How Mochi is made traditionally (Mochi pounding) 〜餅つき〜 | easy Japanese home cooking recipe

welcome to taja's Kitchen today I'm going to show you how to make Mochi traditionally so in Japan making Mochi traditionally is something to do in the New Year's couple years ago I made a video about Japanese New Year's and this I show how mochi's done with a machine but this is not how it's done traditionally and many households don't do this anymore but my friends friend was very nice enough to invite me to make this Mochi tradition uh you can hear a little bit in the background they're making moochi so I'm going to show you in detail how it's done traditionally so I hope this stick to the end and hope you enjoy this video then let's get started the Gathering I was invited to was a family event there were over 30 people from eight families every year they come together on the 30th of December to make Mochi [Music] traditionally this is the rice for Mochi which is different from normal Japanese sticky rice it has much higher storage content and that's why it looks so white and become so sticky and because of that it needs to be soaked in water for overnight which they have already done and also because of that it needs to be steamed and not cooked unlike regular rice it needs to be steamed for over 45 minutes and therefore they have three steaming cases stock over each other this family also gathers wood pieces all year round so that they can make this fire for steaming Emoji at the end of the year the bottom of the steaming case has been cooking for 45 minutes now then this is ready to be pounded before being pounded the steam Mochi rice needs to be kneaded very well many people think that the pounding part is the most important thing but actually this kneading part is the most important part of making really smooth Mochi traditionally Mochi is made with these two tools wooden hammer called kin and stone motor like Base called USU this needing should be done repeatedly with turning over the Mochi every now and then [Music] and then after KN for 10 minutes or so the pounding finally starts for the pounding it is always done with a partner who does that folding on the side this person is called tayi meaning flipping over with hands in pound Emoji the timing and the of these two people are very important the person doing Tashi or flipping the moochi needs to bring the edge to the middle so the Mochi will pounded [Music] evenly [Music] oi also needs to be turned over several times so the moo will be smooth and evenly pounded making Mochi is actually quite a long tiring process and best to be done with a large group of people so that people can take turns pounding Mochi and that's why many household in Japan unfortunately don't do this anymore and this is also a fun activity for children of different [Music] ages [Music] [Applause] [Music] go [Music] these people have been doing this since they were a child so this man's body coordination is like a [Music] pro [Music] this was actually my second time doing this in my life what do you think am I doing this okay [Music] fore [Music] can you see that the mojji is getting smoother as it gets pounded okay after Moi has being pounded thoroughly about 10 to 15 minutes or so then the Mochi dough will be taken to the next step depending on how they will be eaten this Mochi will be flatten to make so-called K Mochi which is a cut up Mochi where the Mochi is cut into rectangle pieces and will be grilled mostly to be [Music] eaten this flattening of Mochi for a kitty Mochi actually takes some skill to make this evenly she definitely knows what she's doing after the flatten Mochi has cooled down it hardens and be ready to be cut into pieces like this this is over 20 kg worth of rice being pounded and these round shaped Mochi will be made into So-Cal kagami Mochi a very traditional offering for the gods that we make as a decoration for the New Year's as I explained Kitty Mochi will be grilled like this and commonly dipped in soy sauce and wrapped in Nori seaweed other Mochi that'll be eaten on that day will be flavored with different toppings this is savory sauce of gr daon with soy sauce and this is kako roasted soybean powder sweetened with sugar unle and this is typical topping of Uncle for sweet red bean paste this family make their Uncle themselves as [Music] [Music] well oh this looks so delicious let's eat like mous okay let's start with this grilled Mochi with soy sauce and Nori seaweed oh delicious maybe unusual for you guys but salty Mochi is also very good and Grill soy sauce is just amazing especially with the noris seaweed and this one with the daon sheep or the great daon radish with soy sauce you like M oh I love this this D radish is really [Music] refreshing and the other two are sweet Moi one with anle paste M oh I love unle so delicious and this last one is kinaki also very delicious EG M so good this is actually my favorite oh so delicious go much stop and I was also invited to another family Mochi pounding this was done pretty much the same way but atmosphere was very different and they also had some other methods and flavor so it was very interesting to see the different variation of Mochi making this family gathering was more for the kids to enjoy making Mochi this old man and his wife has been doing this together for over 50 years the was totally in [Music] sync they also put different flavorings to the Mochi the screen leaves are called Yogi a typical thing to put into Mochi for the aroma but also for the color [Music] [Music] [Music] this family also made Mochi with many different kind of toping and sauces typical kinako and anco of course but also Walnut sweet miso sweet Umi sauce and so on [Music] they also put some purple sweet potato paste which is not common at all but gives beautiful color to the [Music] mochi and at the end they all enjoy eating Mochi together with miso soup as their [Music] lunch and of course when all is finished all the tools need to be washed thoroughly and put away until next year thank you so so much for watching I hope you enjoyed this video and if you did please hit the like button I'll also be very interested in hearing your feedbacks otherwise I'll see you in the next video bye there