The Anime Blogkonnyaku http://www.theanimeblog.com The Anime Blog features Anime and Manga News and Reviews, Japanese Culture Articles, Japanese Recipes, Lolita Fashion and more. Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:29:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 English hourly 1 Japanese Recipe: Ozoni http://www.theanimeblog.com/japanese-recipes/japanese-recipe-ozoni/ http://www.theanimeblog.com/japanese-recipes/japanese-recipe-ozoni/#comments Wed, 26 Dec 2007 12:43:31 +0000 Rachel http://theanimeblog.com/2007/12/26/japanese-recipe-ozoni/ New Year’s is a major holiday in Japan and has been for centuries. Shogatsu, as the Japanese New Year’s is known, retains many traditions from former times which are still alive today and a fixture in modern New Year’s happenings. These traditions can be small, intimate ceremonies practiced with the family or in private. For three days the Japanese celebrate the New Year and enjoy traditional New Year’s foods, osechi ryori, aka osechi, which have been prepared or purchased before the festivities.
Rae’s Ozoni
Some of the foods eaten include nimono (simmered vegetables), kazunoko (herring roe), kurikinton (mashed chestnuts and sweet potatoes), datemaki (sweetened omelet roll), kamaboko (fish cake) and konnyaku (gelatinous yam cake). But the one dish which is famous as New Year’s food is ozoni.

The morning of the first day of New Year’s, people will drink sake and eat ozoni, the traditional soup of New Year’s. This soup has many variations and no one can agree on any one ozoni recipe as the “official” ozoni recipe. However, no matter what’s added, subtracted or left out of an ozoni recipe, the one thing which makes ozoni, ozoni, is mochi.

Mochi is another celebrated New Year’s food and is even featured as a New Year’s decoration, the kagami mochi. Pieces of toasted mochi cake are added to ozoni as part of a hearty meal.

I decided to make ozoni this year and have listed what I used in my own rendition of this traditional soup. I’ve listed ingredient variations so you can personalize ozoni for your own New Year’s celebrations.

Rae’s Ozoni

  • 6 cups dashi or veggie stock
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 8 shitake, fresh
  • 2 carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds
  • konnyaku
  • kamaboko, sliced
  • nappa cabbage, thinly sliced
  • 8 shrimp balls
  • 1 cup shrimp, cooked
  • 4 mochi, sliced into thirds
  • green onions, finely sliced

1. Boil the dashi, or stock, and soy sauce in a large pot. Remove stems from the shitake and add them to the dashi. Simmer on low for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove the shitake stems.
2. Add carrots and shitake caps to stock. Simmer on low for 10 minutes.
3. Slice konnyaku into strips, or for a decorative effect, slice a strip of konnyaku in the center and pull one end of the konnyaku through the slit. Add to stock and boil for an additional 10 minutes.
4. Toast mocho thirds in the oven on broil till they’re puffy and golden brown. Set aside.
5. In bottom of a bowl, add shrimp balls, shrimp, nappa cabbage, and 2 mochi thirds. Carefully ladle broth and simmered vegetables into the bowl. Top with green onions. Serve immediately.

Variant Ingredients

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