Moffles

maki — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 15:59:00 +0100

As I’ve been slowly making my way through our stuff and deciding what to keep and pack, what to try to sell, and what to just throw away, I encountered the neglected electric waffle/panini maker in the depths of a kitchen cabinet. I can’t even remember the last time I used it. I do remember that we got it for free, via a buyer’s incentive scheme sort of like frequent flyer miles, run by one of our local supermarket chains (it’s Coop Supercard, for people living in Switzerland). I think I’ve used it about 5, 6 times tops, all but one of those times to make panini. I’m just not a waffle person I guess.

So, as I pondered whether I was going to get rid of the waffle maker at the garage sale coming up next week or just dump it, an idea popped into my head. Why not try to make moffles with it? Moffles　(pronounced moffuru) are a Japanese invention, which have been popular for a couple of years. They are basically mochi cakes cooked in a waffle-maker like contraption called, of course, a moffle maker.

Apparently the moffle was the brainchild of an employee of an electric appliance maker who was giving an instore demo of a regular waffle maker. She overheard a customer saying “If you could use that thing for cooking mochi, it might actually be useful” or words to that effect. Back at the office, she tried cooking mochi in the waffle iron and found it surprisingly easy. Thus, the moffle was born.

So, here is how I went about making moffles in a regular electric waffle maker. (A moffle maker has shallower, round dimples rather than the deep square ones in a waffle maker.) Incidentally, my waffle maker is from Tefal. It’s a clamshell type, has a simple dial-timer, detachable plates for making waffles or panini, and annoyingly switches on as soon as it’s plugged in.

Recipe: Moffle or moffuru （モッフル）

First, brush the surface of the waffle iron plates with a little melted butter or oil as they heat up. The mochi can stick a bit (especially on the square edges of the waffle plate) and this is to prevent that as well as to add a bit of flavor.

Place one square mochi cake on each plate.

Now lower the lid and press gently. The lid will not close, due to the thickness of the mochi, but as you keep pressing gently the mochi will soften and spread, becoming thinner, until you can close the lid completely. As soon as you can, set the timer to 2 minutes or so, more if you want it really crispy and a bit toasted on the outside.

And when the time’s up: Voilà, moffles!

Moffles are often filled with something savory or sweet. Here I’ve kept it simple and put some sliced cheese on one of the moffles.

I then put the other moffle on top, and closed the waffle maker lid again for about a minute or so. This produces a grilled cheese moffle sandwich. This is how it looks like when it’s done…

Here’s a plate of grilled cheese moffle, cut into quarters. The yellowness of the cheese can be seen through the translucent white moffle.

To make thinner, smaller and crispier moffles, you can slice a mochi cake horizontally in half (you can do this easily with a just-opened fresh mochi cake, using a sharp knife. In Japan, thinly sliced mochi called shabu-shabu mochi are often used). Once you can close the lid, which should be just about immediately, set the timer to 2 minutes.

You can eat the moffles singly with just a little soy sauce instead of filling them. I like them best like this I think. They should go well with anything that goes with regular grilled mochi cakes, like kinako (toasted ground soybean powder) mixed with sugar, or grated daikon radish and soy sauce.

You can also treat them as you would regular waffles, and put on syrup, melted butter, chocolate sauce, etc. as you prefer. However, they are not like flour-and-egg waffles - they are like thin mochi cakes, crispy-chewy on the outside, gooey on the inside, and bland. If you like mochi, you’ll love moffles. And of course they are gluten-free, since they’re made of pounded rice.

They are not low in calories, but they are very filling. One cheese filled moffle using 2 mochi cakes and 30g of cheese is about 400 calories, but half of one is plenty for a snack. They must be eaten freshly cooked and hot, since they turn hard when cool. They are not suitable for bentos.

The best thing is that they cook up so fast, and are very filling - great for snacks. I think I will keep the waffle maker after all.

Ozouni or ozohni or ozoni: Mochi soup for the New Year

maki — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:00:24 +0100

Happy New Year! I wanted to post this a little earlier, but better late than never I hope!

During the New Year holiday period, traditionally rice is not cooked, to give a rest to the cook. Instead, dried mochi cakes were used as the carbohydrate. Ozouni (お雑煮おぞうに), which literally means ‘mixed stew’, is a soup with mochi cakes in it. There is no one set recipe, and there are lots of regional variations. This one is a simple Kanto (Tokyo area) style ozouni, the way my mother makes it. It’s very simple, not to mention economical - just clear soup, greens, chicken and mochi. Garnish is optional.

Recipe: Kanto style Ozouni (関東風お雑煮）

For 4 servings

5 cups of dashi stock, using plenty of bonito flakes
2 Tbs. soy sauce
1 Tbs. sake (leave out if you can’t use sake)
1/2 tsp. salt
100g / about 3 oz. dark or light meat chicken, cut into bite size pieces
About 200g / 6 oz (a bunch) of dark greens, such as komatsuna (traditional), spinach, etc. (I used bok choi here)
4 mochi cakes
Pink kamaboko for garnish

Heat up the oven to 200°C / 400°F, or use a toaster oven or grill. Grill or bake the mochi cakes until they puff up a bit. They may get lightly browned on top, which is fine.

Wash and chop the greens roughly.

Heat up the dashi if you premade it. Add the soy sauce, sake and salt. Add the greens, and simmer until limp but still bright green. Add the chicken pieces and simmer a few minutes.

Add the mochi and simmer for a couple of minutes until the mochi is soft, but don’t let it sit too long or the mochi will turn into a sticky goo.

Serve in miso soup bowls, garnished with a slice of pink kamaboko. Other garnishes you can use: mitsuba, chopped green onions, a sprinkle of sansho pepper, zest of yuzu.

Notes

There is a reason for using green　leafy vegetables (菜　な　na) and chicken (鶏　とり　tori). Combined they were ‘read’ na o toru （なをとる）which can mean to advance in life.

Kamaboko is a fish cake. You can find it at any Japanese grocery. The pink kind (actually pink on the outside, white on the inside) is used as garnish here since pink is considered to be a lucky/festive color. You can also use pink-and-white naruto instead.

In the Kyoto area, a white miso soup made with sweet Saikyo miso (see miso primer) is made. It has round vegetables in it for luck and peace - 円満　(えんまん　enman) such as taro roots cut into rounds, slices of daikon radish, carrot, etc.

In other regions they add other things. In Hokkaido they might add salmon, crab, salmon caviar (ikura) and so on.

Mochi cakes are also available at a Japanese grocery store. You can get square or round ones. Round ones are traditionally used in the Kansai (Kyoto-Osaka) region and to the west, while square ones are used in the Kanto (Tokyo) region and east/north. Either one is ok to use.

Please be careful when eating mochi, especially when it’s in ozouni. Mochi is very glutinous and dense. Every year, a few people die in Japan around New Year’s from choking on mochi. ou need to bite off small chunks and chew it well. Be careful of giving it to very small children - cut it into very small pieces for them.

Finally, if you’re watching your weight, be aware that one piece of mochi is about 130 calories, so you might want go easy on things like cheese mochi, delicious as it may be.