Mitarashi Dango — grilled rice dumplings in sweet soy glaze

i. Origin & history

Dango are dumplings made from rice flour, rolled into balls, boiled or steamed and usually served on skewers. They have been made in Japan for centuries in many forms — plain, with bean paste, with kinako, or coloured for festivals — and are among the most common sweets sold at tea houses and shrine stalls.

Mitarashi dango is traditionally traced to Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto, one of the city's oldest shrines. Its grounds include the Mitarashi pond, a purification pond fed by a spring, and in summer the shrine holds a festival in which visitors wade into the cold water to pray for health. Dumplings sold to worshippers near the shrine took the pond's name. A tea house nearby still claims to be the birthplace of mitarashi dango.

The shape of the Kyoto original carries a legend. Its skewer holds five dumplings, the top one set slightly apart from the other four. One story says they represent bubbles rising from the Mitarashi pond — one first, then four more — when an emperor scooped water from it. Another says they represent a human figure, the head and four limbs, offered to the gods for protection. Most dango sold elsewhere in Japan have three or four evenly spaced dumplings.

The sauce has changed over time. Early mitarashi dango were probably grilled and brushed with soy sauce alone, as in the savoury yaki dango. The thick, sweet-salty glaze familiar today — soy sauce sweetened with sugar and thickened with starch — became standard in the twentieth century, and it is now what most people mean by mitarashi.

ii. The flour blend behind a good dango

Dango texture depends on the flour. Jōshinko, flour made from ordinary short-grain rice, gives a firm, slightly coarse, rice-cake-like bite. Shiratamako, from glutinous rice, gives a soft, smooth, stretchy dumpling that stays tender. Many traditional recipes blend the two, often in equal parts, for dumplings that hold their shape on the skewer but are still soft and chewy.

The dough should feel like an earlobe — soft, smooth and not sticky. Joshinko dough is usually mixed with hot water to partially cook the starch and make it pliable; shiratamako needs only cold water. Many home cooks use a simpler method: shiratamako with a little silken tofu instead of water, which keeps dango soft for longer.

After boiling, the dango are plunged into iced water. This firms the outside, makes them springier and stops them sticking together. Grilling then adds a toasted flavour and slightly crisp spots, which contrast with the soft inside and help the glaze cling.

The sauce is a balanced reduction. Soy sauce gives salt and savoury depth, sugar gives sweetness and gloss, mirin adds shine and a rounded flavour, and potato starch thickens it into a clear, glossy syrup that coats the dumplings rather than running off. The sauce is simmered briefly after the starch is added so it turns clear; undercooked, it looks cloudy and tastes floury.

iii. Ingredients

Makes 8 servings · scroll the side panel to adjust

• 100 g jōshinko (non-glutinous rice flour)
• 100 g shiratamako (glutinous rice flour)
• 20 g sugar, for the dough
• 170 ml warm water, approximately
• 8 bamboo skewers, soaked in water
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 60 g sugar, for the sauce
• 1 tbsp mirin
• 120 ml water, for the sauce
• 1 tbsp potato starch (katakuriko) or cornflour

Jōshinko and shiratamako are sold in Japanese grocers; if you can find only one, use all shiratamako (with a little less water) for softer dango, or a mix of ordinary rice flour and glutinous rice flour from Asian grocers. Use a good Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi); it is the main flavour. Some cooks use part brown sugar for a darker, more caramel sauce. Potato starch gives the clearest, glossiest sauce; cornflour works but is slightly cloudier.

iv. Method

1. Mix the jōshinko, shiratamako and 20 g sugar in a bowl. Add the warm water gradually, mixing and kneading, until the dough is smooth, soft and no longer sticky, with the feel of an earlobe. You may need a little more or less water.
2. Divide into 32 pieces and roll into smooth balls about 2.5 cm across.
3. Bring a large pan of water to a boil. Add the balls; when they float, cook for 2–3 minutes more. Lift them out into a bowl of iced water, leave for a minute, then drain and pat dry.
4. Thread 4 dumplings onto each soaked skewer.
5. For the sauce, whisk the soy sauce, sugar, mirin, water and starch in a small pan until smooth. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly, and cook for 1–2 minutes until thick, clear and glossy.
6. Grill the skewers under a hot grill, on a griddle pan or over a gas flame on a rack for 1–2 minutes per side, until lightly browned and charred in spots.
7. Dip or brush the hot dango generously in the sauce and serve at once.

v. Tips & common mistakes

• Add water gradually. Rice flours vary; the dough should be soft but not sticky.
• Make the balls the same size. They cook evenly and look neater on the skewer.
• Cook a minute after they float. Floating means the outside is done; the extra time cooks the centre.
• Shock them in iced water. It firms the dumplings and stops them sticking together.
• Soak the skewers. Dry bamboo burns under the grill.
• Cook the sauce until clear. Cloudy sauce tastes of raw starch; simmer a little longer.

vi. Variations

Hanami dango, eaten during cherry-blossom season, has pink, white and green dumplings and no sauce. An dango is topped with red-bean paste, kinako dango is rolled in sweetened roasted soybean flour, and goma dango uses a black sesame sauce. Yaki dango is grilled and brushed with plain soy sauce. In Kyoto, the original style has five dumplings, the top one set apart. Some cooks make dango with silken tofu in the dough for extra softness.

For other rice-flour sweets, see mochi, daifuku and the half-pounded ohagi. Rice dumplings are made across Asia, from the Chinese tangyuan to the Indonesian klepon, and soy-glazed rice snacks also appear in the Korean yaksik, sweetened with soy, honey and sesame oil.

vii. Serving & storage

Serve mitarashi dango warm, straight after glazing, with green tea. They are an afternoon snack, a festival treat and a classic accompaniment to cherry-blossom viewing.

Dango harden as they cool and are best eaten the day they are made. To keep them, store unsauced dango wrapped at room temperature until the next day, then reheat by boiling for a minute or grilling before glazing. The sauce keeps for 3 days in the fridge; warm it gently and add a little water if it has thickened. Uncooked dango balls can be frozen and boiled from frozen.

ix. More from Japanese

• Mochi — the pounded rice cake
• Daifuku — mochi with bean filling
• Mochi Rice Balls — ohagi and botamochi
• Zenzai — red-bean soup with mochi
• Tangyuan — Chinese rice balls
• Yaksik — Korean sweet rice cake