Nira-mochi

That’s a savory rice cake or dumpling. Nira is “Chinese chive”.
About yellow nira
About green nira

About nira blossoms

Filling :
The filling base is same as for gyoza.

Filling Base :

For 2 dozens unflavored, 3 dozens flavored
(that depends on size/type of dumpling)

(to mix together and let a while in the fridge)
100 g ground pork (actually I used ground chicken)
1/2 onion, minced
1/2 ts pasted garlic
1/2 ts pasted ginger
2 cs soy sauce
4 cs sake
pepper, chili flakes

Flavoring : I added same volume of nira, next time I’ll add double or triple of nira as that melts…

Dough, for 8 pieces :
mochiko 30 g
rice flour with gluten 30 g
a glass of hot water
A little more rice flour for the table

-Mix the flours, add progressively water and kneed a little till you get a very soft paste (not very solid).
Cut in 3, then each in 3. That makes 9 because it’s nice to keep a little more dough to use as patch.
-Take a ball of dough in your hand, make it flat and sligthly pull on sides to make them wider. Keep a thicker center of circle. Add a small amount of filling, close the dough to make a ball.
-Steam about 20 minutes. I used a Chinese steam basket and oil cooking sheet in the bottom. Steaming can be done in a micro-wave.

These mochis can be served just after steaming, in a soup or a hotpot, or pan-fried. But you need to steam them before.

Note : with 50% of gluten-enriched rice flour, I took the easy way, they are easy to shape. To have a more “mochi” (or chewing-gum) texture and taste. You can use a bigger proportion of mochiko 2/3 and plain rice flour. With 100% mochiko… good luck to shape them “raw” but you can cook the mochiko like for daifuku mochi.

Daifuku mochi recipe + explanation about mochiko

Just steamed.