[Klara]

Metaperl,

I am sooooooooooo jealous. I'm not in the States so can't get an order in as often as I'd like.

the first thing that jumped at me is the mochi - I don't have any fancy recipes, because I LOVE it simple - a drop of oil (yup, the sesame oil you ordered), when it's warm, put in a cake of mochi (or two if you love it as I do), let it cook til brown (I love it crispy) then turn over, I put on a drop or two of shoyu, let second side brown, then turn it over just for a minute again so shoyu side cooks up a bit. Outside is crunchy and inside wonderfully chewy - I love it. And it's quick to make!!! Don't let it burn!!!!!!!!!!!

The mirin I've only used for one recipe, a bit complicated one of seitan - and seitan is something I didn't make for a long time when I first started mb - and even now only once in a while as 1) it's not a WHOLE grain and 2) it's very time consuming and 3) it's a baked dish and I prefer not to have baked dishes). But basically to the seitan (maybe you can use something else, tempeh?? I never tried it with that) I add 4 cups sauteed onions, 4 Tbsp sweetener (your brown rice syrup is fine!!!), 6 Tbsp of shoyu, and 2 Tbsp mirin - the original recipe also called for nuts and apples but I haven't done it that way in ages - then it's baked for quite a while (1 1/2 hrs)

Gary has a chestnut puree recipe on this site.

do you have cookbooks? Rice with chestnuts is also delicious!!!!

ume shiso is nice to put on anything that seems to need an umph

ENJOY!!!!!

Klara