I'm writing this piece in reply to a question in another thread, about what kind of beans the Japanese treat 'mochi' is made with.

First, a little about mochi itself.

Mochi is a Japanese rice cake made of a paste made of rice, and molded into a shape, usually with some filling. The basic mochi cake (without filling?)  is eaten by the Japanese for New Years... The one thing I do know about it from word of mouth... it's very sticky. My understanding is that they actually publish how many people died trying to eat it each year. So if you try it, eat with caution!

Ok, that being said, I have not had the fortune to make or try mochi. However I have recipes, and if I ever get to a place in my life where even $1 isn't a small fortune, perhaps I can spare the several more dollars that it will take to try it.

Now the mochi I have a recipe for, is actually daifuku. It's mochi with sweet bean paste filling. The beans, as also the flour for this, seems to be impossible to get outside of importing it from Japan yourself, or going to an asian market or grocery store.

Supposing you can find them...

The beans are azuki beans. You can, with a recipe, make your own bean paste (anko) with a recipe. Or you can buy it ready made or dried at the asian grocer. (Maybe.)

You will also need potato starch... whatever on earth that is. In the asian grocer, it may be called katakuriko.

The recipes are almost as hard to find as the ingredients. Sadly, when I cleaned my computer last, I seem to have lost the links to most of the actual pages. >_< (Sorry.) On the bright side, if you are really determined, you can probably track them down again. A bit later I'll tell you one site that has them.

When or if you do find the recipe for mochi or daifuku, you will be glad to know that it is harder by far to find the ingredients and recipe than it is actually to make it. The recipe is very, very simple. (Or it looks that way anyhow.) And the anko recipe is simple too, if you want to make your own bean paste.

Now you're probably thinking "eew.... BEAN paste?!" But actually, in Japan a LOT of sweets use it. So it can't be too bad. (In fact, it's almost as if it's THE sweet.)

There are microwave and Americanized recipes, but of course, the closer you can get to the real thing, the better, I'm sure. You can find a daifuku recipe here:

My Lunch Can Beat Up Your Lunch

If you should master the art of making the anko (red bean paste) or you find somewhere that sells it ready made, there is another Japanese food you can make. But it takes another really hard to find ingredient. Sticky rice. Now don't ask me what on earth sticky rice IS. I have no idea. But what I can tell you, is that nobody seems to sell it outside of perhaps an asian grocer. And that I only know because I have an asian friend who knows what sticky rice is and likes to eat it. I also know that Nishiki is a brand that makes it.

Anyhow, that other food is the onigiri... the rice ball. This is kind of a dessert version, though. Normally it's filled with something like fish or other "real food," and often topped with a thin sheet of seaweed.

It's the same principal as the daifuku, except instead of a rice paste, you're using rice. And the reason you MUST use sticky rice, is because otherwise there is no way in the world that the ball will stay together otherwise.

In this recipe, you're cooking the rice according to the directions, forming it into a ball and filling it with the paste, just like the daifuku... and just as sticky, I think they say. The onigiri uses the rice, of course, INSTEAD of the rice flour. And no potato starch, so one less ingredient.

You can also find a recipe for onigiri at My Lunch Can Beat Up Your Lunch:

M.L.C.B.U.Y.L. - Onigiri

That's a great site actually... seems to have lots of recipes, though not all Japanese.

NOTE: I noticed when the site owner talks about Ichigo Daifuku (strawberry daifuku) he laments not being able to get it shaped properly into a ball... I had a theory about this... home made anko probably forms differently than premade. It may be thicker or something.

If anybody tries this, please let me know how it went! (Just don't die trying to eat it, please!)