Originally, these were just going to be ring seal dango(round mochi-type rice dumplings). However, that idea kind of shifted towards doing Spheals instead thanks to my dear friend, Justina, who straight up to me to do that. And I am (mostly) glad I listened to her, especially after seeing the end product! I say mostly because despite their appearances, Spheal aren’t really the easiest Pokemon to recreate into pastry. For those unfamiliar with them, Spheal is a round seal-like Pokemon that is extremely cute. It is blue, tan, and white with these cute white spots, these tiny little blue round ears, these little fangs(technically tusks, because Spheal evolves into Walrein, which is a Pokemon based on a walrus), and two leg-like fins. All of which are kind of nightmares to recreate in pastry form, and even just thinking out how to execute all of that, I was already dreading that process. While the Pokemon is cute and relatively simple-looking, all of those little features require attention to detail, a steady hand, and a lot of patience. For just 12 little dango, I spent maybe 2 straight hours having to assemble them because of how many little things I had to include onto each one. I won’t sugar coat it, the process of making these bordered on sucking. But I was so relieved that the end result actually came out nicely, which basically made up for the trauma that was painstakingly attaching each little ear or white spot onto each Spheal Dango.

For the dango dough itself, it is made with just mochiko(glutinous rice flour) and pureed firm silken tofu. It is important to use silken tofu in this case, because regular firm tofu will impart a more savory flavor to the dango, and you run the risk of more soybean chunks in there as well. A lot of dango recipes, mine included, use tofu since that helps give the final product this firm chewy texture that is really fulfilling and satisfying! I dyed part of the dough the appropriate Spheal-shade of indigo using blue spirulina powder and acai powder. I used the dough for all of Spheal’s body, except for one portion: the teeth. Now I went back and forth on what to do here. It sounded like hell on earth to shape the tusks using the dango dough, and thanks to gravity, I knew that the dough-made tusks would just fall off of the dango anyways when I steamed them(normally dango are boiled, but I opted to steam mine instead, just so that the features have a fighting chance to stay intact). So instead, I used short grain rice. Short grain rice not only cooks quickly, meaning that a singular grain can cook in the same time as the rest of the dango, but it will easily hold its form, and cook out to be the right shade of translucent-white that will really look like Spheal’s teeth! I have seen people roll things in rice and steam them that way before(my mom used to do that with spareribs), so luckily that point of reference helped me save a LOT of time with figuring out how to manage the tusks. For the eyes, I made an edible paint using rum and activated charcoal. I went with rum because I wanted to pair the Spheal with tropical fruits, but any clear alcohol on hand works as well! I added the eyes on after the steaming process, since when I applied them on before steaming with the Dratini tteok, the edible paint eyes I used on those kind of bled out into the rest of the dough, and you could not really see them that well. This way, the eyes are still noticeable!

As I was composing this recipe for a dish, I was loosely inspired by Southeast Asian desserts, namely the idea of some sort of chewy rice or tapioca-type of dumpling, fresh fruit, and coconut milk. With it being the summer and what-not, it just sounded super refreshing to eat some iteration of that, using these Spheal Dango! That and with Spheal originally being caught at the Shoal Cave in the Hoenn region, I felt like tropical and refreshing is a good route to that as a reference to those games! For my dango, I served them with a ginger and pandan-infused coconut milk, some blue sea salt ice, and some diced papaya and pink pineapple. But you can really customize how you serve these dango however you want! If you want to be a sadist, you can put a bunch of them on a skewer, grill them, and then serve them with a sauce if you would like too! It might not be a visually appealing idea, and chances are someone from PETA might yell at your for portraying animal cruelty like that, but serving dango on skewers is technically the traditional way of eating them! I also made a blue sea salt ice, half because Spheal is part ice type, making that a cute on-the-nose reference to that, but also because the ice will help keep the dessert chilled and cold, which is ideal for giving it a pleasant, refreshing feeling! Lastly, I somehow managed to make this dessert 100% gluten-free and vegan, so I felt kind of proud about doing that, since that was not my initial goal when I was conceptualizing this dessert, it just kind of happened that way!

For the blue sea salt ice:
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp blue spirulina powder

Mix together until the powder is fully dissolved into the water. Pour into an ice cube tray and freeze solid, at least 2 hours.

For the coconut milk:
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 slices of fresh ginger
1 pandan leaf
1 tbsp granulated sugar
a pinch of salt

In a pot, heat everything up on low heat for 10 minutes. Then allow everything to cool down together, in an airtight container placed in the refrigerator, until cold to the touch.

Makes 12-16 individual Spheal dango:
120g mochiko
135g puréed silken tofu
a pinch of salt
Blue spirulina powder
Açai powder
Short grain rice

In a bowl, mix together the mochiko, tofu, and salt. Portion out about 90g of the dough and mix into that equal parts blue spirulina powder and acai powder until it is dyed an indigo hue. With the undyed dough, portion out 10g balls, rolling them until smooth to form the bodies of the Spheal dango. Use .5g-sized nubs for each fin, attaching them to the bodies as well. Roll out the dough cut, and cut out 1-inch disks. Cut out an ovular shape that is roughly 1/4-into the blue disks, and gently press the blue layer over each white dango to form the blue portions of Spheal’s body, and its tail. Use a butter knife to form the indentations of Spheal’s tail. With the remaining blue dough, portion out the snouts, with each being .5g in size, and pressing rice grains in to form the teeth. Press those onto each dango, and with the remaining blue dough, roll those into small balls and press them on as Spheal’s ears. With the remaining white dough, press on small spots of it to the blue dough to form Spheal’s white spots. Transfer the dango to a parchment and cooking spray-lined bamboo steamer, and steam on medium heat for 15 minutes.

For the edible paint:
1g rum or clear alcohol
1g activated charcoal

Mix to form your paint. Using a chopstick, press onto the dango the paint to form your “eyes”.

To garnish:
Diced pink pineapple
Diced papaya

Start with the coconut milk, fresh fruit, and ice. Then garnish the tops with the Spheal to finish.