Question:
How do I make dango's correctly? I tried to make dango's this week (3 times, 3 different methods), but they failed everytime, once ending up so sticky I ruined my steamer and the other 2 times having ended up with soggy, sticky, droopy dango's. For the first 2 times, I tried the advice of a youtuber saying that I could use a steamer, and if I didn't have a steamer (or wanted to try something else) I should try cooking the balls untill they float (I picked out a few when just floating to the surface and the rest with a 5 minute delay). The last method was simply riceflour-balls (which is basically what a dango is) from a package, with which I followed the guide on the package to the letter, saying that I should cook them untill they float and that they would be ready, but still no luck. The steamer gave me the way too sticky balls and the other 2 methods both gave me the sticky, soggy and droopy balls.
Does anyone see what I did wrong? I really want to try dango's :(
Answer:
Altho' I was not familiar with 'dango' before your post, I found a great illustrated, step-by-step guide for making them. I have used this site before for other foods and found it to be easy to follow.
http://www.justhungry.com/mitarashi-dang…
To answer your question after reading about how to make them, it appears that either you added the dough balls too quickly, cooling the boiling water, or you didn't cook them long enuf.
After you view the JustHungry site, try them again, and I'll bet they turn out perfectly. Luck!
AND THEN, PAGE 2 ... after I posted this, I found the following in Answers from about two months ago:
As ridiculous as this sounds, rice flour is a complicated topic as there are so many different types and different names can be used for the same products, making it rather confusing when trying to get the right ingredients.
Glutinous rice is the name given to a type of short grain rice that is very sticky and has a slightly sweet taste to it. It can also be called mochi rice in Japanese. However, the word glutinous does not imply that it contains gluten, as wikipedia states "It is called glutinous in the sense of being glue-like or sticky and not in the sense of containing gluten".
When this glutinous rice is ground down into a flour, it is given a variety of different names such as sweet rice flour, sticky rice flour or mochiko (ko means flour or powder in Japanese). There is also a vareity of mochiko called shiratamako in Japanese which is mochiko with added corn starch.
Of course, so far we have only talked about rice flour that is made from glutinous rice. There are also types of rice flour that are made from normal rice, not the extra sticky, slightly sweet one. This type of rice flour is called Joshinko in Japanese.
So, to recap:
Mochiko: Rice flour made from sweet, sticky glutinous rice.
Shiratamako: Rice flour made from sweet, sticky glutinous rice, with added corn starch.
Joshinko: Rice flour made from normal rice.
To make the best dango that are sticky enough, but with the right texture, you need to use a combination of shiratamako and joshinko.
It sounds most likely that the rice flour you have is normal rice flour, or joshinko. To get the right consistency for dango, it might be worth looking for some more rice flour that specifically mentions being "sweet rice flour", "sticky rice flour", "mochi rice flour" or "mochiko". Once you have both of these two different types of rice flour, you will need to add a little corn starch to the mochiko to make shiratamko.
Phew, see how complicated this can get! :)
As for a recipe, my favourite one is by Maki at Just Hungry. There are lots of pictures and more detailed explanations about the different types of rice flours. You can find it here:
http://www.justhungry.com/mitarashi-dang…
EDIT: This is the same recipe linked to above. Definitely a good choice for making dango!
I hope this helps and you enjoy making dango, they do taste great and are perfect for summer!
Source(s):
http://www.japancentre.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutinous_r
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