Japanese Holiday Recipes
By Hiroko Kato
As I grew up, I noticed that I had a tendency — more than my friends — to cling to the classic Japanese customs. In February, I scatter roasted soybeans (mamemaki) in order to drive away evil; in March, I display dolls (hina ningyo) for celebrating the Doll (girls) Festival; in April, I go outside to enjoy cherry blossoms; in May, I take the iris leaves bath (Shobu-yu) on Boys' Festival; in the summer, I hold memorial services for ancestors (obon); and in December, I can't stop cleaning every nook and corner in order to welcome the coming New Year. (I also celebrate Christmas and St. Valentine's Day, but they are not Japanese customs, of course!) I can't feel at ease if I skip these customs. I believe I am influenced by my mother, who keeps classic ways of celebrating holidays. Along with teaching me the conventions, she made special dishes every holiday, and my family benefited from her good cooking. Above all, the most gorgeous traditional recipes are absolutely New Year's cuisine, osechi.
Osechi is cooked for the purpose of welcoming the New Year. We eat it through the first three days of the year along with ozoni (soup with rice cakes). When the New Year is coming, my mother prepares around thirteen dishes for osechi. (*Marked dishes are not vegetarian/ vegan.): kuromame (simmered black soybeans), kinton (chestnuts with sweet potato paste), namasu (pickle made from thinly sliced Daikon radish and carrot), *kazunoko (herring roe dipped in soy sauce), *gomame or tadzukuri (stir-fried dried small anchovies with soy sauce and Japanese rice wine), *Japanese style omelets, *Japanese style rolled omelets, *prawn (boiled and soaked in tasted sour), boiled kombu (kelp), lotus root (boiled and soaked in tasted sour), boiled yatsugashira (a kind of yam), boiled kuwai (arrowhead), boiled shiitake mushroom, several kinds of boiled vegetables (burdock root, carrots, lotus, yams, and so on), and red and white *kamaboko (fish cake). It takes three or four days to prepare all of these dishes, and that's why many Japanese women buy pre-packed osechi now. Actually, I am not confident as to whether I can cook all of them by myself, though I know how to cook by helping my mother every year. One thing I can say, however, is I would feel a big void if I celebrated the New Year without my mother's osechi.
I doubt if current "gourmet" Japanese think osechi is delicious, but certainly it was for our ancestors (and it is for me, too). They decided to celebrate the New Year, the most important holiday for Japanese, with osechi. In addition to that, our ancestors believed that each of osechi menu items is filled with special meaning for the family's health and prosperity. For example, kuromame is the symbol of labor and health, lotus root's holes mean seeing into the future, and so on.
As you've noticed by reading the former part, usually many Japanese dishes are not vegetarian because of our fish-eating tradition. But I would like to show some holiday meals from my mother's recipes, modified for vegans. In spite of our vanishing traditional eating habits, all of these dishes are still very popular foods, and many Japanese enjoy their great tastes. Moreover, they are very easy to cook!
(Needless to say, each area in Japan has its own holiday recipes, so the following are from my family, Tokyo style.)
Basic Japanese Soup Stock (Vegan-Style DASHI)
(Serves 4-5)
Just as with regular soup stock, you can use this stock for making good miso soup, and many braised, stir-fried, boiled, and simmered dishes.
5 cups of water
5 pieces of kombu seaweed (each about 1 inch long; otherwise, cut one 5-inch long kombu in thirds crosswise), cleaned with a slightly damp paper towel or cloth
5 dried shiitake mushrooms, cleaned
Place water in a saucepan. Soak the kombu and shiitake mushrooms in the water, at least fifteen minutes until they become tender. (If time permits, more than three hours is much better.) Heat the water over high heat and reduce heat once it boils. Remove kombu just below boiling point. After five minutes, remove saucepan from the heat. The boiling time depends on the size of shiitake mushrooms and the soaking time. Remove the shiitake mushrooms from the water, and save them for use in other recipes.
Notes: You should buy high quality dashi-kombu, thick and as straight as possible. Kombu and dried shiitake mushrooms are available in Oriental stores. You can make dried shiitake mushrooms by drying raw ones in the sun for a few days.
You can make the soup stock with one ingredient, kombu or dried shiitake mushrooms. In this case, increase the portion to double and soak longer. If you cook with only shiitake mushrooms, it's better to soak them in warm water.
| Total calories per serving: 29 | Fat: <1 gram |
| Carbohydrates: 7 grams | Protein: 1 gram |
| Sodium: 83 milligrams | Fiber: 2 grams |
OZONI (Soup with Rice Cakes)
(Serves 4)
This is the essential dish for the New Year. Rice cake (mochi) is a celebratory food, and our ancestors treated it as an offering to God.
4 pieces mochi (Japanese style rice cake)
4 cups of vegan style dashi (see previous recipe)
1/4 cup Japanese cooking rice wine
1/4 cup mirin (Japanese sweet cooking wine)
Pinch of salt
4 teaspoons of soy sauce or tamari
1/3 pound leafy greens such as spinach, boiled in hot water with a pinch of salt, and cut into bite-size pieces
1 daikon radish, peeled, cut into small pieces, and boiled until tender
1 carrot, peeled, cut into small pieces, and boiled until tender
2 satoimo (Japanese taro), peeled, cut into small pieces, and boiled until tender
Yuzu (a kind of citron) peels for garnish
Bake mochi in the toaster oven until its surface becomes slightly brown and tender. Place dashi in a pot and boil. When it has boiled, add Japanese rice wine, mirin, salt, and soy sauce. When it boils again, remove the pot from the heat. Put mochi, leafy greens, daikon, carrots, and satoimo in each soup bowl. Arrange vegetables for beautiful color combination. Pour the dashi mixture into the bowl. Garnish and serve hot.
Notes: You can buy mochi, Japanese rice wine, and mirin at Oriental stores. You should buy Japanese style plain mochi instead of Korean mochi, which has sweet azuki bean paste in it. Mochi could be boiled in dashi without baking, and it would be stickier than in this recipe.
Daikon is available in supermarkets and Oriental stores, but radish can be substituted. Satoimo is also available in supermarkets and Oriental stores.
Vegetables — except leafy greens — should be cut into beautiful shapes. Daikon is cut into half-moons, and carrots are cut in rectangles. Satoimo is cut into slices.
You can find yuzu at Oriental stores, too, but only in the winter season.
| Total calories per serving: 235 | Fat: 2 grams |
| Carbohydrates: 48 grams | Protein: 6 grams |
| Sodium: 590 milligrams | Fiber: 6 grams |
SEKIHAN (Red Rice)
(Serves 6)
Sekihan, cooked rice and red beans (azuki), is the most popular food for celebrations including birthdays, a school entrance ceremony, birth of a baby, and so on. Among Oriental people, red is the celebratory color.
3 cups mochigome (glutinous rice, or sweet rice)
1/3 cup azuki beans
Roasted sesame seeds (black is preferable)
Salt to taste
Soak mochigome in water for 30 minutes to an hour. Boil azuki beans in water to cover, and drain 1 to 2 minutes after water boils. Boil azuki beans again with 2½ cups of fresh water until the beans become tender. (It takes around 30 minutes to one hour. It depends on the beans' quality.) Be careful not to boil azuki too long.
Add mochigome (drained) to azuki and the boiling water in a large pot. Bring to a boil, and reduce the heat when steam appears around the edge of the lid. Simmer over low heat around 15 minutes. Raise the heat to high for five seconds. Remove the pot from the heat and leave it for 10 minutes. Stir mochigome and azuki beans gently. Serve hot with a few sesame seeds and salt.
Note: You can find mochigome, azuki beans, and sesame seeds at Oriental specialty stores. Some stores sell gomashio (mixed sesame seeds and salt), which Japanese usually use for sekihan.
| Total calories per serving: 377 | Fat: 1 gram |
| Carbohydrates: 82 grams | Protein: 8 grams |
| Sodium: 9 milligrams | Fiber: 2 grams |
TOSHIKOSHI-SOBA (New Year's Eve Buckwheat Noodles)
(Serves 4)
We eat toshikoshi-soba on New Year's Eve night. Soba is the symbol of longevity because of its thin and long shape.
14 ounces dried soba noodles
4 cups vegan style dashi (see first recipe)
5 Tablespoons Japanese cooking rice wine
Salt to taste
4 Tablespoons mirin
4 Tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
Long green onions, thinly sliced as garnish
Nori seaweed, thinly cut as garnish
Ginger, grated as garnish
Boil enough water to cook noodles in a large pot. Put soba noodles into a pot of boiling water. Add a cup of cold water when it has boiled again, and repeat whenever it comes to a boil before soba noodles become tender. It takes about 10 minutes, or follow the package directions. Never boil the noodles too much. (Al dente is best, the same as pasta.)
Drain and plunge the noodles into cold water to cool down. Drain again and put the noodles in each dish. While boiling the noodles, place dashi into a pan and boil. When it has boiled, add Japanese cooking rice wine, salt, mirin, and soy sauce. Before boiling again, remove the pan from the heat. Pour mixed dashi onto the noodles. Put long green onions, nori, and ginger on the noodles.
Note: You can find Soba noodles and nori seaweed at Oriental specialty stores and some health foods stores.
| Total calories per serving: 391 | Fat: 1 gram |
| Carbohydrates: 81 grams | Protein: 17 grams |
| Sodium: 1859 milligrams | Fiber: 4 grams |
OHAGI or BOTAMOCHI (MOCHIGOME Rice Bowls Covered with Azuki Bean Paste)
(Serves 6)
This Japanese sweet is cooked twice a year, during the spring and autumn equinox week, oshigan. We visit our ancestors' graves in oshigan season. When it's made in autumn, we call it ohagi after the hagi flower (bush clover), and in spring it is called botamochi, after botan, the peony flower.
2 cups mochigome (glutinous rice, or sweet rice)
2 cups water
2 cups azuki beans
2 cups water
1-3/4 cups water
1-2/3 cups brown sugar
Salt to taste
Soak mochigome in water for 30 minutes to an hour. Cook mochi-gome with 2 cups of water. Boil azuki beans with 2 cups of water in a pressure cooker. Reduce the heat two minutes after it boils.
Simmer azuki beans seven minutes. Remove from pressure cooker and add sugar (about 2/3 cup at a time) while kneading. Add a pinch of salt (it increases the sweetness).
Take a handful of mochigome, and shape it into a bowl. Cover it with azuki paste and serve.
| Total calories per serving: 658 | Fat: 1 gram |
| Carbohydrates: 149 grams | Protein: 16 grams |
| Sodium: 40 milligrams | Fiber: 9 grams |
High in iron and zinc.
Hiroko Kato is a Japanese freelance journalist. She recently interned at VRG through the International Internship Program.
