Mugwort can be used in these rice cake recipes
By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor
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What do you do with a mugwort? You make a rice cake.
This first rice cake recipe is a very simple Japanese mochi cooked in the microwave and fashioned by hand. One caution: If your microwave is prone to hot spots (most older ones are), make the mochi at 80 percent power, stopping every two minutes to check for uneven cooking and rotate the dish; cook for 12 to 14 minutes total. This recipe is adapted from the "Unbearably Good Mochi Lovers Cookbook" by Teresa De Virgilio-Lam (1999, Morris Press).
You could use half the mugwort for a lighter green and more delicate flavor; powdered mugwort is a much lighter green than the fresh herb.
YOMOGI MOCHI
1 (1.5-ounce) package (2/3 cup) yomogiko (powdered mugwort)
1 1/2 cups mochiko (sweet rice flour)
1/4 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups water
Oil or vegetable spray
Kinako (soy flour)
Oil or spray an 8-by-8-inch glass baking dish.
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Pour into dish. Place a paper towel over the top of the baking dish; cover loosely with plastic wrap.
Microwave on high for 10 minutes, rotating dish twice during cooking.
Cool 10 minutes. Cut mochi with a serrated plastic knife. Working quickly, mold mochi with your hands to form small logs and roll in kinako.
Makes 24 pieces.
You can also roll the mochi pieces into small round cakes, or form into a 1/8-inch thick disc, fill with an bean paste and pull up edges to form a little purse. Work with wet hands so mochi doesn't stick to your hands. Dust with mochiko, if desired.
This is Marylene Chun's modern-day version of in sai biang, which makes use of both fresh mugwort and powdered mugwort to get the proper green color. This recipe makes about a dozen cakes.
IN SAI BIANG
Vegetable oil
2 cups loosely packed fresh mugwort leaves
Pinch baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
1 scant tablespoon vegetable oil
1 1/4 CUP RICE FLOUR (NOT SWEET RICE FLOUR, MOCHIKO)
1/2 CUP YOMOGIKO (POWDERED MUGWORT)
Fill wooden in sai molds with oil; reserve.
Boil 3 cups water in a medium-size pot; add pinch of baking soda and then fresh mugwort leaves. Boil leaves for 2 minutes. Drain leaves, reserving liquid.
Process leaves with 1/2 cup reserved cooking liquid in a blender or food processor until finely chopped. Drain in colander, pressing out liquid with back of spoon. Reserve this liquid along with the previous liquid.
In a medium-size saucepan, mix together 1 cup reserved cooking liquid from mugwort, sugar, and 1 scant tablespoon oil. Bring to a boil. Turn down heat to low and gradually whisk in the rice flour and yomogiko. Add the boiled mugwort leaves, kneading them in. The dough will be very stiff. Keep stirring and turning the dough over low heat until the flour absorbs the water and the mugwort is distributed throughout the dough; at least 10 minutes. It will be the texture of thick bread dough.
Turn the dough out onto an oiled surface, or just oil your hands and work in the cooled pot. Knead the dough 5-10 minutes.
Drain molds of oil. Place a steaming pot on the stove, filled with water, and bring to medium heat.
Pinch off a ball of dough about 2 inches in diameter and press into mold. Carefully peel cake out of mold and trim with scissors.
Place each finished cake on a plate or pan. Once you've used up all the dough, place the pan inside a steaming basket above the simmering water; water must not touch bottom of steaming basket or rack. Place a dish towel on top of the pot and then put on the lid, to prevent condensation from forming and dropping onto the cakes. Steam about 10-15 minutes, keeping the water at a low simmer. Do not allow to boil. Makes about a dozen in sai biang.
These cakes can be kept, covered, at room temperature for a day; refrigerate if you're keeping them longer.
You can drink the reserved liquid as a healthful tea, said to be good for liver, digestion and female complaints.
This is a different recipe, made only with fresh leaves, attributed to Helen Lee. She called these cakes lin sai biang.
LIN SAI BIANG
Oil
1/2 cup water
1 pound Chinese brown slab sugar
1 1/2 cups lin sai leaf, washed clean
1 cup long-grain rice, soaked in water for 2 hours
1/2 CUP WATER
1 pound rice flour (NOT sweet rice flour, mochiko)
2 cups water
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
Fill wooden lin sai molds with oil; reserve.
Boil together 1/2 cup water and brown sugar until sugar melts. Reserve.
Drain rice. Combine lin sai leaf with rice and 1/2 cup water and grind until smooth in blender, about 4 minutes. Reserve.
In a bowl, add 2 cups water to 1 pound rice flour, mixing until a smooth paste texture. Slowly add lin sai mixture, combining until smooth. Slowly add sugar mixture, combining until smooth.
Place in pot on stove and boil 8 minutes, slowly allowing it to thicken like gravy, mixing until it is like dough. Let stand 15 minutes on low heat, turning occasionally.
Allow dough to cool until you can handle it and then turn out on oiled surface. Knead, drizzling 5 tablespoons of vegetable oil onto the dough and kneading it in, until dough is smooth.
Drain molds of oil. Place a steaming pot on the stove, filled with water, and bring to medium heat.
Pinch off a ball of dough about 2 inches in diameter and press into mold. Carefully peel cake out of mold and trim with scissors.
Place each finished cake on a plate or pan. Once you've used up all the dough, place the pan inside a steaming basket above the simmering water. Place a towel on top of the pot and then put on the lid, to prevent condensation from forming and dropping onto the cakes. Steam 15-20 minutes, keeping the water at a low simmer. Do not allow to boil.
Makes 2 dozen cakes.
Reach Wanda A. Adams at wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.
