Dango (Sweet Japanese Dessert)

1. Combine tofu and rice flour in a bowl; mix together by hand until smooth and slightly elastic. Pull dough thinly to test consistency; if it feels like your earlobe, it's ready. Add water or more rice flour as needed.

2. Separate dough into 3 equal parts. Add red food coloring to 1 portion; mix by hand to evenly distribute the color. Note that color will intensify once dango are boiled. Mix another portion of dough with green tea powder; leave the last portion white.

3. Separate each portion of the dough into 3 equal parts; roll into balls to make the dango.

4. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Drop dango into the pot and boil until they float to the top, 3 to 5 minutes. Continue boiling for 2 minutes more.

5. Remove dango with a slotted spoon and place into a bowl of cold or room-temperature water for 1 minute until just warm to the touch. Thread them through skewers in order of your liking. The traditional order is green, white, and pink.

Cook's Notes:

You can replace the green tea powder with 4 drops of green food coloring or a mixture of 2 yellow drops and 2 blue drops. Other colors of dye may be used for differently colored dango. This is only one way of making plain dango.

If you wish, you may fry them until slightly browned and cover in sugar or another sweetener. (This is usually done with white dango only.)