sweet potato mochi & quinoa bites

I debated calling this recipe sweet potato gnocchi instead of mochi but after some Googling, "gnocchi" would have been rather off.

The first time I had these sweet potato mochi bites was in Diamond Bar (or was it Rowland Heights?) at a small store (closed a while back...) that sold konnyaku and shaved ice and other rather healthy Asian desserts. I remember biting into the smooth chewiness and savoring the stickiness and subtle sweet flavor. My mom recreated them at home one day, and I was ecstatic.


That was about six or seven years ago.

I've been eating a lot of sweet potatoes lately. I can eat them with almost anything. They are rich in fiber and potassium and are just plain delicious :) I love their starchiness, their bright orange color (or light yellow if you eat Japanese yams), their slight sweetness that enhances savory and sugary dishes alike.

Finally finished at 12 AM.

I've been wanting to make sweet potato mochi for a while and I finally did last night at 11 pm. They took a while but are really fun to make, so it was worth it :) I love mochi and these bite sized ones are easy to cook up to satisfy all of my random mochi/sweet potato cravings!

 They look like little orange marshmallows!

Served over my mom's sweet green bean soup :)

Sweet Potato Mochi

yields about 2 cups

Ingredients:

3 sweet potatoes 

1 pack sweet potato starch (you can purchase this at any Asian market)

boiling water 

Directions:

- Peel your sweet potatoes and put them in a steamer to cook until they are soft. If you don't own a steamer, simply bake them, or boil them until they are soft and then remove the skins. 

- Put the cooked sweet potato in a medium to large bowl depending on the size of the sweet potatoes you use. Using a spoon, mash up the sweet potatoes until they become a puree (or use a blender but I find mashing them up myself to be more fun).  

- Add in the sweet potato starch into the puree one tablespoon at a time until your mixture turns a lighter orange and can hold together like sugar cookie dough. You want your batter to be dry enough to be able to work with, but too dry that it crumbles when you roll it out.

- Lightly sweet potato starch (hahahah.......) a cutting board or a flat surface and take a bit of the dough and knead it around. Roll the dough into a long, thin log and cut into small bites with a knife. Repeat until all of the dough is used up. Keep adding the sweet potato starch as needed so the dough will be easier to work with.

- Once you are finished, lightly sprinkle the sweet potato starch over all of the pieces so they will be less likely to stick together. Pack them in an airtight container and they will last about a few days in the fridge or about a week in the freezer.

- If you want to cook them, boil a pot of hot water, drop in the bites and wait until they rise to the surface.

- Use a sieve to remove the excess water, and serve over konnyaku, shaved ice, anmitsu, green bean soup, ice cream, etc. etc. and enjoy :) 

This is a really quick recipe! Every time I cook quinoa there's always a lot left over because usually I'm the only one in my family that eats it. Rather than waste it here is a simple way to use up all that leftover quinoa to make savory mini muffins :) There are no measurements to this recipe (except for the one egg white), and I think it goes for experimentation or rather, cooking and baking in general. 

I think as chefs and bakers, we feel through each step--approximating and eyeballing as we spoon out the ingredients rather than following the exact wording of a recipe down to the commas and periods. This freedom in the kitchen is exhilarating. We let our spontaneity take us to different cultures, flavors, and styles. Every dish leads to some sort of discovery. As pleasant or unpleasant as certain plates can taste, they leave room for improvement, for invention.

I probably should have added ground flaxseed to my quinoa mixture because as you can see, some of them didn't hold together so well :( Or maybe I should have packed it more into the muffin cup, but either way they make for a yummy breakfast, appetizer, and as a healthy on-the-go snack too :)

Quinoa Bites

yield depends on how much quinoa you have left over

Ingredients:

1 egg white

leftover cooked quinoa

cheese 

sausage bits (ham, turkey breast, prosciutto, pastrami, etc.)

spinach bits (any greens, arugula, cooked broccoli, etc.)

salt to taste

pepper to taste 

ground flaxseed (optional, use to hold together the ingredients)

Directions:

- Preheat the oven to 325° F. 

- Mix the quinoa with the egg white until combined. If you see the quinoa isn't sticking together well, add some ground flaxseed as it serves as a good ingredient binder. 

- Add in the cheese, meat bits, and vegetable bits and mix together. Add a dash of salt and pepper to taste if desired. 

- Spray a mini muffin tin (regular muffin tin works too, you can even shape these into patties) with PAM and fill all the way. 

- Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove and serve.