KSZ January 2010
Osechi Ryori – New Year Cuisine
Happy New Year!
Kitchen cooks in temples and homes as well as gourmet chefs around Japan spend the days before New Year busily preparing the special delicacies to be eaten on New Year’s Day, collectively known as Osechi Ryori. All of the little tidbits have special symbolic meanings of good fortune and long life, which are traditionally served in three lacquer boxes stacked on one another.
Because my youngest daughter was born on December 31st, I was in a small private hospital in Tokyo on New Year’s Day in 1990. At that time I didn’t know about this special New Year custom and was delighted to be treated to a traditional three-tiered bento filled with wonderfully delicious morsels. It certainly put a new spin on “breakfast in bed”! I remember it as being the most elaborate and delicious meal I ever received in Japan, and this in fact started my love affair with traditional Japanese cuisine.
New Year in Japan is not an occasion for partying but rather a time of spiritual reflection. At midnight most people go to their local Buddhist temple or Shinto shrine to pray for good fortune in the coming year and to make offerings of gratitude for the year that has passed. At midnight, the temple bell rings 108 times, representing the 108 obstructions to enlightenment and the 108 heavens to be enjoyed upon enlightenment. Actually, no one really knows where the number 108 comes from, so far back into the mists of time has this number been considered sacred. It is the number of beads on a Buddhist rosary (and Hindu ones as well).
For those who go to the temple there is always a large cauldron of hot amazake, a sweet non-alcoholic rice wine flavoured with grated ginger, to stave of the cold of the night.
The following day the family gets together for the special Osechi Ryori meal.
This blog is dedicated to Shojin Ryori which is vegetarian, but actually a great deal of the traditional items in the New Year meal are not vegetarian and include a variety of shellfish which signify good luck for a long life. However, I made my own version of New Year foods for my husband and I last night – but my camera was out of batteries! I intend to make them again to show you another time. I didn’t make the three-tiered bento but instead I made a variety of yummy tidbits. Here is our menu:
- Ozoni soup: see below;
- Egg roll with steamed spinach;
- Hiyayakko tofu: “silk” tofu with grated ginger, spring onions and a light soy dressing;
- Beetroot, baby squash and carrots with toasted sesame and daikon radish relish;
- Carrot and feta flowers with baby greens and a light French dressing;
- Rice with Korean nori
My main special New Year dish was the ozoni soup, which is always served on New Year’s Eve (and during the New Year meal as well). The principle ingredient of ozoni soup is a square of mochi, a cake of glutinous rice that is very chewy to eat when it is heated. Unfortunately, mochi is the cause of a number of deaths by choking, particularly among the elderly, each New Year! So you have to make sure you bite off only small pieces and chew well!
Traditionally, ozoni soup includes chicken pieces or fish or kamaboko (a kind of fish cake), but there is no loss of flavor when you make the vegetarian version. Here is the recipe:
Ozoni Soup
This is good for two generous serves. There is a great video on YouTube about how to make ozoni soup, which you can follow if you prefer the chicken/fish version. Otherwise, watch the video and substitute the soup stock, chicken and fish with the following recipe.
Ingredients:
1 liter of hot water
2 shiitake mushrooms
Piece of konbu
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sake
1 tsp sugar
Small bunch of spinach or other green leafy vegetable
Carrot cut into fancy flowers if you want a really special look, otherwise, just sliced will do!
Small daikon (Chinese radish) peeled and cut into slices
2 x slivers of lemon rind twisted into a knot
Juice of half a lemon
Piece of mochi for each person (if you can’t find mochi, then you can use a small whole cooked potato)
Directions:
Soak the shiitake mushrooms in hot water for at least an hour, preferably two or three hours to get a good flavor.
Make a twist with the lemon rind and put one in the bottom of each soup bowl.
Grill the mochi squares under the griller for about five minutes, turning every 30 seconds, until the mochi turns brown on the top and starts to puff up. Place one piece of mochi in each soup bowl.
Take the mushrooms out of the soaking water and slice them, to be added to the soup later.
Heat the stock with a piece of konbu in it, but remove the konbu just as the stock starts to boil.
Add all the other ingredients except the lemon juice and boil for just a minute or two. Switch off the heat and squeeze the lemon juice into the saucepan (don’t add too much – about a tablespoon is good). Divide the veggies between each bowl and then pour over the soup stock.
You can garnish the soup with Japanese parsley – mitsuba – or with coriander.
ENJOY! (But be careful of the mochi!)
