Happy holidays🥰❣️
Documentation on Osechi (Japanese new year bento) item🍱
Each item has wishes & meanings, I try to cook to make those points stand out✨
Today introducing the simmered veggies of “Nishime (煮しめ）” aka “Chikuzen-ni(筑前煮）”.
Quick recipes (arranged to be easier) & Stories🥕🥘
This flavorful simmered dish is cooked in slightly sweet dashi broth (bonito would be great), with a bit of light soy sauce / mirin / sake.
Originally a signature dish from Kyushu region, now nationally loved dish with lots of variation.
As all sorts of colors & ingredients from mountains and sea are cooked together in the same pot – it resembles a wish of “everyone in the family gets along” and prosper.
Usually Osechi bento consists of three tier bento boxes, and this simmered veggies would take up the whole bottom box.
It tends to be dark colored, so vibrant green of snowpeas & pretty red ume (plum flower)-looking carrots are used as decoration.
As for carrots, the redder the better-“Kyo-Ninjin 京人参”, from Kyoto is often used.
- Prepare the ingredients.
- Goboh (burdock) Cut, parboil
- Lotus root – Cut, parboil
- Carrots- cut, parboil
- Konnyaku – Cut a hole – tuck & curl. Parboil.(shape resembling reins: autonomous & strong heart).
- Dried mushroom (Shiitake): Soak in water
- Snow peas – parboil
- Bent Prawns- introduced the other day.
- Prepare the dashi broth (non sodium recommended). 2C Dashi Broth, 3TBS Sugar, 2TBS Light soy sauce, 2TBS Mirin (or +1TBS sugar).
- Simmer all veggies except for shiitake in medium heat, until sauce is less. Plate the veggies. Add 1TBS sugar & light soy (&mirin), and now simmer Shiitake. Done when sauce simmers away.
- Plate, decorate. YUM!
おせちの由来、奥が深く面白いです。
いつも筑前煮は若干炊き合わせのように作っていますが、本来は、海の幸山の幸を一つの鍋で煮しめることで、家族団欒を願っていたことを知りました。
大好きな祖母のお煮しめは、色味も鮮やかで美しく、甘さ控えめで、お肉が入っていのにコクがあってとてもおいしかったのを思い出します。。近づきたくても、追い求めるほどに遠くなるようなもどかしさです。
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