Ingredients
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp mirin seasoning
- 1 tbsp cooking sake
- 1/2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1/3 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp red miso paste
- 60 ml water
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- 1 tbsp cold water
- 180 g glutinous rice flour
- 60 g caster sugar
- 60 ml boiling water
- 85 ml lukewarm water
- 192 g lotus paste
- 40 g white sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp black sesame seeds (optional)
- 1 liter vegetable oil
Method
- Refrigerate lotus paste for at least 30 min to ease rolling the paste into balls.
- Combine light soy sauce, mirin, maple syrup, ground ginger, red miso paste, 60 ml of water in a sauce pan, heat up slowly. Mix 1 table spoon of cold water with cornstarch, add cornstarch slurry to sauce. Turn up heat, stir frequently to prevent burning, until sauce is reduced by roughly half and has a rich brown color.
- The recipe for sesame balls is adapted from The Woks of Life. Mix sesame ball dough. Combine 60 g of glutinous rice flour with sugar and 60 ml of boiling hot water, mix well, add to this mixture, 120 g of glutinous rice flour, 85 ml of lukewarm water, mix well until a dough has formed that's slightly sticky to the touch. Let dough rest for 20 min. The dough mix weighed 373 grams.
- Use lotus paste to make filling for sesame balls. The ratio of dough to lotus paste is 2:1. Divide the 192 g of lotus paste into 16 even balls or 12 g each.
- Divide glutinous flour dough into 16 balls or 23 g each. Put balls in a bowl, cover to prevent from drying out. Roll out dough ball until dough is roughly 3 mm thick and 3 cm in diameter with center slightly thicker than rim.
- Place lotus paste ball into center of rolled out dough, wrap dough around lotus paste, even out creases by wetting them with water if dough is too dry and cracked.
- Put white sesame seeds in mesh strainer, rinse and drain until moist but not dripping wet. Roll rice balls with filling evenly in sesame seeds. After rolling 8 sesame balls, black sesame seeds can be added for different colour mix.
- Fill sauce pan with oil up to halfway maximum for safety reasons as hot oil will rise and bubble when deep frying. Put a wooden spoon in the oil, when small bubbles are rising, the oil temperature is right.
- Put sesame balls gently in oil, move them around gently with slotted spoon to prevent from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Cook for about 10 min, when they float, gently roll them for an even colour, when golden brown take them out carefully, place them on kitchen paper towel.
- Toast leftover sesame seeds in a frying pan to add as garnish to the dipping sauce. Enjoy!
Product used in recipe
- Obento - Mirin Seasoning
