Ohagi Making

This isn't a beauty related post unfortunately because I have been SO busy these days with tests but I'll show you guys what I did on Sunday!

I made Japanese ohagi (kind of like mochi but the rice is intact) for my friend who moved back to Japan on Monday but I ended up not giving it to her because she was not home at the time. So I ate many of them with my family and gave away a bunch to my friends :)

I made 3 coatings (toppings?) and they were kinako (soybean flour), sesame + sugar, and red bean paste.

I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome since this was my first time making ohagi! These weren't that hard to make but it took at least an hour to make all of the ohagi. The red bean one was the hardest to make! I had to spread the red bean on a plastic wrap and then place the ball of rice cake onto it and kind of stick it on.

How to make Ohagi:

1 cup regular rice (shortgrain, Korean or Japanese rice. NOT CHINESE, that is Jasmine rice)

1 1/2 glutinous rice (mochi gome) --> you can find this is almost any Asian market

2 1/2 cups of water

Wash rice thoroughly and put into rice cooker and let it cook. When it is done, start pounding the rice with the back of a big spoon or if you have a pestle you can use that. Do that until the rice is sticky and gluey and heavy but still somewhat intact.

When making rice balls, you HAVE to wet your hands before touching the sticky rice. This will prevent the rice from sticking to YOU and make a nice shaped ball.

Make your toppings:
2 tbsp. Kinako + 1 tbsp. granulated sugar
2 tbsp. lightly ground black sesame seeds + 1 tbsp. granulated sugar
I don't know the measurements for red bean paste... You just spread a small amount all over plastic wrap then start molding it onto the rice cake.

Then after you make the ohagi, store it in some plastic container so they don't dry up. I made this mistake and some of my ohagi dried and became a little hard to eat.

That's all! They aren't too hard to make and taste so good!