Eating cherry blossom cakes (Sakura Mochi 桜餅 in Japanese) is a tradition in the cherry blossoming season in Japan.There are two kinds of Mochi, one is called Tokyo style which is fried sticky rice pancake, the other is called Kansai style made by steamed glutinous rice with red bean paste filling. They are called Cherry Blossom Cakes because they are eaten in the special season and occasion, and they are both wrapped by salted cherry blossom leaves.
Left: Kansai style Right: Tokyo style
Originally I planned to eat Sakura Mochi with friends under the cherry blossom trees, but the weather didn't give me a chance---just one cold and cloudy weekend,70% of the cherry blossoms fell off...
But I will make Mochi anyways, even I have to eat them indoors. If you have pickled some cherry blossom leaves(see recipe underneath), it is quite easy to make these authentic Japanese style desserts. You can even make them in microwave!
Mochi (Kansai style)
Glutinous rice 160g
water 150ml
caster sugar 2 tbsps
red bean paste 150g
red food colour
salted (pickled) cherry blossom leaves: 8 pieces
Soak the leaves in water for 10 minutes to get rid of the extra salt. Soak the rice for at least two hours or overnight, strain and dry the rice, and then grind in a mortar until the grains are roughly quartered.Steam the rice with the amount of water mentioned in the recipe for ?? minutes. Melt the sugar in a little amount of extra water, mix with one or two drops of red food colour, or adjust according to your preference. The final outcome should be very light pink. When the rice is steamed, add the pink sugar-water and mix well, steam for another 15 minutes.At the same time, make the red bean paste into eight small round balls.
When the rice is done, separate it into eight equal portions. Put one piece of cling film in your palm, flatten one portion in the film. Do this when the rice is still warm, put one red bean ball in the middle and wrap the rice around the filling and form a round ball. Use one cherry blossom leaf to wrap the rice ball and the Mochi is done!
Recipe of Pickled Cherry Blossom Leaves
I made my pickled leaves together with the cherry blossoms this time. Make sure that you pick the right leaves---Cerasus lannesiana var. speciosa (大岛樱), which you can see some photos here.
Cherry Blossom Leaves 50g
salt 10g (20% of the weight of the leaves)
salt 10g (20% of the weight of the leaves)
Plum vinegar 50ml
把樱叶用水冲洗干净。煮沸一锅水，投入樱叶汆烫几秒，捞起来过凉水，略为沥干。樱叶会霎时间散发出明显的香气。沥干的樱叶，把相同大小的上下重叠在一起。每十片叶子一叠，叶子与叶子之间撒上三分之一份量的盐，确保每片叶子的两面都沾上了盐，然后把每一叠樱叶依着中间的叶梗对折，我们就得到了几小叠对折好的樱叶。把它们并排在腌渍容器里，撒上剩下的盐，均匀淋入白梅醋，覆盖以保鲜膜，上边压上重物，在避光阴凉处腌渍。三日后撤掉重物，用保鲜膜密实包好，放冰箱冷藏或冷冻保存。需要用时，取出来水浸十分钟去掉多余盐分即可。
