side dish

Pork and Root Vegetables with Mochi Waffles

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Mochi waffles can be made easily with Mochiko sweet rice flour on a waffle iron. Served with pork and root vegetables with soy vinegar sauce, they complement each other wonderfully.

Tips:

  • If you have a waffle maker, mochi waffles can be made simply by mixing sweet rice flour and water. They are as crispy as grilled mochi.

  • Uruchi-komeko (non-glutinous or regular rice flour) and mochiko or shiratamako (glutinous or sweet rice flour) are all gluten-free. The notion of “glutinous rice” refers to its sticky, glue-like texture when cooked. Rice does not contain gluten, a particular set of proteins found in wheat products, thus it is gluten-free.

  • Make this dish completely gluten-free by using gluten-free substitutes for other ingredients as needed.

  • Japanese ingredients such as mochiko, dashi, mirin, and gobo can be purchased online or at Asian grocery stores.

Yield:

4 servings

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Ingredients

For the mochi-waffles

1¼ cups (200g) Mochiko sweet rice flour

½ teaspoon (3g) salt

¾-1 cup (180-220ml) water

The following ingredients need to be cut into ¾ inch (2cm) pieces:

2.8oz/80g pork

⅓ (80g) gobo arrowroot, parsnip, or any other root vegetable (boiled, about ⅔ cup)

½ (80g) sweet potato (boiled, about ⅔ cup)

1 (60g) carrot (boiled, about ½ cup)

½ (8oz/227g) can water chestnut or lotus root

¼ (30g) green pepper (about ¼ cup)

Sesame oil for sautéing

For the sauce

2½ teaspoons (15ml) soy sauce

2 teaspoons (12ml) black vinegar

2 teaspoons (9ml) mirin

2 teaspoons (9ml) sake Japanese rice wine

1½ teaspoons (7ml) sesame oil

For the slurry

1 tablespoon (10g) rice flour

1 tablespoon (15ml) water

Directions

  1. Preheat the waffle maker.

  2. To make mochi waffles, mix sweet rice flour, salt, and water in a bowl.

  3. Pour the batter into the waffle maker. Cook both sides until crispy.

  4. In a skillet over medium high heat, add sesame oil. When fragrant, sauté pork. When the pork is cooked, add all the vegetables and continue to cook.

  5. In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients for the sauce. Add the sauce to the pork mixture and simmer.

  6. In another bowl, combine rice flour and water to make a slurry. Mix the slurry into the pork mixture. When the sauce thickens, turn off the heat. Serve with the mochi waffles.

Note

  • This recipe uses US customary units. Measurement equivalents include: 1 teaspoon = 5ml, 1 tablespoon = 15ml, and 1 US cup = 237ml or 8fl oz. (1 metric cup = 250ml or 8.5fl oz.)
  • The cooking time using microwave oven in this recipe is based on 1,000W in the US.
  • The temperature and baking time may be different depending on the oven used. Please adjust accordingly.
  • All rice flour is naturally gluten-free. Make this dish completely gluten-free by using gluten-free substitutes for other ingredients as needed.