菓子 Kashi (Dessert)

* 練り切り　Nerikiri (What should I name this? Any idea?) Now I’m very proud of the progress I made. This was the nerikiri I made in autumn 2005. Just like a kid’s work with playdough, isn’t it? Now look at the top photo, my best work this time. What do you say? A teenager’s work with playdough, maybe? ;P I tried making a color gradation with white and orange dough, and I think I did a good job for the first try. Nerikiri is basically sweetened white bean paste, but often yam or gyuhi is added to make it smooth and flexible. Last year I tried adding steamed yam, so this time I tried adding gyuhi. Gyuhi is made by mixing mochiko (rice flour), water and sugar over a low heat. The trick I used this time was adding a little egg white when mixing rice flour and water. I read somewhere that egg white is often used to make wagashi whiter, and somehow I thought it would be better to mix it with gyuhi than with the bean paste, though I can’t really tell you why. Anyway, it seems to have worked. The technique of making a color gradation is called “bokashi.” You combine two pieces of dough in different colors and roll them out together. Then you fold it and roll it out again, as described in this site. (Scroll down to find the bokashi part).　Notice that the borderline between the two colors in the upper half is not brought exactly onto that in the lower half. This slip is what that makes the color gradation. It was so much fun playing with the color, and the texture of this gyuhi-mixed one was 100 times better than what I made last year. Honestly. With nice, hot green tea, this nerikiri made a perfect dessert to conclude my kaiseki project in autumn 2006. ---- So this was obachan’s crazy kaiseki weekend in November 2006. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did ;) Oh, if you don't mind, can you tell me which dish you liked the best and why? Categories: Japanese