passion

The last time I was in Maui, a few years ago with Julie, we had passionfruit-flavored mochi made by a bakery here on the island and distributed, it seemed, just about everywhere we went (along with other flavors which weren't as great). This is not filled, it's just a little log of mochi with the passionfruit flavor part of the flesh of it. I was very eager to try it again and introduce my parents to it, so I dragged them into every grocery and convenience store we passed for two days, to no avail. We looked up "bakeries" in the yellow pages and called the one I thought might be right. I asked if they made passionfruit mochi, she told me "no", and hung up before I could ask if they make any mochi at all (it did say in their yellow pages ad that they did).

So after all this failure, I decided to see if I could make it myself. There are lots of recipies for mochi on the web, including some specifically for "chichi dango", which is coconut flavored, and which Julie told me to look out for on this trip. Haven't found that yet either. But today we went to Safeway and got sweet rice flour, sugar, baking soda, a sixpack of passionfruit-flavored beverage product, and two cans of coconut juice. Tonight I made the passionfruit-flavored one, which was disappointing because the beverage product was only 5% juice, and you could barely taste the aroma of the fruit or any acid. On Friday, when we get back from Hana, I'll try the coconut.

DISPASSIONFRUIT MOCHI (adapted from several mochi recipes from the Web)

1 1-lb box sweet rice flour (mochiko)
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cans (24 oz) passionfruit-flavored drink

Mix the dry ingredients, reserving about a handful of the rice flour. Blend in the liquid. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees, covering the pan with foil (9x13" or equivalent). Let cool for about 2 hours or overnight, cut into squares and dredge in the remaining flour.

Ways to improve it next time:

Grease the pan (all the recipes called for it, but I forgot to get the wherewithwhat to grease with; not much in the way of supplies in the rental condo). It actually wasn't that bad getting it out, but perhaps it could have been easier.

Use something better than a 5% juice beverage product. I should have gone with my gut and skipped the passionfruit this time for Goya pear nectar instead, at least that has a more intense flavor. Probably so thick that you'd have to add a bit of water, though.

Dredge in potato starch instead of the rice flour -- it would be smoother and not quite so raw-flour-y tasting; some of the web recipes call for it.

Now here's an idea I should have had back when I had a meyer lemon tree: meyer lemon mochi, nice fragrance, nice acid, and the California touch. Stay tuned.