wagaya-no-ozoni （我が家のお雑煮）

(taken with contax-rts on fuji superia 400)

i successfully did some grocery shopping for the x'mas holidays and a new year's day over the weekend.
though i was so busy to prepare season's greeting cards and didn't make even only one step outside on saturday, i was busy to go back and forth between one grocery store and another on sunday to the contrary.

in addition to the last post and the yesterday's grocery shopping episode, i want to talk about "ozoni" today.

"ozoni" is defined as a soup dish which has mochi (rice cakes) for its main ingredient, and its style differs depending on regions and families.
i'll omit the story about its history so that i don't make this post long-winded and bore you.
speaking about its ingredients, though it depends on regions and families as i told you, they are basically mochi, some meat or seafood, 2~3 kinds of veggies, and something which adds flavor like yuzu (a citrus fruit which is largely cropped in japan.) or mitsuba (leafy green which has a very similar look to cilantro, but has much milder flavor and bitter taste.).
for the soup, it also has 2 major kinds of "sumashi" soup ( transparent and has simple soy sauce flavor) and "miso" soup.
all in all, "ozoni" surprisingly varies from one family to another, and that makes me feel "ozoni" is the family food.

my ozoni is different from that of my husband's parents' and my own parents', but my original.
of course, only i haven't made my ozoni, but my husband has helped to create our own ozoni after the marriage.
usually, ozoni is created like this; a husband had eaten his mother's ozoni before the marriage, a wife had eaten her mother's ozoni the same way, and after the marriage they exchange and mix their own familiar ozoni styles and create the new one.
isn't it romantic as well as interesting?
oh, so, a part of today's title of "wagaya-no" means this romantic part. (literally it means homemade or original.)


here's our ozoni;

1, ingredients;
-mochi (i can get this at the co-op. it's regarded as health food or macrobiotic.)
-anko (sweet adzuki bean paste; i make this from scratch by getting organic dried adzuki bean also at the co-op.)
-ikura (salmon roe in english. i don't think it's common nor both parents' style, but we love this on ozoni so much.)
-flowery shaped daikon radishes and carrots, lightly boiled snow peas and shiitake mashroom.

2, how mochi is served;
either style of being lightly toasted and put in the soup or simply and easily poached in the soup are fine.
but we prefer the former way because of the slightly burned surface of mochi.
it offers flavorful aroma and pleasant crisp texture.

3, soup varies day by day;
because we follow a traditional way of eating "osechi-ryori" and "ozoni" for the first 3 straight days of the new year, we usually change the soup day by day, like sumashi-miso-sumashi or sumashi-sumashi-miso.

4, leftover anko's future;
this part is not exactly related to the topic, but i like this part.
as i make more anko than we really need for ozoni, i divide the leftover anko into 3~4 flat sheet on plastic wrap and wrap them up and put them in the freezer.
every weekend after a new year's day, i thaw one and use for our weekend breakfast to eat "anko-pan".
"anko-pan" is, i think, like PBJ sandwich's japanese version. ( i mean sweet sandwich not savory one.)
i put anko, lightly kirsh(cherry liquor) added whipped cream and a drop of orange marmalade between bread.
it's yummy!


so, i'm very ready to make and eat ozoni and anko-pan!
can't wait!!