TASTE OF HOME / Yuzu in Osechi: Whip up fragrant, festive New Year's treat in NO time

Tamako Sakamoto / Special to The Daily Yomiuri

Now is the season when Japanese housewives traditionally prepare for the New Year. When I was a child, my mother was quite busy cleaning house and cooking osechi ryori, the special dishes to be enjoyed on the first three days of the year.

I remember my parents doing big grocery shopping at the end of the year to buy special food, mainly for osechi. Back then, most shops and supermarkets were closed during the first three days of the New Year, and we needed to stock enough food for the period.

On Dec. 31, mothers were especially busy cooking osechi. Even late at night, while the rest of the family was snuggled around the kotatsu (a low table with a foot warmer underneath) eating tangerines and watching specials on TV, my mother was still struggling in the kitchen.

Osechi dishes are traditionally prepared with prayers for health, family safety and prosperity. Also, they keep for quite a long time as they contain lots of sugar and soy sauce. Once you prepare them, you do not have to worry about cooking too often during the New Year's period.

Nowadays, supermarkets are open even during the holidays, and mothers seem more relaxed. We no longer spend so much time on cleaning and preparing osechi. Rather, we try to make most of the year-end vacation when our family members get together, and we often invite relatives to bonenkai year-end parties.

Last year, we had a family tennis camp on Dec. 29-30. On the way home, my mother repeatedly said, "This year, I'm not going to cook anything special for the New Year." My sister and I shared her sentiment.

But on Dec. 31, somehow I became restless and started cooking osechi. And I wasn't the only one. On Jan. 1, when I visited my parents, there were so many wonderful osechi dishes that my mother had cooked the day before. My sister also made some osechi such as kurikinton (sweet potato with chestnuts) or kuromame (cooked sweet black beans) for the gathering.

It's the same every year: We all say we aren't going to prepare anything, but we end up cooking various osechi for our families. I don't think it's an obligation, but rather that we are motivated by a sort of Japanese housewives' DNA. I personally don't know anyone who so heartily loves osechi that they want to keep eating it throughout the first three days of the New Year.

None of my children are particularly crazy about osechi either, but they would definitely be disappointed if they were served an American-style breakfast or a regular Japanese breakfast on Jan. 1.

Osechi seems to be a special symbol that brings the joyous feeling of the New Year. So even if I do not have enough time to cook the most time-consuming osechi dishes, I serve my family at least a simple osechi meal and zoni (soup with vegetables and mochi).

To produce the special atmosphere of the New Year's table, there is a magic fruit that gives everything "the fragrance of the New Year."

That is yuzu, my favorite citrus. A few weeks ago, when I received a paper bag full of this unique fruit from a neighbor who has a yuzu tree, I cooked clear soup for dinner and added a small piece of yuzu to each bowl. When I served it to my children, all of them said, "It smells like Oshogatsu [New Year's]!"

Yuzu, a winter fruit, is too sharp to eat fresh because of its strong and penetrating aroma, but it has a variety of uses. For example, on the day of toji (winter solstice), yuzu-yu--taking a hot bath with yuzu floating in it--is customary. When I was a child, my mother made a small bag of soft cotton cloth, put plenty of yuzu in it, and put the bag in the bathtub so that we could enjoy aromatic yuzu water, which is said to be good for the skin.

On Jan 1, when we eat zoni, the final step in preparing it is to scrape off small bits of yuzu zest and place them on top of each serving of zoni in wooden bowls. The wonderful aroma, a mixture of the savory soup and the yuzu fragrance, makes everybody feel that the New Year has come.

Even if you resort to store-bought osechi dishes, you can still scoop the yuzu pulp out of its rind to make a yuzugama (a yuzu cup or pot) and arrange some simple appetizers in it to give your dining table a special New Year's atmosphere.

When I make osechi, which is presented in a multitiered lacquer box, I make it a rule to include a yuzu cup with ikura salmon roe or yuzu-flavored kohaku namasu (red and white marinated daikon and carrot).

During the winter, I make various yuzu desserts as well--cookies with yuzu icing, yuzu cheesecake, yuzu madeleines and so on. If you suddenly decide to visit your friends or relatives and can't think of what to bring, I recommend baking yuzu madeleines, which can be easily made in half an hour. This very simple homemade confection with yuzu fragrance is sure to please anyone and makes an apt gift for the New Year's period.

And yuzu sweets aren't limited to madeleines. Simply replacing the lemon juice in your dessert recipes with double portions of freshly squeezed yuzu juice is all it takes to create your own original yuzu treat. Even store-bought plain cookies can become your own original ones with yuzu icing.

So, if you feel it is too late to prepare special dishes for the New Year, I recommend that you buy a small basket of yuzu, preferably small, golfball-sized yuzu with leaves, at a grocery store. They will give your kitchen a very special atmosphere and will definitely be enjoyed in various ways during the New Year's holidays!

Kohaku namasu with yuzu

Serves 4

4 small yuzu

1/6 daikon (400 grams)

1/3 carrot (100 grams)

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon yuzu juice

1/2 teaspoon roasted white sesame seeds

1. Cut off the top 1/5 of each yuzu and scrape out the pulp with a teaspoon to make yuzu cups. Reserve one teaspoon yuzu juice.

2. Finely shred daikon and carrot. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and let stand 10 minutes.

3. Combine vinegar, sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt and yuzu juice in a bowl and mix well.

4. Squeeze excess moisture from daikon and carrot and drain. Combine with vinegar mixture. Let it stand 20 minutes.

5. Arrange shredded vegetables in individual yuzu cups and sprinkle roasted sesame on top.

*Kohaku namasu keeps 2-3 days in the refrigerator.

Ikura no yuzugama

Serves 4

4 small yuzu

1/2 cup ikura salmon roe*

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon mirin

1 tablespoon sake

1. In a small bowl, combine soy sauce, mirin and sake. Add salmon roe and leave in the refrigerator overnight. Refrigerated ikura will keep for 3-4 days.

2. Cut off the top 1/5 of each yuzu and scrape out the pulp with a teaspoon to make yuzu cups.

3. To serve, arrange ikura in individual yuzu cups.

*If using ready-made ikura no shoyuzuke (salmon roe flavored with soy sauce), simply arrange it in yuzu cups without any extra seasonings.

Yuzu madeleines

Makes 10 madeleines

150 grams cake flour

150 grams butter

3 eggs

150 grams sugar

1/2 teaspoon grated fresh yuzu rind

2 tablespoons yuzu juice

1. Preheat the oven to 170 C. Sift cake flour. Melt butter and let it cool. Break eggs into a mixing bowl.

2. Add sifted cake flour and sugar to eggs and whisk well. Add butter and whisk well. Add grated yuzu rind and yuzu juice and mix well.

3. Spoon mixture into aluminum cups or madeleine pans. Bake 15 minutes or until light golden and heated through.

4. Cool on racks.

*Madeleines keep 3-4 days at room temperature. They may be dusted with confectioner's sugar, or topped with yuzu icing or sliced yuzu compote.

Yuzu icing

1 cup confectioner's sugar

2 tablespoons yuzu juice

1. In a small bowl, combine confectioner's sugar with yuzu juice. Whisk well.

2. With a teaspoon, glaze the top of cookies or madeleines.

3. Let them stand until the icing hardens.