Korean Red Bean Filled Mochi

I love love love rice cakes!  And I found a recipe for rice cakes that are my absolute favorite.  They are the korean mochi that are filled with a red bean filling.  The filling a made of a red bean paste that is just a little bit sweet without being overly sweet but has the smooth consistency that just fills your mouth.  I grew up with these little rice cakes having two for any given meal or just having one as a snack.  They are readily available at any korean market, but as with everything, wouldn't it be better to be able to make it at home where you know that all the ingredients are fresh and no fillers were added?  Therefore I will try out this recipe and compare them to the ones from my past.

The recipe is pretty simple and it makes plenty.  So give it a whirl and tell me what you think.  These can be made to be any color and even flavors can be added.  Just add a drop of food coloring or 1 teaspoon of green tea powder can be added.  As for other flavoring I have yet to test out, but if they are in powder form I'm guessing that it can be added like the green tea powder is.

1 cup dried red azuki beans
3 cups water
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons corn syrup
1 cup sweet rice flour or mochiko powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup starch powder (corn, potato, or any starch can be used)

Put the red beans in a pot after washing them with the 3 cups of water and bring to a rolling boil for 10 minutes on high heat.  Then lower the heat and let simmer for 1 1/2 hours.  If you are not able to mash the beans with a wooden spoon add more water and cook for a while longer.
Mash the beans or use a food processor to mass the beans until smooth.  Return to the pot and add the brown sugar, salt, vanilla extract, and corn syrup.  Heat up over low heat until the sugar is melted.  Should be shiny and thick, when it is done, set aside to cool.
Mix the sweet rice flour, salt and sugar in a microwave safe bowl.  Then add the water (with the food coloring or green tea powder) and mix until well incorporated.  Then cover with plastic wrap but leave a little gap on one side and microwave for 3 minutes.  Take it out of the microwave and mix, the inside of the ball of dough will not be cooked so you have to mix it to make sure all the rice cake is cooked.  Wrap again leaving a gap on one side and microwave for 1 minute again.  Take the rice cake out of the microwave and mix vigorously in a circular motion.  You should mix for about 100 times to make the rice cakes nice and chewy.
Next, cover a cutting board with a starch powder (like corn starch or potato starch) and flip out the rice cake onto the cutting board.  Flatten and shape into a rectangle.  Then cut into 8 equal portions.  Then you will take a portion and flatten so that a ball of red bean filling can fit inside.  Put a ball in the middle of the rice cake and then pinch the sides of the rice cake shut around it.  Dust with a little bit of the starch and repeat with each of the 8 portions of rice cake.

This recipe is a little more time consuming and complicated then the others, but the results are the same as the ones bought at the store.  I hope that you will try and love them as well.
Happy chomps and nibbles.
 

Lemon Bars

These lemon bars, I believe are the ones that were sold at a little cafe in Los Angeles.  I believe they are really good lemon bars and that they taste unbelievably close to the ones that I had tried at this one place.  I don't want to say where but I think that all lovers of lemon bars might know where it was that that they were good.  I think that there was a thicker lemon layer in the one that I had tried, but these are so close that you'd probably get the same by adding more of the filling and baking them for a little longer.
I guess the secretiveness of this entry might not be necessary, but I don't want to get into any trouble with anyone so, I think that I will leave the name of this place out, just in case.

Lemon Bars
8 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour
pinch of salt

6 eggs
3 cups sugar
zest from about 6 lemons
1 cup fresh lemon juice
1 cup flour
powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add the flour and the salt and mix on low.  Flatten the dough into a 8 by 8 inch baking pan, building up a 1 inch edge on all sides.  Chill.  Bake the crust until very lightly browned.  Cool.
Whisk together sugar and flour, then add the lemon juice, eggs and lemon zest.  Pour over the crust and bake until the filling is set.  There should not be any jiggling when tapped.  Then cool and cut and dust with powdered sugar.

They will make you pucker but they will taste sweet and make you want to take another bite.  I hope that these will be a staple in your homes just as it has become in mine.  Happy chomps and nibbles.

Chcocolate Cheesecake

So for this week, my project was finding a cheesecake recipe, a chocolate cheesecake recipe that I like.  I wanted the recipe to be simple and easy.  I found one on epicurious that only has 12 ingredients, which for a cheesecake is a pretty small number.  It calls for nuts in the crust but, being that there are lots of people with nut allergies, I decided to omit.  And then it called for lemon zest and I thought that with the chocolate and nutmeg to spice it up a bit, it wouldn't need it as well.  So the recipe is for a swirled chocolate cheesecake, but who needs the swirl if its all chocolate and delicious?  With that said, I changed the recipe as I needed and just made a chocolate cheesecake.

the recipe:
7 ounces oreo cookies
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 pound cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 325°F.   Lightly butter muffin pan.  Finely crush cookies and sugar.  Add butter and mix well.  Press crumb mixture into bottom of pan.
Melt the chocolate chips in a bowl over simmering water, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat.  Using a mixer, beat cream cheese in a bowl until there are no lumps.  Gradually beat in sugar.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add sour cream, vanilla, and nutmeg and beat until just combined.  Add melted chocolate to batter and mix well.  Pour into pan evenly distributing.  Bake until tester inserted in center comes out clean, or until the cheesecake jiggles as one unit.  Cool completely on rack.  Cover with plastic and refrigerate overnight. 

I think that everything is always better with a scoop of vanilla ice cream so, I served the cheesecake a la mode.  Ice cream and chocolate cheesecake.  How can you go wrong with that?

Happy chomps and nibbles.