Introduction
This Japanese rice dumpling dish comes in many forms, but because of its simplicity, you can transform and enhance it to become almost anything. Dango is essentially just small, cooked rice dumplings on a skewer. They can be flavored by mixture, sauce, coating, or even the water that they’re cooked in. The options are nearly limitless, as the rice flour itself has very little flavor, allow it simply serve as a vessel for other flavors, or a base for a more complex concoction. Now, the traditional flavors of dango are still plenty tasty, but this recipe becomes so much more fun when you get creative and make the dango your own way.
Make this dish when…
This dish is fairly simple, doesn’t require too much work (including cleanup), and once you get it down, it can probably be whipped up in around 30 minutes. Because of the creativity allowed, this dish can easily be adapted to a wide variety of occasions: make creepy eye-ball dango for Halloween, pastel-colored dango for Easter, etc.
Don’t make this dish when…
The only time I wouldn’t recommend this dish is if you don’t want to get your hands dirty, have less than 30 minutes, or simply don’t like rice. For the most part, it’s just a matter of taste.
Statistics
Dish Type: Snack
Health Value: Depends on how exactly you make, but for the most part, these are like bread
Serving Size: Depends on a lot of things, but a batch will almost certainly be more than enough for 1 person
Preparation Difficulty: Fairly easy, once you get the hang of it
Preparation Time: 30-45 minutes, depending on how fast you can get the dough ready
Shelf-Life: A few hours (though this can be slightly extended by keeping the components separate)
Freshness Requirements: Probably best when fresh, but can be refrigerated
Vegetarian/Vegan Concerns: Unless you put meat in them, they’re totally fine
Pre-cooked Edibility: Probably gross and sticky, but shouldn’t really be a problem
1/31/09
Dango (continued)
What You Need
Ingredients
1. 1 cup Mochiko (Sweet Rice Flour)
2. Water (the amount can vary)
3. Whatever extras you want!
Equipment
1. Medium-Large mixing bowl
2. Measuring cup
3. Cutting Board
4. Large pot
5. Plastic Plates (paper will work, but plastic is preferable)
6. Strainer-Spatula/Ladel (the key is the strainer part; you can use almost any kind of strainer if you have to, but the long handle is very useful)
7. Bamboo Skewers (not necessarily required, but they’re the traditional serving style)
A Few Questions Before We Begin…
What kind of dango are you making? To answer this question, you can look outward to see what kinds of dango already exist (there are many), or you can look inward to your creativity and come up with your own kind. Whatever you come up with should essentially be a variation of the original recipe by either adding something to or exchanging something in (either in whole or in part) from said original recipe. Even though the recipe is only rice flour and water, there is still plenty of substitution that can be done. Water, both when creating the dough and when cooking, can be replaced (in whole or in part) with other liquids (just beware of burning the sugars in some juices; I recommend doing only a partial replacement if you want to use juice for cooking). If you use a custom liquid during the dough-creation, it will most likely have a stronger impact than if used cooking. Also note that features of a liquid (like viscosity) will have an effect on dango texture. As far as dry ingredients go, you can add different powders or similarly ground-up ingredients (like sugar), but these may effect dango texture and may require additional water to properly mix. You can also coat the finished dango with a powder-esque mixture as well by simply rolling them in it (sugar is once again a possibility if you want sweet dango, but it doesn’t have to be! You could use ground beef jerky if you really wanted to…). You also try skewering different things along with your dango to create a more complex dish. Lastly, you can also consider sauces for putting on top of your dango; nearly any kind can work. Ultimately, it’s all up to you; just use your judgment and avoid bad combos (I can’t even think of one, but it’s probably for the best; I don’t want anyone trying something nasty just to try it). You can also do other interesting things to the dango, like giving it a light grilling once it has been cooked, or just putting it into a soup. One last thing to consider is your ratio between water and mochiko: more mochiko results in chewier, firmer, and dryer dango (yes, they can seem a bit dry believe it or not), while more water naturally results in the opposite.
Ingredients
1. 1 cup Mochiko (Sweet Rice Flour)
2. Water (the amount can vary)
3. Whatever extras you want!
Equipment
1. Medium-Large mixing bowl
2. Measuring cup
3. Cutting Board
4. Large pot
5. Plastic Plates (paper will work, but plastic is preferable)
6. Strainer-Spatula/Ladel (the key is the strainer part; you can use almost any kind of strainer if you have to, but the long handle is very useful)
7. Bamboo Skewers (not necessarily required, but they’re the traditional serving style)
A Few Questions Before We Begin…
What kind of dango are you making? To answer this question, you can look outward to see what kinds of dango already exist (there are many), or you can look inward to your creativity and come up with your own kind. Whatever you come up with should essentially be a variation of the original recipe by either adding something to or exchanging something in (either in whole or in part) from said original recipe. Even though the recipe is only rice flour and water, there is still plenty of substitution that can be done. Water, both when creating the dough and when cooking, can be replaced (in whole or in part) with other liquids (just beware of burning the sugars in some juices; I recommend doing only a partial replacement if you want to use juice for cooking). If you use a custom liquid during the dough-creation, it will most likely have a stronger impact than if used cooking. Also note that features of a liquid (like viscosity) will have an effect on dango texture. As far as dry ingredients go, you can add different powders or similarly ground-up ingredients (like sugar), but these may effect dango texture and may require additional water to properly mix. You can also coat the finished dango with a powder-esque mixture as well by simply rolling them in it (sugar is once again a possibility if you want sweet dango, but it doesn’t have to be! You could use ground beef jerky if you really wanted to…). You also try skewering different things along with your dango to create a more complex dish. Lastly, you can also consider sauces for putting on top of your dango; nearly any kind can work. Ultimately, it’s all up to you; just use your judgment and avoid bad combos (I can’t even think of one, but it’s probably for the best; I don’t want anyone trying something nasty just to try it). You can also do other interesting things to the dango, like giving it a light grilling once it has been cooked, or just putting it into a soup. One last thing to consider is your ratio between water and mochiko: more mochiko results in chewier, firmer, and dryer dango (yes, they can seem a bit dry believe it or not), while more water naturally results in the opposite.
Dango (continued)
Now On To Business
WARNING: Read through this recipe at least once before cooking!
Sadly, I cannot give you perfect amounts of how much mochiko or water to use; the amount can seriously vary if you change anything at all, and even then it depends on how chewy etc. you want your dango. My recommendation is to start with ½ as much water as mochiko, which will most likely give you more water than you need. If the dough is just too sticky that you can’t knead it properly into a single glob, add a little mochiko. Just be careful to make sure that you aren’t judging the dough based only on what is stuck you hands, as that is where the stickiest stuff will be. If you’re worried about the dough being too sticky, try cleaning your hands first then going at it again.
Get It All Ready
As with most other recipes, getting as much done ahead of time as possible is an extremely helpful practice. So get out all of your ingredients and equipment, and get ready to get to work. Get everything measured out (if you know exactly how much you want to use), but keep the ingredients out anyway if you need to add more later. Get your big pot ½-¾ full of water (or whatever liquid you are using), and get it started on its boil (just keep an eye on it to be safe). If you are going to make a sauce from scratch (as is included in many traditional dango recipes), you might want to get things ready so you can prepare your dango and sauce in parallel. Also, give your cutting board a light coating of mochiko to prevent sticking.
Being Kneady
Kneading dough is an interesting process, especially if you have never done it before. In the case of making a dough from scratch and kneading it, here are some guidelines: your ultimate goal is to get all of the moisture evenly distributed across your dry mix. Doing this is easiest with the hands by simply trying to “massage” it all together. You will find that at first, everything will get very crumply and chunky; do not lose hope! That is what is actually supposed to happen, as it is essentially the moisture remaining in little pockets of resistance against your unstoppable will, holding out until you stamp out any hope for rebellion with your iron fist. Eventually, the weaklings will break and you will have your dough. In the case of serious resistance, add just a tiny bit of water, and keep working it in. If your watery fury has proved too overwhelming for the feeble rebels, resulting in a big gooey mess, add just a little more mochiko (combined with whatever dry stock you’re using), and keep asserting your fist-power. Eventually you will have your dough, but note that this process is not instant! It takes at least 5 minutes to get the dough into a proper state (get it, state? Hehe), and naturally takes longer if you encounter problems along the way. Also refer to the first paragraph of this section (“Now On To Business”) for info on recommended ratios and a few other tips.
So, with all of this information about kneading (it is a rather needy process? Har har har…somebody stop me please…X_X), let’s begin:
1. Combine all of your dry ingredients in the large mixing bowl. You may want to stir, or even sift, them together. This just helps in creating a more uniform mixture.
2. Add the water (or substitute liquid) to the mixture. Some people prefer to add the water in small increments, but I find that it works out fine if you add it all at once, so the choice is yours.
3. Now just keep kneading the dough together using the information described above. Once your dough is combined, transfer it from the bowl to the cutting board.
4. Gently smoosh the dough flat on the cutting board.
5. Fold four “corners” of the dough up and into the center of the dough, and then squish those corners together.
6. Flip the glob over and gently smoosh it flat into the cutting board again, thus smoothing out the creases created by joining the “corners” against the flat board.
Now simply repeat the last two steps until you have a nice, fairly smooth uniform chunk of dough.
Taking a Dump(ling)
With your dough pounded into ideal submission, it’s time to form it into little dumplings. I once read a recipe that said to only divide the dough now, and then try and form the dumplings later. It also recommended a few other things, and, simply put, none of them really worked (I even ended up with a burnt dish towel, but that’s another story). So now is the time for dumpling forming!
1. Rip off a little chunk of dough, a piece maybe ¾ inch in diameter, or a the equivalent of maybe 2-3 pieces of chewing gum (it’s hard to find decent units of measure for amorphous blobs you know!)
2. Just using your hands, roll the piece into a nice little ball. Use your play-doh skills that I know you developed as a child.
3. Place your little ball on to a plastic plate.
Now just repeat these steps for the remainder of your dough, and you’ll have a plate full of ready-to-cook dumplings in a few minutes. If you really want to make sure that you get nice and even-sized dumplings, you can go with the division method of simply dividing piece after piece of dough into halves or thirds until the divided pieces are the right size.
Smoking Pot
Well, ok, technically, the pot will be steaming, as it should be boiling by now, but with two ridiculous section titles already, I can’t break the combo! Though, for the record, I do not support the action this section title is referencing, and certainly don’t recommend engaging in such activities while cooking/working with an open flame, it’s just not safe. Anyway, your liquid should be to a boil now, so let’s get to work:
NOTE: I have seen other cooking methods recommended in other recipes, but this is the only one I have had success with; I’ve tried other boiling techniques, as well as steaming, and have had results ranging from poor to absolute failure. So I recommend you stick to this method, especially if it’s your first time.
1. Gently add the dango to the boiling liquid, taking care to avoid any splashes. You may wish to simply load several dumplings into your spatula and lower them into the liquid. Keep your liquid boiling this entire time (high-heat recommended).
2. Once all of your dango is into the pot, give it a stir to make sure the dango doesn’t stick to the bottom. Be careful not to stab any dango with the side of your stirring device though; I recommend lowering it to the bottom against the wall of the pot.
3. Periodically give your dango a stir, again taking care not to stab any, while waiting for them to float to the top. At several points they may start to sort of “roll” to the top with the boil, but they won’t stay floating. You must wait for them to be truly floating on the top. While waiting for this to happen, wash your mixing bowl clean, then fill it with enough ice water to eventually be able to submerge all of your dumplings.
4. Once your dumplings have finally reached their floater-stage, give them another 1-2 minutes in the boil to finish cooking.
5. Take out a single dumpling using your strainer ladle thingy, and put into the ice water bowl.
6. Give the dumpling about 30 seconds to cool, then fish it out with your hands. Either cut the dumpling open or bite it in half to check to see that it is cooked uniformly. If you decided to boil your dumplings in something more interesting than water that could have coloration effects (like it; I used a water and pomegranate juice combo), don’t confuse the outer discoloration with a difference in cooking. What you should be looking for is a difference in texture: uncooked dango will look very white and fairly opaque, while the cooked stuff will look a little more translucent.
7. If the dumplings was properly cooked, go ahead and strain-ladle out the rest of them and give them at least a minute in the ice water. If it wasn’t cooked, give the dumplings another minute or so in the water, then strain-ladle them out and put them into the ice water for a minute. You want to try to avoid getting the hot water into the ice water, is it will neutralize its effects. You might want to add a few extra ice cubes once you put the dango in to keep the stuff cool.
8. Fish your cooled dumplings from the ice water and place them gently on to another plastic plate to let them dry a little.
Now, at this point, what you do with your dumplings is very dependent on what you decided you want to do with them. You can skewer them, coat them, sauce them, or just eat them. If you’re going for coating or saucing, I recommend skewering them to make eating them a little less messy (and be sure to skewer them first to avoid any mess). I opted to skewer mine and top them with a little raspberry sauce to complement the faint pomegranate flavor they picked up during cooking, resulting in a tart, almost fruit-snack like dango. If you need to save these for later, parchment paper and a Tupperware will do you just fine. Enjoy!
WARNING: Read through this recipe at least once before cooking!
Sadly, I cannot give you perfect amounts of how much mochiko or water to use; the amount can seriously vary if you change anything at all, and even then it depends on how chewy etc. you want your dango. My recommendation is to start with ½ as much water as mochiko, which will most likely give you more water than you need. If the dough is just too sticky that you can’t knead it properly into a single glob, add a little mochiko. Just be careful to make sure that you aren’t judging the dough based only on what is stuck you hands, as that is where the stickiest stuff will be. If you’re worried about the dough being too sticky, try cleaning your hands first then going at it again.
Get It All Ready
As with most other recipes, getting as much done ahead of time as possible is an extremely helpful practice. So get out all of your ingredients and equipment, and get ready to get to work. Get everything measured out (if you know exactly how much you want to use), but keep the ingredients out anyway if you need to add more later. Get your big pot ½-¾ full of water (or whatever liquid you are using), and get it started on its boil (just keep an eye on it to be safe). If you are going to make a sauce from scratch (as is included in many traditional dango recipes), you might want to get things ready so you can prepare your dango and sauce in parallel. Also, give your cutting board a light coating of mochiko to prevent sticking.
Being Kneady
Kneading dough is an interesting process, especially if you have never done it before. In the case of making a dough from scratch and kneading it, here are some guidelines: your ultimate goal is to get all of the moisture evenly distributed across your dry mix. Doing this is easiest with the hands by simply trying to “massage” it all together. You will find that at first, everything will get very crumply and chunky; do not lose hope! That is what is actually supposed to happen, as it is essentially the moisture remaining in little pockets of resistance against your unstoppable will, holding out until you stamp out any hope for rebellion with your iron fist. Eventually, the weaklings will break and you will have your dough. In the case of serious resistance, add just a tiny bit of water, and keep working it in. If your watery fury has proved too overwhelming for the feeble rebels, resulting in a big gooey mess, add just a little more mochiko (combined with whatever dry stock you’re using), and keep asserting your fist-power. Eventually you will have your dough, but note that this process is not instant! It takes at least 5 minutes to get the dough into a proper state (get it, state? Hehe), and naturally takes longer if you encounter problems along the way. Also refer to the first paragraph of this section (“Now On To Business”) for info on recommended ratios and a few other tips.
So, with all of this information about kneading (it is a rather needy process? Har har har…somebody stop me please…X_X), let’s begin:
1. Combine all of your dry ingredients in the large mixing bowl. You may want to stir, or even sift, them together. This just helps in creating a more uniform mixture.
2. Add the water (or substitute liquid) to the mixture. Some people prefer to add the water in small increments, but I find that it works out fine if you add it all at once, so the choice is yours.
3. Now just keep kneading the dough together using the information described above. Once your dough is combined, transfer it from the bowl to the cutting board.
4. Gently smoosh the dough flat on the cutting board.
5. Fold four “corners” of the dough up and into the center of the dough, and then squish those corners together.
6. Flip the glob over and gently smoosh it flat into the cutting board again, thus smoothing out the creases created by joining the “corners” against the flat board.
Now simply repeat the last two steps until you have a nice, fairly smooth uniform chunk of dough.
Taking a Dump(ling)
With your dough pounded into ideal submission, it’s time to form it into little dumplings. I once read a recipe that said to only divide the dough now, and then try and form the dumplings later. It also recommended a few other things, and, simply put, none of them really worked (I even ended up with a burnt dish towel, but that’s another story). So now is the time for dumpling forming!
1. Rip off a little chunk of dough, a piece maybe ¾ inch in diameter, or a the equivalent of maybe 2-3 pieces of chewing gum (it’s hard to find decent units of measure for amorphous blobs you know!)
2. Just using your hands, roll the piece into a nice little ball. Use your play-doh skills that I know you developed as a child.
3. Place your little ball on to a plastic plate.
Now just repeat these steps for the remainder of your dough, and you’ll have a plate full of ready-to-cook dumplings in a few minutes. If you really want to make sure that you get nice and even-sized dumplings, you can go with the division method of simply dividing piece after piece of dough into halves or thirds until the divided pieces are the right size.
Smoking Pot
Well, ok, technically, the pot will be steaming, as it should be boiling by now, but with two ridiculous section titles already, I can’t break the combo! Though, for the record, I do not support the action this section title is referencing, and certainly don’t recommend engaging in such activities while cooking/working with an open flame, it’s just not safe. Anyway, your liquid should be to a boil now, so let’s get to work:
NOTE: I have seen other cooking methods recommended in other recipes, but this is the only one I have had success with; I’ve tried other boiling techniques, as well as steaming, and have had results ranging from poor to absolute failure. So I recommend you stick to this method, especially if it’s your first time.
1. Gently add the dango to the boiling liquid, taking care to avoid any splashes. You may wish to simply load several dumplings into your spatula and lower them into the liquid. Keep your liquid boiling this entire time (high-heat recommended).
2. Once all of your dango is into the pot, give it a stir to make sure the dango doesn’t stick to the bottom. Be careful not to stab any dango with the side of your stirring device though; I recommend lowering it to the bottom against the wall of the pot.
3. Periodically give your dango a stir, again taking care not to stab any, while waiting for them to float to the top. At several points they may start to sort of “roll” to the top with the boil, but they won’t stay floating. You must wait for them to be truly floating on the top. While waiting for this to happen, wash your mixing bowl clean, then fill it with enough ice water to eventually be able to submerge all of your dumplings.
4. Once your dumplings have finally reached their floater-stage, give them another 1-2 minutes in the boil to finish cooking.
5. Take out a single dumpling using your strainer ladle thingy, and put into the ice water bowl.
6. Give the dumpling about 30 seconds to cool, then fish it out with your hands. Either cut the dumpling open or bite it in half to check to see that it is cooked uniformly. If you decided to boil your dumplings in something more interesting than water that could have coloration effects (like it; I used a water and pomegranate juice combo), don’t confuse the outer discoloration with a difference in cooking. What you should be looking for is a difference in texture: uncooked dango will look very white and fairly opaque, while the cooked stuff will look a little more translucent.
7. If the dumplings was properly cooked, go ahead and strain-ladle out the rest of them and give them at least a minute in the ice water. If it wasn’t cooked, give the dumplings another minute or so in the water, then strain-ladle them out and put them into the ice water for a minute. You want to try to avoid getting the hot water into the ice water, is it will neutralize its effects. You might want to add a few extra ice cubes once you put the dango in to keep the stuff cool.
8. Fish your cooled dumplings from the ice water and place them gently on to another plastic plate to let them dry a little.
Now, at this point, what you do with your dumplings is very dependent on what you decided you want to do with them. You can skewer them, coat them, sauce them, or just eat them. If you’re going for coating or saucing, I recommend skewering them to make eating them a little less messy (and be sure to skewer them first to avoid any mess). I opted to skewer mine and top them with a little raspberry sauce to complement the faint pomegranate flavor they picked up during cooking, resulting in a tart, almost fruit-snack like dango. If you need to save these for later, parchment paper and a Tupperware will do you just fine. Enjoy!
Dango (continued)
The Recipe In Short
WARNING: Only use this if you have: read and understand the above complete recipe, have prepared this dish before, or really know what you’re doing.
1. Combine dry ingredients.
2. Add water to dry ingredients.
3. Knead mixture into dough.
4. Form dough into dumplings.
5. Boil dumplings until they float.
6. Remove dumplings from boiling water and submerge in ice water for 1 minute.
7. Plate dumplings, skewer, garnish, and serve.
8. Enjoy!
WARNING: Only use this if you have: read and understand the above complete recipe, have prepared this dish before, or really know what you’re doing.
1. Combine dry ingredients.
2. Add water to dry ingredients.
3. Knead mixture into dough.
4. Form dough into dumplings.
5. Boil dumplings until they float.
6. Remove dumplings from boiling water and submerge in ice water for 1 minute.
7. Plate dumplings, skewer, garnish, and serve.
8. Enjoy!
Dango (continued)
Cleanup Tips
One and only tip: beware of the extremely hot pot: once you boil water in it, it will take a long time to cool. Do not just assume it’s cold and try and touch it freely. Even the handles may still be hot after a half-hour of cooling. For a lot of people this might seem like a no-brainer, but I’m just advising extra caution to avoid making a normally reasonable assumption that could result in unpleasant burns.
Other Possibilities/Recipe Variations
The above covers the basics for how make your own variations, and I won’t delve into the many cultural/traditional variations available, but I will provide just a few more tips/ideas here:
• Like flavors go well together, but opposites can attract as well, while a balance can also effective. Think of existing dishes and see how they work, then just apply that same logic to your dango.
• You could try giving your dango a filling by sort of wrapping the uncooked dough around a glob or chunk of something. If you use meat though, make sure the meat is completely cooked first; you can’t count on the boiling to take care of it.
One and only tip: beware of the extremely hot pot: once you boil water in it, it will take a long time to cool. Do not just assume it’s cold and try and touch it freely. Even the handles may still be hot after a half-hour of cooling. For a lot of people this might seem like a no-brainer, but I’m just advising extra caution to avoid making a normally reasonable assumption that could result in unpleasant burns.
Other Possibilities/Recipe Variations
The above covers the basics for how make your own variations, and I won’t delve into the many cultural/traditional variations available, but I will provide just a few more tips/ideas here:
• Like flavors go well together, but opposites can attract as well, while a balance can also effective. Think of existing dishes and see how they work, then just apply that same logic to your dango.
• You could try giving your dango a filling by sort of wrapping the uncooked dough around a glob or chunk of something. If you use meat though, make sure the meat is completely cooked first; you can’t count on the boiling to take care of it.
Dango (continued)
Credits and Acknowledgements
• To my Dad, for teaching me to cook in the first place, and for the use of your kitchen and all of its tools/appliances, and loaning me the camera.
• To Lindsey, for all your help taking pictures and encouraging me to go on after the failure in round one.
• To my Dad, for teaching me to cook in the first place, and for the use of your kitchen and all of its tools/appliances, and loaning me the camera.
• To Lindsey, for all your help taking pictures and encouraging me to go on after the failure in round one.
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