Here is another recipe of Osechi ryori. This can be prepared in advance and kept frozen. It is Kinton, sweet simmered Japanese sweet potato paste tossed with golden yellow, sweet-braised chestnut. We cook sweet potato with dry gardenia seed pod to naturally color the cooked potato into golden yellow color. If you cannot find the dried gardenia seed pot, substitute it with a little saffron. I have not tried it with saffron, but it should work. After cooling the sweet potato, I gently fold in the sweet cooked chestnuts. Golden color of the dish associates good fortune and prosperity. Please let me know which food in your culture represents a good luck and prosperity!
The photos are Japanese sweet potato, cooking sweet potato and finished one, cooling. I have already prepared sweet cooked chestnuts when local up state chestnuts are available. They are in my freezer.
Kinton recipe: If you can use the Japanese sweet potato in the recipe which has noted natural sweetness.
3 pounds, peeled Japanese or other sweet potato cut into 1-inch slices
4 pieces dried gardenia seed pot, cut into half lengthwise, put it in a cheesecloth pouch and tie the neck with a kitchen string
2 pound sugar
2 pound sweet braised chestnuts with braising liquid
Soak the sweet potato pieces into water for 1 hour. Drain. In a pot of boiling water add the drained sweet potato. On hard boiling drain the potato. Add the potato to the pot and add new water to cover by 2-inches. Cook the potato for 25 minutes or so, or until tender. Drain the potato. Process the potato in two batches in a blender until roughly pureed or until smooth (my mother who did not own a food processor, so she used fine sieve to press through the cooked potato to produce a silky textured paste; it was quite a choir). Transfer the processed potato into the pot, add the sugar and put it over medium-low heat. Stir the sweet potato until sugar is dissolved. Cook the potato, stirring all the time until it is no longer loose. Add about half cup of the braised chestnut liquid during cooking (if you do not have it substitute with mirin). When it is no longer watery nor firm add the chestnuts. Carefully toss the chestnuts with the sweet potato. 
