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Mochi isn’t just for sweets
In the US, mochi has gained popularity in its “yukimi daifuku” style: ice cream-filled mochi. Of course, even Japanese love ice cream with their mochi. However, mochi is a versatile food that can be eaten in some surprising ways.
- It can be filled with sweetened azuki bean paste and strawberry for a classic ichigo daifuku mochi.
- Mochi can be put into hot, sweetened azuki beans. That’s a food called zenzai.
- Ozoni is a hot, savory vegetable soup with hot, soft, melty mochi swimming inside.
- Simple grilled mochi wrapped in seaweed is called yaki-mochi.
Grilling Sticky Rice Cakes
Grilling mochi is not only how you make yaki-mochi. While plain, hard, dry mochi can be placed in a hot ozoni or zenzai, grilling soft mochi can speed up the process of preparing the food.
The trouble with grilling mochi is that it is fantastically sticky. If you aren’t prepared, you might have a sticky disaster on your hands.
Mochi Grill Net
The good news is that our friends at Akebono have the perfect tool for grilling mochi at home without a sticky mess: the Mochi Grill Net. The mochi grill net has a specially designed surface texture designed to prevent mochi from sticking to it while your nuke your mochi in the microwave.
How to make grilled mochi with a grill net
The process of making grilled mochi is very simple.
Dip mochi in water
First, you need some soft mochi. Take each divided piece of mochi and dip it into water then place it on the mochi grill net.
Cook in the microwave
Place the mochi grill net with the mochi into the microwave and cook it. Cooking time depends on the size of each piece of mochi and how much total mochi you have on the net, as well as the power of your microwave.
| 500w | 600-700w | 800-1000w | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50g | 40-50s | 30-40s | 20-30s |
| 100g | 80-90s | 60-70s | 40-50s |
Additionally, if you are using frozen mochi, you should add 15-20 seconds more to the microwave time.
Until you get used to grilling mochi in your microwave, you should keep a close eye on it as it’s grilling to ensure it doesn’t overcook or burn.
Peel from grill net
Once your mochi is grilled, use some chopsticks to peel the mochi off of the grill net. The water and the texture of the grill net make it relatively easy to peel the mochi off the net.
Now you’re ready to wrap it in nori, dunk it in an ozoni soup, or put it in zenzai for a nice, hot, gooey mochi treat.
Enjoy Grilled Rice?
If you’re now an enjoyer of grilled rice, then we recommend you check out our recipe for making yaki onigiri.
