SERVES: 4 TOTAL TIME : 40 MINS
In Japan, one of the essential dishes for the New Year’s celebration is zoni or ozoni (rice cake soup). The ingredients and broth for ozoni differ from region to region, but Naoko-sensei will be introducing a chicken-based ozoni from her hometown, Nagasaki City. Sometimes she replaces chicken with yellowtail or conger eel. Spinach can be replaced with Katsuona leaves, etc. But this time we’ll use ingredients that are easily available both inside and outside Japan. In that way, you will be able to cook it after you go back to your country.
日本で新年を祝う正月に欠かせない料理といえば、お雑煮！お雑煮は地域によって具材も出汁も違いますが、今回は長崎出身のなおこ先生のお家のレシピをご紹介します。鶏肉の代わりにブリや穴子、ほうれん草の代わりにカツオ菜、出汁は干したトビウオを使うこともあるそうですが、あえて日本以外でも手に入りやすい材料で作ります。
【Ingredients】
□ 4 cm(1.5 in) daikon radish
□ 4 cm(1.5 in) carrot
□ 160 g chicken thigh.
□ 20 g bonito flakes (katsuo-bushi)
□ 1 bundle of spinach leaves
□ 10 cm × 15 cm(≒4 in × 6 in) square of dried kelp (konbu)
□ 4 dried shiitake mushrooms
□ 4 small rice cakes (mochi)
□ 8 sliced kamaboko or fish cake (sliced into 5 mm). We use red and white kamaboko for New Year’s dishes for good luck.
□ 1.5 to 2.5 tbsp shiro-dashi
＊Shiro-dashi is a liquid dashi soup base made with shiro shoyu or usukuchi shoyu, dashi, salt, mirin sweet sake, , etc.
(単語）
1. chicken thigh 鶏モモ肉、2. bonito flakes かつお節、 3. 1 bundle of 1束の～、4. dried kelp 干した昆布、5. fish cake かまぼこ
【Preps|下ごしらえ】
１． Pour 1 litter of water into a pot. Soak dried shitake mushrooms and a dried kelp (konbu) sheet in the water for 2 hours.
２．Boil spinach leaves in water, drain them, and cut them into bite-size chunks.
3．Cut daikon radish into half-moons and carrot into rounds, 4 to 5 mm thin. Put the radish and carrot into boiled water and boil them for 5 minutes over middle heat (until softened).
4．Sprinkle salt a little bit over the chicken thigh and cut it into 4 cm width chunks. Fry up the skin sides only without using oil. After the skins turn golden, set them aside on the plate.
The savory aroma of the burned skin makes the ozoni delicious! Please don’t move the chicken while frying up. 焼き目の香ばしさが美味しさのポイント！焼くときは鶏を動かさないで。
(単語）
1. Soak O in the water Oを水に浸す、2. drain 水を切る、3. cut O into bite-size chunks Oを一口大に切る、4. Cut O into half-moons Oを半月切りにする、5. over middle (low) heat 中火（弱火）で。6. skin side 皮目
【How to Make|作り方】
１． Take out the kelp and remove the stems of the shiitake mushrooms. Boil the broth and cap parts of the shiitake mushrooms.
We take out the kelp before boiling to prevent it from producing an unpleasant taste. 昆布は煮ると雑味が出るので、取り出します。
２．Add dried bonito flakes and reduce the heat to low and simmer for 30 seconds. And take out the bonito flakes using a strainer.
Only 30 seconds over low heat! That’s an important tip. 弱火で30秒がポイント！
３．Add the pan-fried chicken chunks in the broth and simmer them for 10 minutes over low heat.
４. Add a preferred amount of shiro-dashi (1.5 to 2.5 tbsp) to adjust the taste.
５．Toast rice cakes for 4 minutes at 220℃ in the toaster oven until they puff up and turn golden brown. (please be careful not to burn them.)
６． Place a baked rice cake, 2 slices of fish cakes (kamaboko), carrot, daikon radish, and spinach in each bowl. Reheat the soup and pour it in the bowl.
(単語）
1. stem （しいたけの）軸、2. cap （しいたけの）傘 、3. unpleasant taste 雑味、４. reduce the heat to low 火を弱火に落とす、5. strainer こし器 6. simmer （弱火で）ぐつぐつと煮る。7. adjust the taste. 味を調える。8. puff up （餅が）膨らむ。
