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As I get older, one of the things that I realize now that can never be changed is my taste bud. The Japanese food is very important to my life. Seriously. Every New Year, Japanese people eat mochi — which also cause fatal choking among elderly every year — and I made an ozoni today and came out better than expected, so I am going to write myself a reminder… Ozoni is one of those dish that is very wide ranging in what is in it depending where you are from in Japan, and quick web search brings up all different things. It is basically a soy-sauce based soup with mochi in it and only constant that i can find is dashi and mochi. People put carrots and potatoes and anything, but here is hwat I made based on what I’ve eaten while growing up in central part of Japan, Okazaki, Aichi to be specific.

Ozoni

1. Mochi – as much as you want to eat. I get packed “kiri-mochi.” Usually three mochi per person is enough…
2. 1/2 lbs or so Sliced Pork. – I used one from Super 88 super market, sliced and frozen one. I keep it stocked in the freezer as this is handy for Yasai Itame and Yakisoba etc…
3. 1/4 or 1/3 bag of spinach
4. 4-5 leaves of Hakusai (or Napa cabbage)
5. SOUP:
   • Dashi, power and/or liquid. I used combination of non-MSG power dashi and liquid dashi that I use for Udon/Miso soup.
   • Soy sauce – to taste
   • Sugar and Sake – a little
6. Katsuobushi (Bonito flake)

Cut all non-mochi ingredients in to 1/4 to 1/3 inches wide slices. Put them in pot with soup, bring to boil, turn the heat down them let shimmer. I then cut the mochi in half and microwave them 15-30 sec just to soften a bit. If mochi is fresh this step is not necessary. place the mochi in the pot and make it soft, then serve with Katsuobushi. Takes only about 30 min.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 01/05/2009 @ 3:41 pm and is filed under Recipe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.