Fusube Mochi (Rice Cakes with Spicy Loach and Burdock Sauce)

Quick answer

Total time: 90 min
Level: Medium
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients: 9

About this dish

Fusube mochi is a rice-cake dish from Kurihara City in Miyagi Prefecture, eaten at New Year, weddings, memorial services, seasonal observances, and pauses in farm work.

Grilled, dried loach powder is combined with grated burdock and daikon. The burdock is sautéed first in oil, followed by the daikon, a seeded red chili, and the loach powder. Water is added with attention to the moisture released by the radish. Soy sauce and sake season the mixture, which then simmers gently for about one hour while foam is removed carefully. The roots soften into the liquid and the loach powder gives it body. Freshly pounded, hot mochi is placed in bowls and covered with the spicy sauce just before eating. The name comes from fusuberu, the local term for smoking the grilled loaches dry above the hearth, linking inland Kurihara's freshwater fish traditions with Miyagi's mochi culture.

Ingredients (4 servings)

Ingredient	Amount	Unit
grilled loach powder	20	g
daikon radish	300	g
burdock root	150	g
red chili	1	piece
water	4	cup
cooking oil	1	tbsp
soy sauce	3	tbsp
sake	2	tbsp
freshly pounded mochi	8	piece

Instructions

Read the steps as a cooking flow: prep, heat, seasoning, doneness control, and finish.

5 steps

1

Step

Trim the daikon and burdock and grate each finely.

Keep the liquid released by the daikon so it can guide how much of the measured water is needed later.
2

Heat

Grind the grilled loach powder in a mortar until very fine.

Split the red chili lengthwise and remove the seeds, leaving the chili long.
3

Control

Heat the cooking oil in a pot over medium heat and sauté the grated burdock first until aromatic.

Add the grated daikon and its liquid, the chili, and loach powder. Pour in the water, holding some back if the radish has released abundant moisture.
4

Control

Stir in the soy sauce and sake.

When the mixture begins to boil, reduce to low and simmer for about one hour, carefully skimming foam from the surface. Stop when the roots have softened into the liquid and the sauce is thick enough to cling to mochi.
5

Finish

Place two pieces of freshly pounded hot mochi in each bowl.

Spoon the loach and burdock sauce generously over every piece and serve immediately while the mochi is soft and hot.

Practical Cooking Checks

The cues that matter most while cooking.

Key technique: Grilled loach powder cooks with grated burdock and daikon.
Finish cue: Spoon the loach and burdock sauce generously over every piece and serve immediately while the mochi is soft and hot.