Japanese New Year is a must! Eat "harmonious rice cake" to pray for the New Year.

Red (Handmade) Love Cake The custom of eating rice cakes in Japanese New Year comes from China. People in China eat rice cakes mainly by frying and cooking. However, when Japanese eat rice cakes, whether they are mixed with chicken soup for miscellaneous cooking or wrapped in Shanghai moss dipped in soy sauce, they usually bake rice cakes with fire first, then season them or soak them in red bean soup. Why do Japanese always bake rice cakes with fire? The origin of the Japanese way of baking crispy rice during the Chinese New Year cannot be verified, but the reason should be that Japanese rice cakes emphasize the "pestle" technology; Moreover, due to the air injected during the flapping process, Japanese rice cakes will have various "expressions" when they encounter fire. The process of baking sesame cakes has also become a feeling of greed and jealousy. The monkey waiting to eat sesame cake looks like a puff of smoke. It was baked to the extreme, so it began to bubble beautifully, like an "angry" expression that floated and sank. Sometimes I wait for a long time, and I am anxious to reach for it, and then I am anxious to shrink back. That's because you eat too fast, but the tip of your tongue is burning back and forth. Japanese-style rice cakes, because of the baking order, have a new year's atmosphere, and because of the various expressions of those rice cakes, the reunion dinner is more lively. (Picture says: Make rice cakes and pray for a bumper harvest) Japanese rice cakes are called "mirror cakes" when they are round, and "stretched cakes" when they are square like bricks. Why are they round like mirrors and cut into blocks like bricks? It is said that it was a Zen talk between Tang Priest Mazu and Nan Prison. One day, Nan Jian arrived at the entrance of Mazu Temple and asked, "What is the purpose of Dade meditation?" Mazu Yi Dao replied, "This painting is a Buddha statue. Nan Jian then took out a brick and ground it in front of Mazu buddhist nun. At first, Mazu ignored it, but after a long time, he became confused and asked, "What are you doing grinding bricks?" South prison replied, "grinding as a mirror. Mazu smiled and said, "Can grinding bricks be used as a mirror?" Nan Jian asked, "Since grinding bricks can't be a mirror, can meditation become a Buddha?" Mazu was born with wisdom and bowed to the south prison. This is the story of Japanese "grinding bricks to make mirrors" when they eat rice cakes in the New Year. When I make sesame cakes with Wudie, he always doesn't want to make mirror cakes. He always likes bricks rather than bricks, and likes to cut stretched cakes into bricks. This may be because when the rice cake is pounded with a pestle or a machine, the rice cake is flattened by hand, then cooled, and then cut into pieces for preservation. In addition, mirror cakes are generally used to worship Buddha, and most people don't eat them in the first month of the new year. In Japanese New Year, the rice cake soup eaten on the first day of the first month is called "boiled", which is made of chicken soup, chicken, mushrooms, taro and other root vegetables, with ginger and firewood. Soft, fat, blessed and even hard baked rice cakes are put into a big wooden bowl and sprinkled with delicious chicken soup, which is the "rice cake soup" eaten on New Year's Day morning. Each family has its own unique taste and good ingredients, but they are basically cooked with chicken soup and ginger. Kansai people like to season with miso, while Kanto people are used to soy sauce. (Caption: Cut the cake and stretch it) In Japan for so many years, in the past, rice cakes were sometimes sent by nearby farmers, and sometimes glutinous rice was bought by itself, steamed in an external stove, and then calculated by a special machine for beating the cake. After moving to Nasu, I became familiar with the parents of the Numata family. Now we can always eat Numata's old couple during the Spring Festival, especially the handmade rice cakes made by ourselves. There are two kinds of signature handmade rice cakes made by Numata, one is "かきもち" made of edamame and peanuts, and the other is "Shenし cake" cut into bricks. Wu Dad still likes the saying that brick by brick, but I fell in love with "かきもち" by soybean and peanut, because "かきもち" reminds me of the peanut zongzi wrapped by my mother, regardless of its shape and taste. Japanese traditional Chu Jiu scones pay attention to "harmony" between yin and yang! It must be the person who lifts the wooden pestle, and it is mostly the host's partner who turns the hemp with cold water at the right time. I've seen many scenes of sacrificial beating, and it must be a man beating with a pestle. Although men sometimes help to pour water, they must be quite familiar work partners or tacit relatives and friends. The old couple began to work together and "mirror" the rice cake with a wooden mortar. When you touch me, sometimes it is "mm-hmm" and "love". With the rhythmic shouts, an old couple obviously played not only rice cakes, but also the way of getting along with each other handed down by their ancestors for thousands of years. (Description: Now it's mashed potatoes) Japanese people eat mashed potatoes in various ways. Boil the stretched cake with water or microwave oven until it becomes soft, add bean flour and icing to make "bean flour paste", add mixed natto to make "natto paste", add radish paste to make "spicy potato paste", and add ground edamame to make "Cuiyuan". Japanese rice cakes that cannot be eaten can be cut into small squares and stored at room temperature. When fried, these millet cakes will become crispy "cakes" as popular with children as popcorn. In addition, the endless rice cakes are packed in small bags and frozen. When it is used, it can be thawed, boiled in water, and then immediately regenerated with bean powder or red beans. Although the taste of old rice cakes is a little less fresh, because they are easy to preserve, many people will make more rice cakes in the New Year, and the leftovers will be used for disaster prevention in case of emergency. As long as a small square is used in Japanese crispy rice, it is equal to the heat of a bowl of rice, which is chewy and full. Japanese people not only enjoy the crisp taste of pestle, but also hope that after eating sesame cakes, they can play the role of "Maji" and continue to work hard in their work and career in the new year. In order to get lucky for "Maji Maji", Wudie and I insist on eating well-made Q crisp sesame cakes every year. (Caption:/kloc-In the 8th century, the Japanese made Maji.) What is the practice of three Jin of glutinous rice/white powder? Soak glutinous rice overnight and cook for about an hour on high fire. ? Beat glutinous rice with a glutinous rice blender. Or put the glutinous rice in a wooden mortar or stone mortar while it is hot, and someone will prepare a wooden pestle to serve it. The mixer can be completed in about 30 minutes. If you beat the cake manually, you have to beat it twice. At the same time, you need the rhythm and tacit understanding of drinking one cup at a time. When the wooden pestle is held high, you can quickly turn the glutinous rice with your hands dipped in cold water. It will take at least thirty minutes. ? Put the dumplings on the platform covered with white powder while they are hot, and then push them into a flat shape about one and a half centimeters high by hand. After the dumplings are completely cooled, use a kitchen knife to cut the white flat rice cakes into squares about four by three centimeters. (Caption: Five Grains and Red Bean Soup Cake) (Caption: Salty casserole and sweet casserole to be distributed to neighbors)