Mochi Recipes from Hawaii

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The Mochiko panic of August 2024

It all began with articles in the big national newspapers this August. 

The New York Times headline on August 12th read, “California’s Rice Royalty is Stepping Down” and the San Francisco Chronicle chimed in on the same day, “This California farm supplied rice to chefs and home cooks for 97 years. Now, it’s shutting down.” 

I first saw the news on the Kau Kau Chronicle’s Facebook group, where local recipes are traded and beloved old spiral-bound cookbooks given away to those who would appreciate them. So many of us grew up with treasured recipes for butter mochi, chichi dango, ozoni, mochiko chicken (see below) and other sweet and savory treats that make use of Koda Farms Blue Star Brand mochiko rice flour – there really is no other brand that I’ve ever purchased.

It’s a pantry staple in Hawaii that would be almost unthinkable to be without, so the panic was instantaneous and understandable. 

The comments poured in: Soooooooo sad. Noooooooo. End of an Era… 

People were rushing off to panic-buy precious boxes of the mochiko flour, thinking that this was the end. 

Luckily, Maui food blogger Relle Lum of Keeping it Relle (and many, many others) reached out to Koda Farms via their Instagram to clarify and the panic slowly subsided.

“Stop freaking out” Koda Farm Mochiko is still avaiable

An August 22 headline in the Los Angeles Time’s pleaded “Stop freaking out.’ Here’s what’s next for Koda Farms’ California rice legacy.” and went on to explain that the business is simply evolving and the Koda siblings will stay on as brand ambassadors, even as they step back from the day to day farming operations. 

And luckily for us, the trademarked flours like the mochiko we use in all of our Hawaii recipes will continue to be available.

Whew, crisis averted! 

(The world has enough crises these days, doesn’t it?) 

So in honor of Koda Farms and their many, many boxes of mochiko that I’ve used over the years (including those two that I packed into my suitcase on my last trip home), here are a few of my favorite recipes that make use of mochiko flour. 

Mochiko recipes from my grandma’s recipe cards 

Mochiko Chicken 

Many of my grandma’s recipes were handwritten like this with very little detail. I rarely follow recipes closely myself, and estimate or prepare things “to taste”. So I’m passing this one on “as is” and you’ll have to figure it out on your own. 😉

When I prepare mochiko chicken I follow similar steps except that I love ginger so I add a bit of grated ginger to my marinade and I also sometimes add sesame seeds at the end. (Don’t worry the rest of the recipes will be sweet ones, but I couldn’t leave out Mochiko Chicken!)

Chocolate Mochi

Chocolate Mochi isn’t as traditional, but every bit as beloved for those with a sweet tooth in Hawaii. It’s like a cross between the satisfying chew of butter mochi with the rich chocolate of a brownie. Best of both worlds!

Other mochi and mochiko recipes

My grandma didn’t actually make mochi all that often. In fact, I mostly grew up eating it at potlucks or parties when friends would bring that as a contribution. (My potluck contribution is SPAM Musubi, but that’s a whole different post!) So I’m collecting a few more “expert” opinions here as bookmarks for myself as I use up the two boxes I brought home.

Butter Mochi – Kiki Aranita

Kiki Aranita teaches us about the origins of butter mochi: “Butter mochi is purely an invention of the islands and it is borne from the multicultural roots of Hawaii’s first potlucks and the mystical union of rice flour, butter, coconut milk and sugar.” (Here’s Kiki’s recipe.)

Mochi recipe playlist – Keeping it Relle

Keeping it Relle has an entire mochi recipe playlist on her YouTube Channel if you prefer videos to reading recipes.

Chichi Dango – Ono Hawaiian Recipes

I love the photography and videos of Ono Hawaiian Recipes site and this recipe for chichi dango was exactly what I had been looking for!

5 Tips for Baking with Mochiko – Stella Parks 

5 Tips for Baking with Mochiko from Stella Parks for Food & Wine.

Kau Kau Chronicles 

The Kau Kau Chronicles is a treasure chest full of recipes from old Hawaiian cookbooks, mostly from the mid to late 1900s. My grandmother had nearly all of these in her collection! They’ve been scanned for easy access – the entire site is worth a browse, but here is their mochi recipe list. If you’re interested in old Hawaii recipes, you might also want to join the Kau Kau Chronicles Facebook Group as well.

The Mochi Time Machine 

You can also find all of these collected in the Mochi Time Machine, collected into a 133-page masterpiece PDF file that you can download and cook your way through. Truly an amazing resource!

Japanese Mochi recipes – Just One Cookbook

Most of the recipes I’ve listed above are “local” Hawaii style mochi recipes, but if you’d like to trace some of the recipes back to a more traditional Japanese style, I recommend the mochi recipes archive from Just One Cookbook.

If you enjoyed this post…

I shared some of my grandma’s other recipe cards in the following posts:

• Comfort food all the way: Hawaii style Corn Chowder
• Tofu McNuggets in Japan inspired me to write about the recipe card for Tofu Patties

If you enjoy Hawaii nostalgia like I do, sign up for my weekly newsletter – I sent out Hawaii news and a curated selection of recipes and travel news from around the world, each week on Fridays. I’ll also send you my Shoyu-Sugar Spam Musubi recipe when you sign up! 😉 You can also check out my Hawaii Resources page for more food and travel info from around the state.