashi
* Japanese sweets: 和菓子, わがし, wagashi
* make ～: ～を作る, ～をつくる, ～ wo tsukuru
* boil ～: ～をゆでる, ～wo yuderu
* cool down ～: ～を 冷ます, さます, ～ wo samasu
* color(s): 色, いろ, iro
* pink: ピンク, pinku, or "桃色（ももいろ, momo-iro, peach color）"
* red: 赤, あか, aka
* blue: 青, あお, ao
* green: 緑 , みどり, midori
* purple: 紫, むらさき, murasaki
* white: 白, しろ, shiro
* black: 黒, くろ, kuro
* brown: 茶色, ちゃいろ, chairo
* gray: グレー, gree, or 灰色, はいいろ, haiiro (which means ash-color)
These Japanese sweets go very well with green tea to have a nice relaxing weekend (other than the fact that I need to cook and clean up).
