# Akaneko ｜ Our Regional Cuisines

**Cuisine Name**: Akaneko

**Region**: Our Regional Cuisines

## Main Lore Areas
Nakakawachi to Minamikawachi

## Main Ingredients Used
Glutinous rice, flour, kinako (roasted soybean flour)

## History, Origin, and Related Events
This dish is made from steamed glutinous rice and flour, which is then sprinkled with sugar and kinako. It is also referred to as "Hagessho mochi." Because it contains flour, the texture is less sticky compared to just glutinous rice, so you can enjoy a more crispy texture.Hagessho refers to the 11th day of the summer solstice from July second to July seventh. Farmers finish planting rice around this time period, so there was a custom to make "Akaneko" from the harvested wheat collected before planting rice, and the glutinous rice harvested in the previous year. This dish is eaten in appreciation of completing the rice planting and to pray for a good harvest.The homemade flour of that time was brown, since the entire grain was ground into a powder. The resulting mochi was brown, and the appearance of the finished dish resembled "a cat's round back," so it came to be called "Akaneko (neko meaning cat)."

## Opportunities and Times of Eating Habits
This is an event food to be eaten with gratitude towards the end of rice planting.

## How to Eat
Glutinous rice that has soaked in water for one whole day and night before straining, and flour kneaded until it has the soft texture similar to an earlobe by adding liquids like water, are steamed together. Once steamed, the mixture is added to a mochitsuki bowl for preparation, where it is torn and shaped into just the right size and sprinkled with a kinako and sugar blend.

## Efforts for Preservation and Succession
When Hagessho time approaches, this dish is sold at local confectionary shops and roadside service stations.

## Ingredients
- Glutinous rice: 2 cups
- Flour: 160g
- Salt: 1 teaspoon
- Water: 190cc
- Sugar: 10g
- Kinako Roasted Soybean Flour: 25g

## Recipe
1. 1. Wash the glutinous rice and let it soak in water for one whole day and night, then strain the water.
2. 2. Soak the flour in water for 20 to 30 minutes. Use cake flour when wheat flour is not available. In this case, add water and continue to knead until the dough has the softness of an earlobe, round it out to the size of a fist, and press in the center of the dough a little.
3. 3. Put step one into a steaming basket, place step two on top of this, then steam.
4. 4. Once steamed, transfer it to a mochitsuki bowl and make the mochi.
5. 5. Tear apart the mochi from step four into adequately sized pieces, and sprinkle with a kinako and sugar blend.

## Provider Information
provider : Recipe provided by: "Taste of Traditional Osaka; From Parent to Child, and Child to Descendants" (Osaka Prefecture Diet Improvement Liaison Council)

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