Dango (団子), or dumplings, are a traditional Japanese sweet. They are soft, a tad chewy, and come in a variety of flavors. Today's recipe is for Mitarashi Dango. This flavor is currently very popular in Japanese. It's a dango covered in a sweet/salty syrup made of soy sauce and sugar.

INGREDIENTS:
1 Pack of Dango Flour (Dango-ko)
200 ml Hot Water

MITARASHI SAUCE:
1/3 Cup of Sugar
2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
100 ml Water
1 Tablespoon Cornstarch

In a medium sized bowl, start of by mixing your dango flour and hot water together. Keep your hands wet for this, otherwise the dango dough will stick to your fingers. Knead it firmly until it becomes thick and as hard as your earlobe.

Next, bring a pot of water to a boil. Bubbles form at the top of the water when it is boiling. Pinch off small pieces of dough and roll them in your hands until they become round. Carefully place the dango balls in the boiling water.




At first your dango will be heavy and sink to the bottom of the pot. Eventually, they will rise to the top. After they rise to the surface, let them boil for another 4 minutes. Use a spoon to take them out and immediately place them in cold water.



Transfer your dango to a towel or plate. At this point, you would stick about 3 or 4 dango onto a skewer, but I didn't have any today!



For the Mitarashi sauce, mix all of the ingredients together in a pot and bring to a boil. Next, simmer it on medium/low-medium heat, then let it cool so it can thicken. Drizzle the sauce over your dumplings, or cover them completely.

In the near future I want to try different flavors. Maybe a green tea dumpling?