In Japanese national cuisine, rice is of utmost importance. Everything is made from it - from cold snacks to desserts. And also vodka and wine. Wheat and rye are not very popular here. Therefore , the Japanese prepare bakery products from rice flour. In this article, we will introduce you to several original recipes. For some of them, domoji flour is needed, and for others, Siratama. Rice in Japan has been cultivated since antiquity, so many varieties of this cereal have been bred. One of them is motigome. It differs from other rice varieties by its extraordinary stickiness and high sugar content. Both domoji and shiratama are made from motigome. Just the production process is slightly different. In addition, many dishes are prepared directly from motigome rice grains - for example, a very popular urine cake in Japan.
How to cook domoji flour at home
Fashion is a great thing. Having been in Japanese restaurants or sushi bars, we often want to reproduce the dishes we like in our own kitchen. And then a lot of difficulties await the European. Not only that, the gastronomic preferences of the Japanese are somewhat specific, but also the ingredients for the dishes are very exotic. Algae, special beans, sesame oil, ginger ... And if you can still get wasabi and sushi ingredients in supermarkets, it’s very difficult to get other products for Japanese cuisine. In the Land of the Rising Sun on the shelves of any grocery store you can find various types of rice flour. But this matter is also fixable here, if we get a special motigome rice. They look like short dull grains. If you grind them in an ordinary European coffee grinder to a state of fine powder, you will get domoji flour. And already from it you can cook a lot of dishes - at least the famous wagashi cakes.
What to cook from motigome
This kind of rice is usually steamed. The sweet wine Mirin is made from motigome. In fact, this type of glutinous and sweet rice is not suitable only for frying. It is added to zosui soup. It is used to prepare festive dishes of Japanese cuisine, sekikhan and ohagi. How to cook motigome correctly? Rinse the rice thoroughly with cold water and then throw it on a sieve. Cooking should begin in an hour - during this time the grains will absorb the remaining water and dry. In Japan, a special bamboo double boiler is used for this kind of rice. But if you cook motigome on water, then you need to mix it in a proportion of one to four with other varieties of this cereal.
Siratam flour
The cooking process is more complicated here. Motigome sticky rice is first soaked in water for a long time to soften. Then it is rubbed through a fine sieve and the mass is dried. It turns out very sticky, consisting of almost solid starch flour. It is used to make sweet dumplings and wagashi cakes. This flour has a delicate flavor and a texture of fine powder. Along with the egg and cold water, it serves as the main ingredient in tempura batter. Translucent noodles are often made from this rice flour. It is noteworthy that the Siratam flour has a neutral taste. Therefore, it acts as a good backdrop for other products with a more intense relish. But enough theory! Let's start cooking rice flour dishes.
Okonomi Yaki Japanese Pizza
In the national cuisine of the Land of the Rising Sun there are many dishes that use rice flour. Recipes are very different, from products with unleavened dough to sweet cakes. Okonomi Yaki is very easy to do. Unlike European pizza, you don’t need a special oven - a cake is fried in a pan in just five minutes. You are absolutely free to choose the filling. Rice flour (250 grams) can be made independently using a coffee grinder. Add to it a teaspoon of salt and soda. Gradually pour a glass of chicken stock. Knead the dough and set it aside for half an hour. Finely chop the egg, cabbage and 150 g of chicken. Pour a spoonful of vegetable oil into a preheated pan. We spread the dough, form the edges. We fry on low heat until a golden hue is obtained, then turn over, adding oil as needed. Lubricate the cake on one side with ketchup, put thin slices of cheese (100 g). We place the filling on top, cover the dish for a couple of minutes, so that the cheese melts. Pour the prepared pizza with soy sauce.
Tempura batter
“Heavenly food” - this is the literal translation of the name of the dish that Japanese cuisine is rightly proud of. Tempura recipes are very diverse, but the technology is the same: pieces of seafood, fish, vegetables or meat are dipped in batter and fried in sesame oil. Breading in this case is of paramount importance, because it protects the main ingredient from deep heat treatment. As a result, a crispy appetizing crust should be obtained from above, and inside, a tender, almost raw content. In order to make a batter for tempura, you need to take 300 grams of siratama flour and mix it with one chicken egg. Gradually add a few tablespoons of cold water to achieve a consistency of thick sour cream. If you add a little beer or soda to the dough, then when frying you get a bubble crust.
Senbey
To make these Japanese crackers, you need Siratama, a very sticky rice flour. Sweet Senbey recipes use domoji. We also need some ordinary flour. If we use only rice, crackers will come out too hard when cooled. So, we mix half a glass of wheat and rice flour, add salt to taste, four tablespoons of sesame and a pinch of baking powder. Slowly add water and knead a soft and elastic dough. Wrap it in cling film and put it in the refrigerator for one hour. After this time, roll out the dough on a floured surface. We form thin sausages, which we cut into cracker cakes. We cover the baking sheet with cooking paper. We put crackers and bake them at 200 degrees for five minutes. Turn over to the other side, cook another 10 minutes. Serve with green tea.
Yaki Gyoza
These dumplings are cooked in much the same way as ours. But there is a specificity - otherwise it would not be Japanese cuisine. Gödze recipes include the addition of other ingredients to minced meat and onion. Among them are soy and oyster sauces, sugar, sake, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, pureed steamed cabbage and black pepper. At the end, starch is added to the minced meat, then everything is cleaned in the refrigerator, infused. Dumplings dough is also prepared in a special - Japanese - way. Knead three glasses of rice flour with a teaspoon of salt. A little pour a glass of chilled water. The dough should come out very elastic. It should be wrapped in a film and let it brew for an hour. After that, we make dumplings in the usual way. But the gödze is not boiled, but fried - in any vegetable oil. When the sides of the dumplings are browned, pour boiling water into the pan. Reduce the fire to a minimum. We cover the pan, wait for the complete evaporation of the liquid.
Mitarashi Dango
This is a very common dessert in Japan. For its preparation, domoji flour is used. It is mixed with sugar and warm water and knead the dough. Balls are formed from it, which are thrown into boiling water or steamed. Dessert is watered with various gravy - chocolate, jam. In mitarashi, dango is soy sauce heated with starch and sugar syrup.