Ozoni (お雑煮)

Experiment: Ozoni (お雑煮)

Introduction:

Ozoni (お雑煮) is a dish that's usually eaten on New Year in Japan.  Usually this dish consists of mochi (Japanese rice cake), meat and vegetables.  I found this recipe in a book, so I decided to give it a try on New Year's day.

Materials:

Chicken, cut into cubes

Carrots, cut into rectangles
Daikon/white radish, cut into rectangles
Fish cake, cut into thin slices
A bunch of mitsuba
Mochi
Yuzu peel or yuzu powder
Soup - 2 cups of dashi stock, a bit of soy sauce and mirin

Procedure:

1) Preheat oven.  Put rice cake on aluminum foil and put into oven.  Watch it puff up.  (It's fun!)  Make sure that it doesn't burst.

2) Boil the dashi stock, put in the mirin and soy sauce.  When the soup boils, put the mochi, chicken, carrot, dashi and fish cake in.  Bring to boil, then reduce heat to medium.  Simmer for a few minutes.

3) Put in the mitsuba and the yuzu peel/powder.  Turn off the heat.  Serve.

Results:

Discussion:

1) I was too excited watching the mochi puff up, and I was hoping that they'd grow bigger and bigger... then both the mochi bursted.  >.<  So when I boiled them, the shape didn't hold anymore.  So remember to WATCH the mochi and make sure that they don't BURST!

1) I totally forgot to put the soy sauce and mirin in... so the Ozoni was actually a bit blend.

2) In case you're wondering what Yuzu is... it's actually a citrus fruit... I wiki-ed it but there's no English name for this fruit.  >.<  Yuzu can be used for cooking or making drinks.  I got this package of powder in Kyoto, Japan. 

Conclusion:

It wasn't a successful experiment... Sigh... but I guess it's not bad for a first timer making Ozoni.  365 days later I'll give it a try again!   I'll remember not to let the mochi burst, and I'll make sure I put soy sauce and mirin in the soup!

Reference: