葛饅頭（くずまんじゅう）
Kudzu Manju / Kudzu Jelly Ball with Sweet Bean Paste

... also called 水饅頭（みずまんじゅう） (Mizu/Water Manju), which is usually chilled in cool water before serving. In summer, I remember the Kudzu Manju made by Iseya, a shop of long standing in Obama city, Fukui prefecture, Japan. In my childhood, my family usually called at the shop on the way from the railway station to my grandparents' place. This recipe introduces Kudzu Manju with delicate sweetness and very soft texture as near the Iseya's products in my memory as possible. (Cooking Time: about 30 minutes except cooling time)

Directions

1. Place 4 eaches of heat-safe molds with round bottom (for example, tea cup, jelly mold) on a table. Prepare a steamer which the mold can set in.
2. Divide Koshi-An paste into 4 balls, and lightly push the balls by your palms.
3. Pour water in a small bowl and dissolve suger well. Add and mix Kudzu-ko into the bowl, and strain the liquid with a fine sieve.
4. Pour the liquid into a microwave-save bowl. Heat it in microwave oven for 30 seconds and mix the inside well. Heat it again for 15 or 20 seconds and mix the inside well until it becomes translucent cream as like custard sauce.
5. Immediately divide and pour the cream into the molds of the direction #1. Sink each Koshi-An ball of the direction #2 into the cream and make the surface of the cream flat by a wet rubber spatula.
6. Put the molds in the direction #5 into the steamer that steam already comes out from. Steam them for 7 or 10 minutes until the jelly becomes transparent.
7. Set a large bowl with ice water. Sink the jelly balls with the molds into the ice water and cool down until the jelly becomes firm.
8. Keep the bowl in refrigerator and pick the jelly balls up from the molds before serving.

Notes & Arrangements

• The taste of the Kudzu jelly strongly depends on the water. Please use as nice water as possible. The hand-made Koshi-An with plain sweetness goes better with the delicate Kudzu jelly than commercial products. Fruits with plainer taste may be better with the jelly, too.
• The jelly in this recipe is much softer than usuall. Please control the amount of Kudzu-ko for your favorite softness. If the commercial product of Kudzu-ko you can obtain is mixed with the other starch flour, please change the amount of the starch flour in order to control the softness of the jelly. It is the same way in the case you substitute tapioca starch flour for Kudzu-ko.
• In Japan, there is a convenient product called "Mizu Manju no Moto" which is mixed flour of Kudzu starch, powdered agar-agar, and so on.
• In the direction #4, please observe the inside of the bowl well not to heat too long nor to make the cream non-uniform. You can substitute a sauce pan on a stove for microwave oven.
• If your steamer is made of glass or metal, water may drop from the lid to the Manju balls during steaming. So, please cover the lid with a large kitchen cloth to shut the drops out. You may not need the cover against Chinese bamboo steamer because the steam comes out through the bamboo lid smoothly.
• You can also make 葛桜（くずざくら） (Kudzu Zakura). In this case, it is better to reduce the amounts of the water (60 - 80 mL) and the sugar (15 - 20 g) in order to make the Kudzu jelly firmer. Prepare 4 sheets of heat-safe plastic film in about 8 inches (about 20 cm) square, and 4 pieces of string or wire. Divide and pour the cream in the direction #4 on the plastic films with round shape. Put each of the Koshi-An balls on the center of the cream layer, which are NOT pushed by your palms. Wrap and tie them up with the string or the wire, and follow the direction #7 to #8. Wrap the jelly balls with Sakura (cherry blossom) leaves in salt, and serve.
• Please eat this sweet as soon as possible, because Kudzu jelly without artificial additives easily becomes cloudy and loses its savor after the next day.