Vegetables for Osechi おせちの野菜

Carrots and renkon (lotus root) cut for osechi ryori. The trimming don't go to waste but find their way into soup.

Osechi Tataki Gobo おせちのたたきごぼう

The earthy flavor of gobo (burdock root) rounds out the osechi ryori which is filled with many sweets. The gobo is whacked (tataku or tataki) and cooked until tender and then dressed with a sesame dressing. Here you see my mortar and pestle for grinding the sesame seeds.

Daikon and Carrot Pickles おせちの紅白なます

The colors of red and white are fortuitous and the colors are represented here in the julienned daikon and carrot pickled in a sweet vinegar, kohaku namasu. This is for the New Year's osechi ryori. 

Gomame - Sweet Soy Simmered Dried Sardines

For New Year's Day I worked on making "osechi ryori" for my husband's family. This dish, gomame, are dried sardines that are cooked in a sweet soy sauce. The sardines are dry roasted in a pan then set aside. The sauce is made of soy sauce, sugar and mirin in the pan and then the sardines are added back. The results are crispy sardines with sweet covering to them.

The Breakfast of Champions

We started the 2009 New Year with osechi ryori that I cooked along with tarabagani crab and a sashimi platter that Shinji-san's dad made.

Osechi Ryori

This is the osechi ryori, Japanese food for New Year's Day, that I cooked for Shinji-san and his family. Iritori is the colorful box with carrots, snow peas, lotus root, gobo, konnyaku, shiitake mushrooms and chiken. 

The second from the bottom photo has the sweet items including the kuri kinton of Satsuma sweet potatoes and chestnuts, tazukuri dried sardines with a sweet soy sauce, a marshmallow-like sweet egg omelette called date maki, kamaboko and kuromame sweet black beans (made by Shinji's mom).

The third from the bottom has kohaku namasu pickled daikon, carrots and yuzu, tataki gobo with a sesame dressing, kuwai, pickled renkon lotus root, kombu wrapped around nishin, and kazunoku (made by Shinji's dad).

The picture on the top shows you the three boxes. This was packed up on the evening of the 31st and we had it for breakfast on January 1st.

Datemaki

Datemaki is a rolled sweet omelet mixed with surimi(fish paste).
Usually It is made from egg, surimi, soy sauce, mirin ( or sake ), sugar, salt, and so on.
If you cook it at home, you can mix hanpen as surimi to egg.
Baked omelet is rolled with bamboo mat while it is still warm.
Datemaki is a typical new year's food in Japan.