Mochi-Pounding Party
–––The next day. Earth day.
Grandfather and the others would be leaving this afternoon.
As I was eating breakfast, thinking how I wanted to let them try kusa-mochi before they left, Gray came into the dining room and said that Daniel had brought a mortar and pestle.
I quickly finished breakfast and headed to the kitchen, where the items we’d been waiting for were sitting grandly.
“Oh, there you are.”
Ken and the others said they’d been waiting.
“Huh? Where’s Daniel?”
“He already left. Apparently, he pulled an all-nighter, so he said he’d go home and sleep.”
“What? Seriously? I feel bad now...”
“Well, yeah... Just do your best making it, and bring him some when it’s done.”
As he said that, Ken patted my head comfortingly.
“Okay. I’ll do my best to make it delicious!!”
“So, what should we do first?”
“First, we steam the glutinous rice!”
““Got it.””
Since the water-soaked glutinous rice was quite heavy, Arthur and Ben took care of it. While the rice steamed, we brought the mortar and pestle outside. The kitchen was far too cramped for this.
“Jo, is this it?”
Our family spotted us from the living room and came outside. I’d explained to them yesterday about the mochi-making process, how to use the pestle and mortar, and about kusa-mochi when I reported our visit to Daniel and discussed the trading company, so they were all curious.
“Yes, that’s right, Brother Gene. We're currently steaming the rice.”
““The rice is steamed~””
Arthur and the others brought out the first batch of glutinous rice.
“Uh, first we... mash it with this, right?”
“Yes. You start by mashing it so there’s no shape left to the grains.”
If the rice cools, it hardens, so it’s a race against time. That’s why I’d already given verbal instructions to the cooking team in advance.
“Hey, Jo, what happens if you don’t mash it?”
“Ah, in that case, it becomes ‘half-killed.’”
““““““““““Half-killed!?””””””””””
“Wh-What do you mean by that?”
For some reason, Grandfather was panicking.
“Eh? What do I mean... it’s just what it is?”
“No, but why ‘half-killed’? Killed by who?”
“Huh? … Ahh, I see. Ahahaha.”
“Hey, hey, this isn’t something to laugh about, is it?”
“S-Sorry, Brother Noel. Pfft, ahaha... ‘Half-killed’ is the name of a food. Ahaha... It’s because you only mash the rice halfway, so it’s like you ‘half-killed’ it. I think it’s generally called ‘botamochi.’”
““““““““““Ohh~.””””””””””
“Then what’s the mashed mochi called?”
“Mass-killed.”
“What a violent name...”
“But Father, it’s delicious.”
“Yeah. I’ll give it that. I could eat tons of isobeyaki.”
“Alright, it’s all mashed... I mean, it’s now mass-killed.”
“Hehehe. Then Arthur does the pounding, and Ben the turning.”
“Hmph, hmph... hmph, hmph...”
“... Heave-ho... Heave-ho...”
The two pounded the mochi in perfect sync. Midway, we added boiled and chopped mugwort, turning the mochi into a beautiful green.
As expected of two people who form an adventurer party together.
Even though it was their first time, their timing was perfect.
And in no time, the first batch was done.
Just as I was storing the kusamochi into storage,
“Jo, Jo, I wanna try too! Brother, help me out!”
“Ehh, I’m scared you’ll hit me, Gene...”
Despite saying that, the brothers started pounding together in sync. The twins hopped around them, cheering.
“Go big brothers!” “You can do it, Big brothers!”
Adorable twins—priceless.
“Ahh, crap... my arms won’t lift...”
“Brother Gene, if you don’t hurry, it’ll harden.”
“Even if you say that... Gray, I’m counting on you.”
“Then Nancy will be the turner.”
With that, my brothers swapped with the Grays. But...
“It’s already stiffer than before. Dear, we’re going to speed up.”
“Ahh... I’m the turner, huh...”
Nancy was pounding, and Gray was the turner...
“Ha! Ha!... Ha! Ha!... Ha! Ha!”
“... Whoa! … That was close... Crap.”
Compared to Arthur and Ben earlier, this was on a whole other level. The speed and the tone of the calls were totally different from Gray.
Ahh~ This reminds me of the high-speed mochi-pounding I saw in Nara. Actually, this is even faster...
Still, I’m impressed Gray can keep up at that speed.
“Phew~ Young lady Joan, how was that?”
“Eh? Oh... yeah, perfect. Thank you, both of you.”
“Not at all. This makes for good training.”
“R-Really?”
Nancy said that with a cool expression, but at her feet, Gray was squatting, panting heavily. Stanley looked concerned and called out to him.
“A-Are you okay, Gray?”
“Y-Yes. I-I’m somehow alright.”
With the mochi pounded, we moved back to the kitchen and took out the mochi and the pre-rolled sweet bean paste from storage.
“Okay, get the potato starch out for dusting.”
“Got it.”
“I’ll demonstrate once… Hot, hot! First, tear off a piece of mochi like this... flatten it into a circle, place it on your palm, put the bean paste in the center, pinch the edges together and twist them shut like a pouch, then roll it into a ball. Flip it over and roll again, placing it seam-side down. Ta-dah, done~”
““““Ooooh~””””
“Alright, let’s all do it while it’s still hot!”
““““YEAH!!!!””””
“By the way, what are we doing with the next batch? The one without mugwort?”
Ken asked while working.
“Hehe. The yomogi one’s done. I’m thinking of making noshi-mochi with the other batch.”
““““Noshi-mochi?””””
“Yeah. Pour it into a tray, dry it, cut it into squares, and it becomes noshi-mochi. You eat it grilled. Like we did with isobeyaki.”
““““I see~””””
“So that means... tray, tray, tray~... If only they responded when called, that’d be convenient.”
““““Huh?””””
“Ah, never mind. Keep working...”
Getting back on track, we poured the mochi into trays and dried it.
Since it wasn’t sun-dried, we quickly made a huge batch of noshi-mochi.
What do you think about this chapter?
