Ozoni New Year's Soup (Kansai style)

[helenjp]

Ozoni New Year's Soup (Kansai style)

Serves 4 as Soup.

Ozoni is traditionally made from vegetables offered on the family Shinto shrine, and is the most basic and important New Year dish. Since the offering is made with the hope of good harvests for the next year, ozoni is made with local produce.

It is primarily vegetarian, and many families still make it with kelp stock only.

However these days fish stock and fish sausage – especially pink and white kamaboko or naruto-maki are also common, especially because they are not “raw”.

It is not uncommon to add grilled, lightly salted fish to Kansai-style ozoni.

The color white is very important, because it symbolizes rice, the staple food, and also snow, which makes the earth damp and friable, ready for spring planting. Therefore, white mochi, white daikon, and white sato-imo (small taro) are very common ingredients in ozoni everywhere in Japan.

The white color is an essential part of New Year, and even families in mourning make these dishes, avoiding the only the festive red accents that come from the intensely-colored Japanese carrot, and from fish sausage if used.

The white miso used in the Kansai area is often a special mild, sweet miso, and as it is not salty, you may use much more of it than you would use of even the lightest-colored regular miso. The soup will be much milder, thicker, and sweeter than regular miso soup. 20g per cup of stock should be about right, but add gradually to taste, and you may even need more if you are using Kyoto miso.

• 4 round mochi (rice cakes)
  
• 8 slices from a small daikon, thick or thin slices, as you prefer
  
• 8 slices of carrot, preferably Japanese “kyo-ninjin”
  
• 1.4 l water
  
• 15 g konbu (dried kelp)
  
• 50 g katsuo-bushi, shaved bonito flakes for stock, optional
  
• 100 g white miso
  
• 10 g katsuo-bushi (finely shaved bonito flakes for garnish)
  
• Shreds of yuzu peel
  

*Soak kelp and water overnight.

* Next day, add katsuo-bushi if desired, bring gently to a low boil, and remove the kelp. You should have at least a liter of kelp stock (4 US or 5 Japanese cups). Use the kelp and katsuo-bushi again to make stock for more heavily flavored dishes.

* Cut the daikon into lengths of 4-5cm, and peel – move the knife horizontally round the daikon, so that the finished shape is as round as possible. Slice to desired thickness.

* Parboil the daikon in water you have washed rice in, or throw a handful of unwashed rice or rice bran into the cooking water. It is best not to skip this step, especially with a full-size daikon. Rinse off bran, rice, etc., and put the daikon into the kelp stock.

* Peel and slice the carrot in the same way, parboil in water, drain and place in kelp stock.

* Heat mochi rice cakes in hot water till soft, keep aside in water till needed.

* Reheat stock and vegetables.

* Meanwhile shred the yuzu peel and set aside.

* Remove the vegetables and arrange together with mochi rice cakes in soup bowls. Mix about a cup of the warm kelp stock with the white miso, strain it, discard the lees, and stir the thinned miso into the kelp stock.

* Pour the miso soup over the vegetables, not completely covering them, and add a small pile of bonito flakes and a few shreds of yuzu peel to each serving.

Keywords: Soup, Japanese, Vegan, Vegetarian, Easy

( RG2063 )