mochi

New Life – Sprouting Spring

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After I introduced my Matcha Swirl Mochi in my previous post with a hope that the arrival of warm sunny spring is nearer we had another snow in London, but yesterday turned out to be a very sunny day. In Japan we say that it is ‘San-kan-shi-on’ (三寒四温/ 3 cold and 4 warm) which means “the weather moves onto Spring by having three cold days and four warm days”. It is describing the weather condition particularly in East Asian countries, however, I feel it is the same here in London.

The sunshine outside looked so welcoming yesterday and I could not resist stepping out into the garden. My garden has been messy during winter time and I did the first gardening of this year. I hope good weather stays so I can do some tidying up bit by bit before the real spring arrives here.

New Life

Spring is a season of new life. I created some sweets in this ‘New Life’ theme which is also the theory of Easter that comes next week. I wonder whether you can see what it is supposed to be?

New Life1

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Matcha Swirl Mochi for Early Spring

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Comparing to the snowy weather three weeks ago it is so much more like spring now. It is not just because the temperature is higher but because the sunlight is brighter and the air is lighter. Although the forecast says there is a possibility that this weekend might become cold again, the season always moves forward by going back and forth a little. It means we are definitely getting closer to spring!

It means we are in Early Spring now. I quite often design sweets depending on which season we are in. I pick some significant signs of the season such as colour, flower or mood of the season. So what is early spring like for me? It is the season some leaves start to come out (Green) on a tree and field, but in some area it is still covered with snow (white). It is a little too early to see a view of full Sakura cherry blossom in the most places, however, but in some warmer area some trees probably starts blossoming (Pink). The smell of early spring is a grassy green smell. So what I have to do after running my imagination is put all these images together.

Matcha Swirl Mochi

I needed to assemble all the elements of green, white and pink together. I was imagining a mountain in early spring. For autumn season I made Autumn Mountain Mochi and reached up to this swirling sweet of early spring version of the mountain.

Matcha Swirl8

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Coco Choco Mochi!

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I developed a tasty sweet last summer. I received a great compliment from the friends who had it. I was very happy with it and planned to post it here soon after but … I didn’t get round to it yet. However, I made a very similar one and maybe this one is a better version for some people. Because it’s Dairy Free this time. I re-designed the sweet as one of two Japanese sweets for February.

Coconut Choco Mochi

It is a Mochi (Rice Cake) type of Japanese sweet. The soft and gooey outer layer of Mochi is flavoured with Chocolate powder. What the outer Mochi layer wraps up is the difference between the first verision and this version. It is Coconut Cream and sweet Azuki Bean Paste with Desiccated Coconut on top.

Coco choco Mochi 5e2

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Yuzu Mochi

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When did ‘Yuzu’ became a household name? Maybe it is not that well known yet but if you are an official foodie, you must have heard the name at least once. For me the first time I heard the name Yuzu coming out from an English person’s mouth was on TV programme ‘the Great British Bake Off’ a few years ago. One of the contestants was using its juice as the key ingredinent for his special cake. So what is Yuzu?

SONY DSCYuzu is a small citrus fruit we cultivate in Japan. It has a quite tough skin and a sharp taste so it is not for eating fresh as a dessert fruit, but it has a marvellous aroma so we add the juice or skin into some dishes and a dipping sauce for enhance the flavour.

When I saw the baking programme I thought ‘where did he get that Yuzu from?’ I believe almost nobody knew about the fruit in England at that time and it was impossible to find Yuzu anywhere in London. How funny the time passes and the situation changes. Now, just a few years later, the bottled juice is available in major supermarkets and if you are lucky, even fresh ones can be found in some Japanese Food shops.

Yuzu Mochi

In a cold evening it is wonderful to have a Hot Pot with a hint of Yuzu flavour. So Yuzu is a flavour of Winter.

I made a Mochi sweet that has a scent and flavour of Yuzu.

Yuzu Mochi

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Mochi Snow Rabbit

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When I had a stall in a Christmas Market in December, it was the day that it snowed all day in London. It is very rare to see snow and it is even rarer that snow stayed on the ground over night here.

Japan, where I came from, is a geographically long country lying from North to South with a high mountain range in the midlle almost like a back bone. That was why we have completely different weather depends on where it is. During winter time some places get lots of snow fall and people in such places have some special customs to spend their time. Apart from the obvious choice of Snowman, children in a snowy country make a cute thing with snow. It is a Snow Rabbit that is simply a snow ball made into a oval shape with two leaves as ears and two red berries as eyes to make a face.

Mochi Snow Rabbit

So I made my Snow Rabbit but it is not the traditional one with real snow. It was with ‘Mochi’ as my new Japanese sweet.

Snow Rabbit 4e

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Autumn Mountain

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We are in the middle of Autumn – Winter transition now. It is getting very cold lately but this chilling weather is the key to the magnificent sights of nature during this season. When the temperature drops the colour of leaves change from green to yellow or it goes even further to orange and then red. It is due to the chemical reaction in leaves. This is called Autumn Colour and can be seen on the leaves of deciduous plants.

‘Autumn Mountain’ Mochi

So, as one of the sweets for November I wanted to create a sweet in Autumn Colour. I want you to imagine all the mountain changing the colour from its deep green to various colour of yellow, orange and red but in a very tiny scale.

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Halloween Mochi Ghost👻is Coming!

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Oh, we are in October now. It is the month that Halloween is coming! Last year I made two types of Japanese sweets for this Halloween month. One of them was Jack-o’-Lantern and the other one was Mochi Ghost. Actually I started making a Ghost like sweet two years ago and then last year’s Ghost was my revenge creation because the first one was not that a great Ghost. I made a blog post and tweeted about it with photos and then actually it got a good reaction from people. I received many great comments regarding the sweet (Thak you!). The Ghost sweet was also served at Wasoukan Café (Notting Hill, London) and the manager told me that that sweet was the best seller amongst all the sweets they had sold last year. I started thinking that I should make this Ghost sweet as my yearly traditional sweet in this season so that I created another one for this year’s version.

Mochi Ghost 👻 2017

I made a little similar one in order to meet the people’s expectation but slightly different Mochi Ghost again. This time it is vertically standing 3D Ghost.

Mochi Ghost2p

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