Cook: Mom's New Year's Day Ozoni (Mochi Soup)
A Japanese tradition that I am pretty religious about following is eating mochi as your first meal on the first day of the new year. We eat mochi year round but there is special significance to eating it on January 1st of each new year. Many believe that it brings well wishes and good fortune and the stickiness of the mochi will bring you longevity (similar to Chinese New Year and eating long, stretchy noodles).
Back in the olden days, making mochi was quite laborious. This required many friends and family in the community to take part. Mochi is just pounded, glutinous, sweet rice called mochigome. Before the days of electronic mochi makers, my grandparents and the Japanese-American community around them would gather together and pound the rice by hand with a large wooden mallet. My dad has the original mallet hanging in his garage (see photo on the right). The video above, from the early 1950’s, shows my Grandpa Johnny pounding and the brave soul next to him avoiding the mallet in between strikes to move the mochi around, WITH HER BARE HANDS. It’s incredible to watch this old film footage today as it demonstrates their commitment to honoring their traditions with the community they built around them. It’s one of the reasons that I am so intent on keeping this tradition alive so that I can one day pass it down to my kids.
As we got older, technology sped things up and some of my favorite memories were gathering around at my grandparents house to make mochi for the new year. This time, we had a electronic mochi maker that would pound the rice for us and a machine that would evenly cut them into little balls (see video below). My cousins and I would gather around the crowded table with 2 people in charge of chopping the mochi ball from a machine and the others would work to form them into round mounds. My grandma would go around fixing the ones that weren’t up to her standard. It was always a struggle to make enough since many of the mochi balls would disappear into family member’s mouths straight off the table.
One of our favorite ways to eat mochi is to microwave it for a few seconds until it puffs up and then dip it into shoyu and sugar (mixed together). However, for New Year’s Day, my mom makes traditional ozoni soup with a dashi base and we add in a bunch of other ingredients. She pan fries them so they get nice and crispy on the outside and then pops them in the oven so they puff up. After that, you plop them into the soup, top if off with char siu, green onions, fish cakes and some greens, and you’re set with your New Year’s Day Ozoni.
One of our neighbors (left), my dad (middle) and my grandpa (right) in front of some sort of handmade contraption they made to steam cook the rice. Long before the days of electronic mochi makers.
Found this old photo at my dad’s of my sweet Grandma Daisy (on the far left) and the neighborhood women making freshly pounded mochi for everyone.
Cement my grandpa poured back in the 50’s - where they used to gather and pound mochi and the original mallet.
Broth Ingredients: The broth for this is just dashi plus some soy sauce and Aji-no-moto (MSG). It’s light because all the flavor of the fishcakes, meat (if you opt to add it) and the traditional toppings that are added after. Most people don’t have time to make homemade dashi, so this version uses the powder form.
3 1/2 cups of water
1 tsp dashi
1/4 cup of shoyu (I usually have to do this to taste)
1/2 cup of mirin
1/4 tsp of Aji-no-moto (MSG)
Toppings:
Fresh mochi
Kamaboko (thinly sliced)
1/2 bunch spinach or seasoned cabbage
Veggie (yasai) fishcakes (thinly sliced)
Roasted pork or char siu (thinly sliced - optional)
Green onions (thinly sliced)
Red ginger (shoga)
Other ideas for toppings include: hard boiled eggs, soy glazed carrots, chicken or broccoli
Directions:
Bring water to a boil. Add in dashi, shoyu, mirin and MSG to the water once it’s boiling.
Boil your greens in salted water and drain.
Put some sesame oil in a pan over medium heat. Brown the mochi until it puffs up. You can also heat the mochi in the microwave if you don’t want to pan fry it.
To make each bowl, spoon broth and greens in. Top with mochi, fish cakes, green onions and shoga.
