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Osechi Ryori (New Years Food)

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boroboro

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Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays to all. I don't know if anyone else is stressing a little about the New Year's meal but I know I've begun compiling a list of the ingredients I'll need to prepare our favorites. It takes a little bit of strategizing to decide what has to be bought now (before it sells out) or later (when it will taste best fresh). Sorry to ramble but what I really was interested in is: For the home chefs out there, what is your favorite dish and (if it's not a family secret) , what is the recipe. For us it is mochi. Simple to make if you or someone you know has a mochi maker (or if you know a couple of burly guys and a third brave soul (and it helps if someone can work with wood) ah-h-h the days of my youth). Love and peace to all in the New Year.
 
Ahhhhh.... besides the Omochi, which we eat in some sort of light broth, I am not at all looking forward to Osechi Ryori. I despise Kazunoko, and some of the others don't go down too smoothly either.
 
I sometimes do, sometimes don't do the New Year's eve stuff depending on what I'm making for the next day. Ozoni and the azuki bean thing for luck is usually all that I do. I like my mochi toasted, served with shoyu and sometimes a small amount of butter inside the crunchy puffed part. My daughter adds a little bit of sugar to her shoyu dipping bowl. I try to duplicate some of the dishes my mother made and I appreciate her artistry and strength even more now that she has passed and I am left with the responsibility. (I don't like kazunoko either, although I made it for my dad last year. Crunchy, fish eggs just don't do it for me.
 
御屠蘇

Otoso is actually Chinese tﾃｺsū wine. The herbs are typically: bﾃ｡izhﾃｺ root, shǔjiāo fruit, balloonflower root, cassia bark and fﾃ｡ngfēng root.
Other ingredients might be clove, tangerine peel and so forth; rhubarb (laxtative) and acornite (lethal toxin) are uncommon these days.

The mix packets are available in teabag-shaped portions, which they steep in sake (sometimes mirin) for a few hours before serving.

 
Happy New Year Bezz, the Otoso sounds interesting. Almost like " hair of the dog" as the saying goes. One of my chinese friends mom makes a kind of a homebrew that sounds very similar to what you describe. It is in a round clay bottle with a tiny neck. I called it "rocket fuel" because of it's potency. I think it had chinese wine, herbs, dried orange peel, ?????, and possibly grain alcohol. I think I prefer my sake' straight, warmed but for "good luck" I might have to try it sometime. Best regards, Bb.
 
I bought pre-packaged mochi cakes, the ones that are like thick discs for New Year's. You can boil them or put them in a toaster oven, judging from the pictures on the package. I can't read well enough to understand the toaster oven instructions to make it all lovely and slightly browned, but I don't have a toaster oven anyway. Can I broil it somehow in a regular oven, or will it just burn? Any ideas?

If all else fails, my Japanese friend is here and we can just boil it, but the toaster oven method looks much tastier. Not being used to American-style ovens, she doesn't have any idea how to adapt the recipe, either.

Help!

Oh, and akemashite omedetou gozaimasu!
 
wintersweet,

You can bake mochi in the oven. Bake it in pre-heated 450F until it puffs up. You might want to use a piece of tinfoil so that it won't fall as it moves when it gets cooked.
 
Hello, you might also put a little bit of cornstarch on the tinfoil to keep it from sticking. I like my mochi puffy and crispy and so I turn the broiler on and watch it closely (so it doesn't burn).
 
Ozoni recipe

Okay, found this thread.
Here's my recipe for basic ozoni.

Ingredients:
500 g. boneless chicken
6 cups water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soy sauce
1-2 pcs shiitake mushroom
1/2 bunch of mizuna, blanched and chopped into 4-5 cm length
(rather than blanching, you could nuke it at 600W for 1 min.)
6 pcs dry mochi cakes
12 thin slices of kamaboko

Simmer chicken in water for 20-30 min.; add salt/soy sauce/shiitake; simmer about a minute more.

Broil/toast mochi until puffy & soft. Place in individual soup bowl and add mizuna and kamaboko. Gently pour soup into bowls. Serve immediately.
 
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That looks like a good recipe Dogen. I usually go simple with a bonito/kombu dashi unless we get a lot of fish that doesn't look good for sashimi/sushi and then I use that instead or sometimes with.
Does anybody use potatoes in their nishime nimono? If so, if I might ask what kind? My mom used to put potato in her nimono but I never watched her make it. She's been gone for quite a while now.
 
>Does anybody use potatoes in their nishime nimono? If so, if I might ask what kind? My mom used to put potato in her nimono but I never watched her make it. She's been gone for quite a while now. <

I think they're little round potatoes (don't know what they're called) but I've never seen them in the States. If you're near an Asian grocery, look in the frozen food section for frozen Japanese vegetables-most of the ingredients for nishime are included.
 
Looking forward to New Years'

I'm getting a little tired of bounenkai (end-of-the-year parties) and bounenkai ryouri (izakaya food and nabe ryouri and booze). I think I just want some simple osechi ryouri with green tea. (But will always have room for nigiri sushi and champagne )
 

Do you mean satoimo,known as taro potatoes :?





 
Wrong Pictures

Trollhattan said:
Do you mean satoimo,known as taro potatoes :?
Click to expand...

I'm afraid you used the wrong pictures. The top pic in you post is oden, and the 2nd is a nabe dish. Neither contains satoimo and neither is osechi ryouri. But you're right, that's what it's called.

This is osechi ryouri. Mostly veggies with some seafood things added in.

 
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Mochi

New Year in Japan is just not New Year without mochi. Unfortunately, 'cooking with dog' does not have a mochi video except for ichigo daifuku, and that's not what we want for the New Year celebration. But I found this vid made by some Japanese people that shows how mochi is prepared for the New Year. I recommend the kinako version.



BTW, the osechi ryouri tradition began in the Heian Era (8th-12th century). Just wanted to let you know.
 
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