-
1
Wash the mochi rice and regular rice together.
-
2
Drain the rice into a colander and let it sit for 30 minutes to drain off excess water while it still absorbs moisture.
-
3
Put the salt-preserved cherry blossoms in a colander and rinse while shaking gently to remove the surface salt.
-
4
Put into a bowl with 300 ml of water, and leave to soak to remove some of the salt.
-
5
Squeeze the cherry blossoms to remove excess water.
-
6
Reserve 290 ml of the soaking water.
-
7
Cut the hard stems off and chop the blossoms up roughly.
-
8
Chop the stems finely.
-
9
Rinse the salt-preserved cherry leaves quickly, and soak for 30 minutes to an hour in water to de-salt while checking them to make sure they still retain some saltiness.
-
10
Choose some nicely shaped cherry blossoms to use as decoration.
-
11
Soak them in water for 30 minutes to de-salt.
-
12
Pat dry between paper towels.
-
13
Put the rice from Step 1 in a rice cooker with the reserved soaking water from Step 2, sake and salt, and cherry blossom stems.
-
14
Mix up the contents quickly.
-
15
Switch the rice cooker on and cook the rice as usual.
-
16
When the rice is cooked, add the chopped up cherry blossoms and fold them in.
-
17
Leave the rice to steam and rest for about 10 minutes.
-
18
Taste, and adjust the seasoning by adding more salt if needed.
-
19
Form the rice into cylindrical balls.
-
20
Wrap each ball with cherry leaf that's been patted dry, and decorate with a cherry blossom to finish.
