Ozoni Soup Recipe
Adapted from EN Japanese Brasserie
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Ozoni soup is one of the main dishes eaten during the Japanese New Year’s celebration. Reminiscent of udon soup, but with mochi standing in for the noodles, it is simple, soothing, and satisfying. This version is the one that New York’s EN Japanese Brasserie serves during its New Year’s festivities.
What to buy: Dashi-no-moto is the instant form of dried bonito (tuna) flakes used to make Japanese soup stock and can be found in most Japanese markets.
This dish was featured as part of our New Year’s, Japanese Style recipes.
INGREDIENTS
- 8 Basic Savory Mochi
- 1 (3/8-ounce) packet dashi-no-moto
- 4 cups water
- 3 teaspoons light soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 medium napa cabbage leaves, coarsely chopped
- 1 medium carrot, peeled and sliced into rounds
- 1 (2-inch piece) daikon radish, peeled and sliced into rounds
- 8 ounces thinly sliced boneless, skinless chicken thigh meat
INSTRUCTIONS
- Heat the broiler to high and arrange a rack in the upper third of the oven. Place mochi on a baking sheet and broil, turning frequently, until inflated, crisp, and slightly browned, about 5 minutes. Cut into 1-inch strips and set aside.
- Combine dashi-no-moto and water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the dashi. Add soy sauce, salt, vegetables, and chicken and reduce to a simmer. Cook until vegetables are tender and chicken is cooked all the way through, about 15 minutes.
- Divide mochi strips among four bowls, ladle hot soup over them, and serve.
Hi, Thank you for linking our mom's mochi soup recipe. Our store moved to: www.japanesehomestore.com It is a more complicated shopping cart so we are trying to learn how to add the recipes and pictures. We also started facebook page so if we cannot do it on our store we will put recipe on facebook. :) Thanks and we will "like" your page too. Happy Holidays! ~ Soshina!
My mother said that she used to make simple ozoni like the one in Sushi Otaku's link above. Since she got married with my father, who is from Niigata, she changed her recipe to more like his family style which includes a ton of root vegetables such as carrots, daikon and lotus roots. My favorite is Yatsugashira - yum! I also love kon-nyaku. I've never seen a recipe with Nappa Cabbage in it thou...
Edit: The herb listed above should be mizuna (not mitsuba). Also here is a link to a more traditional basic recipe.
http://www.soshina.org/mochi-soup-rec...
This is a very busy recipe. The brilliance of Japanese soups are it's simplicity. The focus should be on the savory qualities of the dashi complimenting the sweetness of the mochi. After that just add a few sprigs of mitsuba (for herbal flavor), a piece of red/white fishcake (symbolizing Japan's colors), and maybe a piece or two of diced chicken. The recipe above resembles more of a stew than an actual ozoni.
My mother used chicken broth as the base, adding a small amount of soy sauce for added flavor. To that she added thin slices of kamaboko which were decoratively cut, spinach which had been barely cooked (then lined up with stems at one end on a cutting board, pressed together, sliced into chunks), and mochi which had been toasted till puffed up but not burnt. My husband, who is not Japanese, adores toasted mochi in soup.
How long do you cook the lotus root?
My American style one is dashi broth (with a little shoyu), chrysanthemum greens, carrot, one whole shrimp (cooked separately), lotus root, shiitake mushroom, and mochi. Sometimes, we'd use other kinds of mushroom.
Never seen a zoni like that in my life, either! Zoni style greatly varies from region to region. e.g. Clear soup (with komatsuna, spinatch, mitsuba, kamaboko, chicken, etc.) is common in eastern Japan. White miso-based zoni (with carrots, daikon, tofu, taro, etc.) is typical in Kansai. Also, mochi for zoni is traditionally square in Kanto and round in Kansai. My mother used to make a differernt kind of zoni each day of the first 3 days of Jan.
This page shows some regional variations, but none of them looks like what I grew up eating (in Osaka and Nagoya)!
http://www.rurubu.com/season/winter/ozoni/ozoni.asp
There are even research papers on regional differences!
http://sciencelinks.jp/j-east/article/200313/000020031303A0414777.php
http://sciencelinks.jp/j-east/article...
I've never seen an o-zoni recipe with Napa cabbage. Traditionally, it's with carrot, daikon, and shiitake mushrooms. In terms of flavor, instead of dashi no moto, I would make my own using a 4 inch piece of kelp. Soak in water for 30 minutes, then bring almost to a boil until bubbles form. Remove kelp and your stock is done.