Bring a Little Mochi Magic to Your Lunar New Year

Photo by Nordeck Photography, Inc.

With the Year of the Tiger just around the corner (beginning on February 1), our minds are on Lunar New Year. In Japanese culture, mochi—a sticky rice cake made from short-grain rice—plays a starring role in the holiday. Mochi is seen as an omen of good fortune, so making mochi at the beginning of the year represents bringing good luck into the months ahead.

Mochi itself comes in many shapes and sizes: It can be made by pounding, steaming, baking, boiling, pounding, or even microwaving the ingredients, and it can lean sweet or savory, depending on how it’s prepared. Kaori Becker grew up eating mochi and, inspired by her mother and grandmother’s cooking and her love of dango, daifuku mochi, and mochi-based baked goods, she founded Kaori’s Kitchen, a cooking school where she and her mother teach mochi, ramen, and other Japanese and Asian cooking classes. Their popular five-course mochi-making classes inspired the creation of Mochi Magic, a beautiful book that teaches readers how to prepare the Japanese treat at home. (For more on everything Kaori loves about mochi, check out our interview with her.)

This Lunar New Year, treat yourself to a little mochi magic in your very own kitchen, with Kaori’s recipe for chocolate mochi and chocolate truffle filling.

Want to go above and beyond, and create the cutest mochi ever? Make your own neriki dough, dye it the colors of your choice, and craft a cast of mochi characters!

Recipes from Mochi Magic, by Kaori Becker. Published by Storey Publishing.

For more ways to make mochi magic this Lunar New Year, check out Mochi Magic, available on Indiebound and wherever books are sold.