Sesame Balls

I love dim sum.

I especially love sesame balls.

They're my favorite.

Crispy-crunchy sesame seeds with chewy mochi-like outside and sweet bean paste on the inside.

There are a lot of recipes online, it's difficult for a novice sesame ball maker to choose, so of course I chose the one with the best picture.

The ones above are the ones I made, but look at these:

Yum! Yum! I Eat, I Travel, I Sleep...Repeat! 

The sesame seed balls on that website look perfect.

Here's what you'll need for the inside, I cooked the whole package of beans and put the leftovers in the freezer, but you can make less.

l lb. azuki beans

1 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

~1/4 cup oil

They also sell the beans already cooked and sweetened at Nijiya Market.

I had these in my pantry begging to be used.

Rinse the dry beans and put them in a large pot. There were 2 1/3 cups of beans in this one pound bag. Cover them with water and let them soak overnight.

Drain the beans and cover with water by a couple of inches, and bring to boil.

Lower the heat and simmer gently for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until tender.

Drain the beans.

Add the sugar.

Transfer beans and sugar to a food processor and puree.

Transfer to a pot, add oil, and heat over low heat until the mixture is thickened to a soft paste.

Transfer to a container and set aside to cool, stirring occasionally.

You can make this several days ahead of time, or keep it in the refrigerator for about a month.

When you're ready to make the sesame balls, roll the sweet azuki bean mixture into balls, a generous teaspoon sized.

To make the dough for the outside of the sesame balls, combine:

1 3/4 cup mochiko

2/3 cup water

1/2 to 2/3 c lightly packed brown sugar

1/3 cup raw sesame seeds

Canola or peanut oil for frying

Use the same flour we used to make peanut butter mochi.

 Bring the water to a boil and add the sugar. Stir until sugar is dissolved.

Pour into a bowl containing the mochiko and stir to combine.

Form the dough into a ball and divide into 3.

Roll into a log and cut into six pieces.

Keep a bowl of water handy.

The dough tends to get dry, so you need to be constantly wetting your hands.

Flatten out a piece of dough.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap to keep it moist. 

If you don't, you'll have to continuously keep dipping your hands in water because the dough will get dry.

Add a ball of the sweet azuki beans.

Cover the beans with the dough.

Wet your hands and smooth into a round ball after you have closed the dough around the beans.

You can pinch off excess dough as you're making them, that way one side of the ball won't be overloaded with dough, and you'll have an even coating.

 Moisten your hands lightly with water and roll the dough.

It would be fun to make them with friends, so you can have an assembly line to make it go faster.

Chatting and giggling always make the cooking more fun.

 Roll the balls in sesame seeds, coating all around.

These are the sesame seeds I used.

I keep them in the freezer.

Heat the oil to just below 350 degrees F, add the sesame balls.

After 2 to 4 minutes, they'll float to the surface. 

Then, gently press them with a long metal spoon and press them back into the oil, holding for a second or two. The balls will expand a little.

Cook them a little longer until they're golden brown.

Drain on paper towels.

The next time I make these, I'm going to make them with some friends.

Then we'll all have them with a cup of tea when they're done.

Itadakimasu!



***



When I get good at making these sesame balls, I'm going to invite our friends Robert, Connie & Robert's mom, Mas, over to have some sesame balls and hot tea.

This is our friend, Robert.

If he had his way, this is the only picture of him I'd post.

He's kind of shy.

We've been friends for years and years.

And years.

He's a big Dodger fan.

His mom is too.

I hope I'm as adventurous at 92 as Mas is.

Robert goes camping with us every summer.

If Robert, or his son Keith, can't go, we plan around them.

They're important.

When our daughter got married in a fun do-it-yourself wedding last year, we couldn't have done it without Robert's help.

He came over and helped paint the house. Even when Gary had to work.

He helped with the wedding preparations, helping stain the arbor and make the stage, hang the strings of lights in the trees, make the mason jar lights, stage the ceremony area, etc., etc., etc.

Then he took a day off from work the next day to help us clean it all up.

He's that kind of friend.

Here he is dancing with Connie at the wedding.

He looks happy.

I'm so happy for him.

We couldn't ask for a better friend.

No printable recipe for this one yet.