Dango 101
"You know how to make dango, don't you?" Dan asked, his muscular arms crossed over his chest. "Do you want me to show you?"
Mimosa smiled nervously, "Well, I've made it a couple times, and watched lots of videos on how it's done, so I'd say yes." She wanted to impress Dan with her cooking skill and feared messing up something he was so good at.
Dan nodded, motioning towards his workbench with all the ingredients laid out. "Go ahead, show me what you can do. I'll point out where I can help if I spot anything you could do better."
Mimosa tied the apron around her waist and stood at the table, observing everything, and making sure she knew what was what. She noticed suddenly that Dan had arranged all the ingredients by what step they were used for, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
Grabbing the large glass bowl before her, she added the pre-measured flour and mixed them together. Next, she boiled a cup of water, and added it little by little to the flour mixture. Once it started clumping together, she used her hands to knead the dough together, glancing at Dan once or twice when she realized it was stickier than it should be.
Once the dough finally formed one smooth ball, Mimosa used the knife Dan provided to cut it into pieces, trying to get each to be an even size. She rolled each of the pieces into a round ball, pleased that they all looked uniform.
Next, she filled another bowl with cold water and ice, then a large pot with warm water. She dropped each rounded piece into the pot once the water began boiling. She waited a couple minutes, watching the balls toddle around and bump into each other in the boiling water.
Once all the white dumplings rose to the surface of the water, Mimosa carefully scooped them out and dropped them into the bowl of ice water and noticed Dan nod once out of the corner of her eye.
"Am 1 doing it right so far?" she asked, looking over at him while the dumplings cooled. Dan smirked and leaned forwards against the counter.
"So good so far," he said smugly, hesitant to give too much positive feedback. Mimosa glowed at the praise, relieved that she hadn't made any grave mistakes yet.
Once the dumplings had cooled, she put them onto an empty tray to dry off a bit. Next, she had to make the glaze, In a pan she mixed the sugar, sauces, and starch together before turning on the heat, stirring the mixture while the water evaporated off. Once the sauce was syrup-thick, she removed it from the heat, stilli stirring. After she was happy with how the glaze looked, she removed the whisk, tapping off the extra droplets stuck to it.
Next, she used the bamboo skewers to poke three dumplings onto each, leaving two set aside. She laid each full skewer back onto the pan, arranging them neatly in rows. Mimosa used a rubber brush to dip into the cooled glaze and paint it thickly over each skewered dumpling, making sure the side facing up was fully covered.
Stepping back, she admired her mitarashi dango, then looked to Dan, who also seemed impressed. "Looks great, he started, stepping over to inspect the dango, "Now clean up so we can try them.
