Happy Monday✨✨
Documentation on Osechi (Japanese new year bento).
Each item has wishes & meanings, I try to cook to make those points stand out✨
Today, one of the must & signature items of Osechi- sweet “Kuro mame (black soy beans)” with a decorating idea🫘
Soft & sweet kuro (black) mame(beans), takes around 2-3 days to prepare, and good to be bottled for 1-2 weeks.
The most critical point, is that skin looks smooth, and it does not break- we should be careful it doesn’t boil too much/gets dry.
Kuromame wishes for one’s energetic, strong, and healthy life, and for good professional life.
The word “mame (beans)” has synonym meanings for “majime/(diligence)” and “healthy” – wishing we can work hard until the skin is sunburnt as dark.
My grandmother used to put “Testu-tamago (“iron egg”), or seriously – rusty nails, to make the color come out as black as possible.
But I’m more conventional- I simply go with baking soda.
- Boil 1l water+ 1-2TBS soy sauce + 50g sugar, pour in washed beans and stop heat. Let it rest for a night.
- Heat water (don’t boil too much, only until little little bubbles comes up). Take off any foams, and start adding sugar. Total of around 250g sugar or so, but around 50g per several hours. Adding them all at once would break the skin (Osmotic pressure) Always make sure, beans are covered with water- add when you see less.
- Once the bean is softer & sweet, done✨ Keep with the syrup. Yummy😋
When putting in bentos – I like to put it on pine leaves. Wipe syrup (the black color will dye on other food), penetrate with something pointy like toothpick, and let the pine go through the path.
※15 sec video of how to cook kuromame on my Instagram reel
※インスタグラムに、20秒ほどの制作過程のリールを掲載しています
🫘🫘🫘
黒豆は、4-5 日くらい前から作り始めるのですが、他の作業をしながらで火にかけるので、切腹してしまわなよう、ひやひや。。。
お豆はグレートワールドの明治屋さんで購入しました（最初、黒豆＝黒大豆の認識がなくて、落胆してしまったのですが…）
大まかなハウツー：
＜全ての味を入れた煮汁を沸騰して豆を加えて煮ていく＞、＜豆を予め下茹でして、後ほど徐々に砂糖を加えていくシロップで煮ていく>…今回は主流な両レシピのハイブリッド的な。
- 煮汁((1lくらいの水＆ざらめやお砂糖を全体の1/3 (60～100gずつ）＋醤油大1)、優しく洗った豆200g(乾豆)放ち火を止め、一晩置く(クッキングペーパー等の紙蓋）
- 一度だけ沸騰させ、アクをすべて取る。その後、6～24時間ほど、弱火で、ふつふつ（先生方曰く”老婆がもごもごいうようなぶつぶつ感”）させる、毎時間50gずつくらいお砂糖を加えていく
- つややかになるまで。そのままサーブするか、盛り付けに、松葉に刺したり✨
