An authentic Cantonese/Hakka super food, qing tuan/hakka mochi/mugwort mochi/艾草糕/青团 which is made of Mugwort and glutinous rice flour with a peanut, peanut butter and walnut filling. Mugwort is a weed that can be found on wild grass field or construction sites. It has medicinal purposes used in the Chinese, Japanese and Korean culture. More information https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mugwort.

Mugwort mochi is often eaten during Tomb sweeping festival 清明/qingming. The festival takes place every year on 4th of April. Here in The Netherlands, it starts to grow around end of May. Best to take the upper part of the plant. Sometimes, there are bugs in the plant, soak the plant in some water for few minutes with salt and vinegar.

Ingredients

• A cup of mugwort leaves. The stem is too hard to be used.
• 1 bag Glutinous rice flour
• Water
• 1-2 tbsp sugar
• 100 gr. roasted peanuts
• 50 gr. roasted black sesame seed
• 100 gr. roasted walnuts
• 2-3 tbsp peanut butter
• water
• Banana leaves or parchment paper
• Blender
• Steaming basket

First, blanch the mugwort in some salt water for 4-5 minutes. Let it cool down in cold or ice water. After, squeeze the water out of the mugwort. Place the mugwort in the blender with 3 tbsp water and blend till a smoothie consistency. Put the mugwort smoothie together with 1-2 tbsp sugar into a pan and heat till the sugar has been dissolved. Finally, add the glutinous rice flour gradually till you can make a dough. It is hard to give the exact rice flour measurement as it depends on how many leaves you can gather. Let it rest for 20 minutes.

In the meantime, you can make the filling. Ground the peanuts, walnuts and black sesame seeds in a processor, not too fine as you want some texture. Mix the grounded mixture and peanut butter well and add to your liking some sugar. Make of the dough, balls of each 35 grams and fill it with 1 tbsp filling. Place the mochi on a banana leaf or parchment paper. Steam the mochi 15 minutes and let it cool down a few minutes before eating.

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