Today, I'd like to introduce a Japanese sweet called botamochi, which is made from rice and red beans paste.
Botamochi is considered one of the traditional Japanese sweets( wagashi ). When I hear the word, wagashi, it sounds sophisticated, but botamochi isn't fancy at all. It's the kind of sweet that grandmas often make. When I was a kid, my granny often made it too, and she loved shearing some of them with our neighbors. Every time I see botamochi, it reminds me of her. I guess many Japanese have similar memories of botamochi, a sweet with the nostalgic taste of grandma’s cooking..
Making it is quite simple, and let me explain how to make it. Some people mix Japanese regular rice with glutinous rice, but I prefer using only glutinous rice because it's easier.
First, wash the rice, and soak it in water about for one hour.
Add 2 cups of water into 2 cups of rice, and cook it with a rice cooker.
Once the rice is cooked, form it into small balls.
Prepare red beans paste. I made this one day before.
Simply cover the rice balls with the red beans paste, and you're done!
That's it. I think everybody has a special dish that reminds them of their grandmas. Now, I'm making botamochi for my grandson. He is still too young to remember it, but one day when he grows up, I hope that he'll think of this as my special flavor.
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Yumi @yumiyumayume Is it a common meal in Japan, and could Rodrigo Tanaka have eaten it in Sendai prison?
Probably, it was hard for him to eat botamochi in prison because it was difficult for people to get sugar back then. Only top class people could have it, so before being arrested he might have it.
When I was a child, I removed anko from botamochi and only ate mochi-gome. I didn't like anko :D
@Aki_ I understand it very well because when I was a kid, I didn't like botamochi itself at all. I've missed my granny's botamochi a lot now though.