09 Jan Ozoni – New Year Mochi Soup

First recipe post of the year! As I mentioned in my resolution post, I want to learn cooking authentic Japanese food more this year. Since it is new year, I decided to try making Ozoni (お雑煮) which we traditionally eat for new year. I ate this dish every first three days of new years, and I missed the taste so much! There are many ways you can make this dish, and it is different depends on the region as well as family. I am from Hyogo prefecture which locates in west side of main land (Kansai), so we use combination of white miso and dashi as broth. This might be referred as Kyoto style instead of Kansai style. For this style, we use round shaped mochi that are cooked in boiled water. On the other hand, east side of main land (Kanto) which also referred as Tokyo style uses rectangular shaped mochi which is toasted prior to adding to soup, and they use combination of dashi and soy sauce as broth. It is pretty easy to spot the difference because the Kansai version of Ozoni is white and Kanto version is clear in broth color. As I mentioned before, the style can differ one family to another even in the same region. The ingredients are not necessarily same in every families as well. In my family, we sometime toasted mochi before we added it into the soup. I hope you can try few different ones and make the style the you like the best your family tradition!

To make this dish, I went to 99 Ranch where they sell Asian grocery. I couldn’t find certain ingredients so I replace with the closest one I could get. Satoimo and yuzu are optional which I didn’t include this time. If you can find the exact one, I recommend you to use them instead of replacement I used 😉

INGREDIENTS (for 6+ people)

1: Carrot (2)

2: Daikon – Radish (1)

3: Shiitake mushroom (1 pack)

4: Chicken thigh (1 pack)

5: Negi – green onion (2 bunches)

6:  Komatsuna and/or Mitsuba replaced by Italian Parsley (1 bunch) *optional

7:  Round or Rectangular Mochi replaced by Korean Rice Cake (handful)

8: Mix of Bonito, Kombu, Mackerel, Shiitake Dashi (1 bag)

9: White Miso (about 2 cups)

10: Water (3/4 of big pot)

11: Satoimo (handful) *optional 

12: Yuzu zest (1 pinch) *optional for decoration

STEP BY STEP

1: Pour water and put 1 bag of dashi in a pot and boil.

2: While boiling the water with dashi, cut all the ingredients. (Carrot, Daikon, Shiitake, Chicken thigh, Negi, Italian parsley). For Daikon and Carrot, peel the skin before cutting them.

3: *optional step* If you want to make the dish extra pretty, use the cookie cutter to shape the vegetables. Typically, carrots are shaped in cherry blossom or flower shape, but I used star and heart shaped cutter for daikon and carrots instead.

4: Once all the ingredients are cut, put all of them into the pot. Also add rice cake (or mochi) into the pot. You can add negi and parsley in this step and add more for decoration as well. If you are using Komatsuna and satoimo, add them in this step.

5: If you see white foamy thing on the surface of the soup, remove them with strainer.

6: Check the hardness of the vegetable and mochi. If they are soft enough to eat, take out the dashi pack and add white miso paste. Tips: don’t add all the miso paste in once. Add it little by little to adjust the taste to your liking. To dissolve miso quickly and evenly, first, put some miso paste in a ladle. Hold the ladle in one hand and hold chopsticks or spoon with another hand. Lower the ladle into the soup to scoop some soup into the ladle. With another hand, move the chopsticks or spoon in circular motion in the ladle to mix the miso into soup. Once miso paste in the ladle become evenly dissolved without a lump, then lower the ladle to pour it back into the soup.

7: Taste the soup and add more white miso if you prefer thicker broth.

8: Once white miso is all evenly dissolves, serve into the bowl. Add topping of your liking (Negi, Mitsuba replaced by Parsley, and Yuzu zest). And Voilà! Enjoy Ozoni!

I hope you enjoy this traditional dish, and Happy new year to you!

with a lot of love

Fatima