Sweet Soy-Glazed Dango (みたらし団子, Mitarashi Dango)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Bamboo skewers
• •Wide pot
• •Small saucepan
• •Grill, grill pan, or dry skillet

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the skewers

   Soak eight bamboo skewers in water while you make the dough. Wet skewers scorch less quickly over the flame, and the dango slide on more cleanly after boiling.

2. 2

   Make the dough

   Put the jōshinko and shiratamako in a bowl, breaking up the larger shiratamako grains with your fingers. Add the warm water little by little, mixing and kneading until the dough feels soft and springy, like an earlobe. That texture matters more than the exact spoonful of water, because rice flours drink differently depending on age and storage.

   If the dough cracks when you roll it, knead in water a teaspoon at a time. If it sticks badly to your hands, dust with a little jōshinko and keep kneading.
3. 3

   Roll the dango

   Divide the dough into about forty small pieces and roll them into balls, each about 2.5cm across. Keep them even so they cook at the same pace. Uneven dumplings are not a tragedy, but the small ones go tough before the large ones finish.

4. 4

   Boil until floating

   Bring a wide pot of water to a steady boil and lower in the dango. Stir gently once so they don't catch on the bottom. When they float, cook them for two more minutes. Floating tells you the outside has set; the extra time finishes the center so the chew is clean, not chalky.

5. 5

   Chill and skewer

   Lift the dango into a bowl of cold water, then drain well. The cold water stops the cooking and firms the surface, which helps each dumpling hold its shape on the skewer. Thread five dango onto each skewer, leaving a little space between them.

6. 6

   Make the tare

   In a small pan, combine the soy sauce, sugar, and 120ml water. Bring it to a simmer, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Mix the starch with 1 tablespoon water, stir it into the pan, and cook until the sauce turns clear, glossy, and thick enough to coat a spoon. The starch is not there to make a heavy sauce; it gives the glaze enough body to cling.

7. 7

   Grill and glaze

   Set the skewers over a grill, grill pan, or dry skillet and cook just until the dango pick up a few pale brown spots. Brush or spoon the warm tare over them and turn once so the glaze catches on all sides. Stop before they dry out. You want chew, shine, and a faint char, not hard little stones.

8. 8

   Serve warm

   Serve the skewers while warm, with the remaining glaze spooned lightly over the top. Don't drown them. The pleasure is in the contrast between plain rice and sweet soy, so leave the dumplings visible under their shine.

Chef Tips

• •Use Japanese rice flours if you can. Mochiko alone makes a softer, stickier dumpling, pleasant but not the same thing. The mix of jōshinko and shiratamako gives mitarashi dango its proper chew.
• •The old softness test, earlobe texture, sounds unserious until you try it. It tells you what a scale cannot: whether the flour has taken enough water to cook through without cracking.
• •A charcoal grill is lovely, but a grill pan or dry skillet is a sensible stand-in. The mark of the fire should be a small bitterness at the edge, not a burnt crust.
• •Eat these the day they're made. Rice flour sweets firm as they sit, and no amount of glaze can hide a tired dumpling.

Advance Preparation

• •The tare can be made one day ahead and refrigerated. Warm it gently before glazing so it loosens and shines again.
• •The dango are best cooked and grilled just before serving. If needed, boil and skewer them a few hours ahead, keep covered at room temperature, then grill and glaze at the last moment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 65g)