Sweets....

[mdehners]

Never been fond of them. Even as a kid I'd take freshly baked bread over Chocolate any day. It wasn't until college when I was volunteering for the local Japanese cultural center's Oban Festival dancers that I found some I liked; Wagashi, traditional Japanese sweets.
"W" are deceptively simple, made mainly with 5 ingredients in various combos; Azuki bean paste, White bean paste, Sugar, Sweet Glutinous Rice and Kanten. The one I made most until recently was Yokan, a combo of sweeted Azuki paste and Kanten(gelatin from seaweed). It's a perfect Summer treat!
One of my favs is Mochi which traditionally is made by pounding sweet glutinous rice, water and sugar. Sometimes flavorings such as green tea are added. Needless to say, I was NEVER going to be using a giant mortar and pestle for an hr to make a treat;>! Well, until I found you could make a lower quality version using sweet glutinous rice flour. So I DID. I even used Green tea as the water.
It wasn't bad. Not as good as the traditionally made but since it's much easier to whip up a batch than call all the local Asian groceries to find IF they have any in stock and then drive at least 20 minutes to get there.
The main thing about traditional Japanese sweets are that they are slightly sweet, not teeth achingly sweet like Western sweets. Much better for you;>!
Cheers,
Pat

Comments

[ahmik]

That's what I do need, slightly sweet sweeties! Good for you, making a batch yourself!

Skapi

[mdehners]

Thanks! I've made all the main ingredients of Wagashi from scratch except White Anko(sweetened Northern Bean paste), though now that I know that Red Bean Anko is available in most Asian stores I don't bother. Is homemade better? Yes. Is it worth spending almost 2 days? Not THAT good;>!
I'll try making the White Anko this yr because it's not easily available(read I can't even find it online!) and I can use my pressure cooker.
Fall and Winter here are really the only times you feel up to doing anything that involves an oven and even then....yesterday was 100% Humidity and 80F IN BLOODY NOVEMBER!!!!!!
Cheers,
Pat

[ahmik]

Maybe there's a Japanese grandparent in the neighbourhood who would love to make traditional candies for two nice boys like you and Chuck!