Mitarashi Dango – Dumpling over flowers (hana yori dango)
When I was 14, I went on my first trip to Japan. I met my extended family, learned about the culture, and ate a lot of great food. It’s a trip I’ve never forgotten. It led me to be very proud of my Japanese background, something I struggled with for a long time as I grew up in a small “white” town. During my trip, I visited my mom’s hometown and met a couple that was a part of my mom’s life during her childhood. It was then that I fell in love with mitarashi dango. I devoured them and impressed the older couple who had learned that not only did this “American” girl like mitrashi dango, but that I also loved natto, ikura, and other very distinct Japanese dishes.
So, what’s mitarashi dango? Well, dango is a Japanese dumpling made from sweetened rice flour (aka mochiko). Mitarashi is the sweet soy sauce glaze that is poured onto the dango. Delicious!
I recently made mitarashi dango for a work potluck. Growing up, I helped my mom make dango, but this was my first solo attempt. I have to say, it was pretty easy and I was impressed with myself – I didn’t screw it up! There were a couple of odd things about the recipe I followed, but it turned out well. Not the best, but it was good.
The recipe I followed, called for mochiko and interestingly tofu. I don’t remember using tofu growing up, I thought we used mochiko and water. But for this particular recipe, the tofu provided the moisture to make the dough/mochi.
After I finished rolling them into small balls, I dropped them in boiling water . After a few short minutes, they began to float. If they didn’t float, it meant something went wrong. For the first few, I intensely watched to make sure they floated, luckily they all did. After they floated, I left them in the boiling water for a few extra minutes. So, here’s the other quirky thing about this recipe. When I scooped them out, I placed them directly onto a plate lined with a paper towel. I thought I would need to put them in bowl of ice water, but the recipe/directions didn’t mention any of that. Strange…either way it worked out okay.
Next, I made the mitarashi sauce. For that, all I needed to was mix up soy sauce, katakuriko/potato starch, water, and sugar and bring it to a boil while constantly mixing. Super easy!
Lastly, I needed to essemble. The only slight obstacle I ran into was skewering the dango. Since I placed the dango directly onto a plate with a paper towel lining, the dango kept sticking to my fingers. Eventually, I wetted both my hands and skewers and that seemed to help out. Once skewered, I placed them on a pan on low heat to brown them. Finally, I poured the yummy mitarashi sauce on it. All done!
I took it to my work potluck and everyone seemed to enjoy them. It had a nice chewy, mochi-mochi consistency. It could have been a bit softer, but I got approval from a Japanese coworker, so it made my day!
