Renkon-mochi (lotus root cake)

Lotus root is interesting. It can be cooked in many ways and the texture changes depending on how you cook.

By grating it, you can enjoy mochi-mochi texture. This Renkon-mochi is a simple yet satisfying dish.

Ingredients: 400g lotus root, 6 tbsp potato (or corn) starch, 1 tbsp dried sakura shrimps (optional), 1 tsp sesame seeds (optional), sesame oil, some soy sauce and black vinegar

Method:

1. Peel and grate lotus root, then gently squeeze the moisture.
2. Add potato starch, sakura shrimps, sesame seeds and mix well. Then shape the mixture like a disk. *Instead of sakura shrimps and sesame seeds, you can add chopped chives, hams, etc.
3. Heat and oil a frying pan. Fry the mixture.
4. Serve with sauce (soy sauce + black vinegar = 1:1)

Japanese Batch Cooking Recipe: Kinpira Renkon

We call batch cooking side dishes ‘jobisai’ in Japanese. Preparing several kinds of ‘jobisai’ helps save cooking time as well as achieving a well-balanced diet.

‘Kinpira’ is one of the basic jobisai recipes using root vegetables and ‘renkon’ means lotus root. It’s a simple, quick way to enjoy lotus roots in season.

1. Heat sesame oil in a pan and stir-fry thinly sliced lotus root.

  
2. Add sake, soy sauce and mirin in the pan and cook until it smells nice… I added two tablespoons of each ingredient but adjust the amount as you like – please enjoy finding the best balance of salty and sweet. If you don’t have mirin, substitute sugar or maple syrup.

3. Sprinkle sesame seeds and red pepper powder.

 
It can be stored for 2-3 days in the fridge and around 2 weeks in the freezer.