Ichigo Daifuku

Tuesday: Ichigo Daifuku I was contemplating what items would be nice to place in my sister's bento box for school and it hit me. Ichigo Daifuku! I had just bought a package of strawberries the other day and they were perfectly ripe. I also had some left over sweet bean paste from another recipe. So I simply wrapped each strawberry in a thin layer of bean paste and then wrapped them in a daifuku skin which I dyed pink with food coloring. The mochi recipe I use is very simple and is as follows:

Daifuku

1. Prepare your work area with potato starch.

2. Sift together 1 cup of glutinous rice flour with 1/4 cup of confectioner's sugar into a small pot.

3. In a small cup mix together 1 cup of water and the preferred coloring (I used 2 drops of red dye).

4. Add the water to the pot containing the flour and sugar and stir over medium heat until the mixture becomes sticky, transparent and "mochi-like".

5. Once the dough is ready dump it onto your potato startched surface and then soak the pot in water (if you do this asap it makes the pot easier to clean.)

6. Dust you're hands generously with potato flour and begin to divide the dough into smaller portions.

7. Wrap your filling with the mochi skin and dust with some more potato starch.

8. Now you have Daifuku! Eat and enjoy!