I tried this recipe when I was thinking about my favorite mochi bags, and it came out really great. To close bags, I use toothpicks although the original recipe is using dried gourd which is not easy to find outside of Japan.
Ingredients
4 sheets of fried Tofu
100g of ‘Shirataki’ noodles * It may be called as ‘Konjac noodles’around your place, in paticular non-asian supermarkets. Or, you can buy them in an Asian/Japanese supermarket.
2 mochi *You can buy them in an Asian/Japanese supermarket. It should be square pieces.
4 dried shiitake
dried gourd *You can skip this if you don’t have it. Prepare 8 toothpicks instead.
3/4 cup of Dashi soup (3/4 cup of water + 1 teaspoon of Hondashi powder should work)
3 tablespoons of soy sauce
2.5 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoon of mirin
Instruction
1. Soak dried shiitake in water to soften. Slice them. Soak dried gourd if you use it.
2. Cut fried tofu in half and make a pocket. Put you finger gently inside to make a bag. Prepare boiling water and put the fried tofu and get rid of water. This process is to remove the oil outside. Boil Shirataki noodles quickly, just about 20-30 secs, and leave in a strainer.
*For this step, here is what I do. Place fried tofu on a cutting board in a sink, and pour hot water. Then flip all and do the same. Place Shirataki noodles in a strainer, and pour hot water. I also cut Shirataki noodles roughly.
3. Cut each mochi in 4 pieces.
4. Put Shirataki noodles, slices shiitake, and mochi in each fried tofu bags. Close with dried gourd.
* I close with a toothpick.
5. Prepare a sauce. In a pot, pour Dashi soup, sugar, mirin and soy sauce. Heat until it boils. Place mochi bags in the sauce. Close the cover, and cook for 10-12 mins.
You can keep these mochi bags for 2-3 days in a fridge. Make sure to warm up when you eat to soften mochi.
Link to the original Japanese recipe- https://www.kyounoryouri.jp/recipe/42978