AlwaysAisle Thanks for the photos! I bought a bag of kiri mochi earlier this year and thought the scoring lines were to break up the pieces. I see they also serve as puffing up lines. We've been making it Chinese "nian gao" style sometimes by frying in a pan, sometimes dredged in egg first.

I admit to staring at mochi machines once or twice this year on Amazon & Amazon JP. They seem rated for 100V and don't really do export models? I tend to get a hankering for senbei and daifuku but it's not exactly something I should eat often (sedentary life vs extra carbs) and I'm not sure if mochi machines do regular rice for senbei (vs sweet mochi gome). I don't have a stand mixer or bread machine, either, and would probably be more tempted to make mochi than bread. Maybe I could start with an inexpensive bread maker, steam rice first and hand pound with a rolling pin mortar & pestle style to break up the larger grains before transferring to a bread maker? I wonder if there's a similar Korean ttoboki or Chinese nian gao machine to work a rice based dough instead of rice flour or if home bakers always go with rice flour these days?

Zouni (雑煮) is another common dish during Oshogatsu (お正月, Japanese New Year) there are so many different variations of zouni depending on region of Japan and depending on houshold. There is not one zouni which is "proper." This is the way I made zouni but you will find many different versions of zouni.

First the broth. Some common ways to make Japanese broth, sea weed, drided thin drided bonito flake, etc. I cheated and used powder form from store, just add water.



I chose iriko flavor broth, Iriko is a family of sardine and iriko dashi is made from dried iriko fish. But I simply used powder form bought from a store. Then the ingredients.



Mochi, chicken (I used bonless breast), bamboo shoot (I bought cooked one), long onion. There are also so many varaety of long onion, Tokyo has Tokyo Onion, Kansai has Kujyou Onion, etc. but it did not matter to me which long onion, I just bought what was at the store. Cut all ingredients in small bite size. Zouni differ from region to region and there are so many different ingredients out there. This is just one example.

Cook chicken in broth.



Add just a little bit of salt and soy sauce for flavor. Again, there are so many different Zouni, some use miso for flavor. Simmer and cook chicken. I bought cooked bamboo shoot so I do not have to add bamboo shoot till end. Meanwhile cook/grill mochi in same way as done in Isobemaki.



Once chicken is cooked then add mochi, bamboo shoot, and long onion. Simmer for another a minite or so.

My Shougatsu Osechi (正月おせち料理).



On the left is Zouni.I made. Accompanying Zouni is my version of Osechi. From top left to right:

kouhaku Kamaboko (紅白かまぼこ, fish cake). Red and white fish cake is usually used for New Years for festive reason
Japanese rolled egg omlet
Kazunoko (herring roe). Herring row contains many small eggs. A lot of eggs means a lot of kids and which interperted as prosperity of desendants.
Kuro Mame (black soybean) In Japanese beans is "mame" and associate Japanese phrase "mame ni hataraku" which means work diligently.
Kuri Kintoki (sweet chestnut). Gold/yellow color represnt money, Fortune.

Not associated with Osechi, but I also had:
Hatahata no Kraage (deep fried sea bass). Hata-hata is a family of sea bass cought aroung coast of Akita.
Sujiko (salmon roe).

Sujiko and ikura is both salmon roe, but difference is:



On left is sujiko (筋子) and on right is ikura (イクラ). Both are salmon roe but sujiko has eggs still inside of a sack, where ikura is eggs removed from a sack. That is the only difference.

With the meal Hiraizumi sake from Akita. My proper osechi for 2021!

There is not a lot we talked about sweets here.

Since practicing stay at home holidays and I had so much time to kill at home, I tried another common New Year dish in Japan, Oshiruko even though Oshiruko is found year around.

I cheated on this dish. Oshiruko is sweet dish made from soy beans cooked and simmered in water and sugar. I think the proper way is to use brown sugar...? But I simply used store bought one...



If you had Anko, which is sweet bean paste, it is same ingredient. But I did not make it from scratch. Just add one cup of water and that is it!



Simply add cooked mochi and ther is Oshiruko! Japanes madarin orange is another common item on Japanese New year.

The other potential option, which I have yet to try as I have an Ankarsrum Assistent Stand mixer which does a splendid job (and a commitment to reduce my carb intake!) is to use a meat grinder - perhaps without the blades.
We have had such a relaxed, stress free Christmas, that I have not pushed myself into doing even a little more than I had to this year. I still had one of those dried mochi squares AlwaysAisle used left to slice and toast and drop into Ozoni (a New Year Soup) but never got round to making Ozoni as we instead had Toshi Koshi Soba - and also shared the traditional Spanish dozen grapes on a FaceTime call with my parents. Since we haven’t been visiting our Japanese friends in London (or anyone at all this year), there just wasn’t the motivation to get the sticky rice and then mochify it.

The best “lo-fi” suggestion I can make that requires the minimum of equipment is to take a “boil-in-the-bag” approach. Take a small quantity of cooked mochi rice and pack it loosely into a shallow rectangle which you wind round and cover thoroughly in sturdy Saran Wrap. Put it in when it’s piping hot, place it on a warmed surface and pound/press it firmly with a rolling pin. Assuming it doesn’t turn to mochi before it cools on the first go, put the package into a saucepan of lightly simmering water to warm it up again before retrieving it and pounding/pressing some more. Repeat as necessary, but keep the rice hot as you pound it. (Have no idea if a microwave would be better as I don’t own one)

If you do decide to pound/grind sticky rice into mochi, the key is to make the bowl/utensils as hot as possible for as long as possible and work quickly. Have plenty of boiling water to hand before you start. And you’ll need hot water afterwards to clear the mess, thankfully a long soak will do most of the work for you.

Mochi or no mochi, Akemashite Omedetou everybody!

Thanks for the tips LapLap! I hadn't seen the Saran Wrap & pound approach or a meat grinder. Did you see the lo-fi method with pictures somewhere? I wouldn't want to make it too easy to do either, as it helps deter consumption frequency. Heh. It's like having a lot of junk food options right next to me vs a short walk. Some effort deters me from mindless consumption. My friend calls it "required activation energy".

I recently learned about the Spanish New Year grapes from Animal Crossing New Horizons

Saga Prefecture Wagyu

After braising .

Miyagi Prefecture Sake

Hanabira Mochi

Mmmm..., I can use some good wagyu right now...

I got restless last night and decided to use the Saran Wrap technique to make a kind of gohei-mochi type senbei. I took some leftover rice from the rice cooker, placed it within Saran Wrap and (with a bit of salt) went for it with a rolling pin. You can get it very close to mochi if you don’t use too much before it cools, If you then warm it up again, it will definitely be mochi like with the next vigorous rolling and bashing session. It definitely works, just cut up your results and dust with potato/corn starch or rice flour.
There are a few entries in Japanese cookpad describing the way to make standard rice into senbei
https://cookpad.com/recipe/2407389
(senbei was a hit, btw. Brushed the crushed rice sheets with olive oil, sprinkled a little more salt on and popped them into an air fryer for ten minutes. My kid loved them)

Others recommend rolling rice between baking parchment for this kind of senbei. If you then gather up the rice and reheat it in a submerged ziplock bag, that should work too if you want to make glutinous rice into mochi.

The meat grinder; can’t give you a tried and tested recommendation... yet... but it does look like those old skool mochi machines you see some Japanese people use in their farms or garages where the mochi comes out like a sausage. There’s a plastic modern version from Tiger that people use in their homes. This video shows the inside of it, looks just like a meat grinder but without the blades. If you can heat up the grinder parts first, I’d do that.

Setsubun tomorrow!

MrLapLap went to our favourite Japanese grocery store in London’s Soho to get a few provisions and pick up some soy beans.
They were sold out. Seems EVERYBODY wants to clear out last year’s demons.
I got some from a local Korean store and now wondering what the best way to make them edible is within the tradition. It is very important that I get this right as I have to eat considerably more than everyone else in the household. Will probably soak a load overnight and toast them in a pan tomorrow. Will save the unprepared beans to throw at those tedious oni, nice and hard!
Have to figure out which direction to face for the ehomaki also.

Anyone else going to perform the setsubun rituals?

Phew! Soy beans turned out fine. I unwisely tried one after it had soaked all night. Yuck! But after drying and then toasting them in a pan over a stove for 15 mins they are very nice.

Thanks for sharing your setsubun. Did not realize it is setsubun till you mentioned. I have not done much of setsubun but as you mentioned right now is the time we sure can use setsubun.

Oni-wa-soto, fuku-wa-uchi!

Hope this year will be that!

Thank you, I’m going to allow myself to hope that traditions can count for something and that we have a peaceful new year, we’re all in for an Ancestor approved “reset” on the 12th February.
Took a month to clear my head of all the seasonal Christmas songs, now I have “Funicul�, Funicul�” circling around it.

I made my kid a hot setsubun lunch. I’ll make the futomaki later, but for her school “dinner” I fiddled around with an omurice. Alas, the cheese eyes got a bit sweaty but my client was more than satisfied.

I've been making S&B curries once a week to keep warm during the winter and I'm about to start making our reservations for next attempt at a trip in January 2022. That lunch looks delicious!

And we ate our ehomaki silently facing SSE. Yum!

And... it was just pointed out to me that Setsubun this year was a once in a century anomaly:

2nd day of the 2nd month in a year ending 22 = 2.2.22