Nishiki tamago is a dish in which boiled egg is separately strained through a fine sieve, mixed with sugar and little salt, packed in a mold and lightly steamed. Bright yellow color of egg yolk in the dish symbolizes gold, and egg white, silver. My mother always asked me to help her to make the dish, because pressing through especially firmer egg white (20 of them at one time) through a fine sieve was quite a job. Pleasure and pain always come together. Here is the recipe;...
Read MoreKagami-mochi, what to do with it?
Akemashite Omedeto Gozaimasu (Happy New Year)! As Christmas trees decorate American homes during holiday, Kagami-mochi decorate a room in Japanese house from the end of yeaer (December 28th). It is an offering to the god who protected us during the old year (he departs and new god arrives in the New Year). Kagami-mochi is actually a rice cake decoration that comes in two parts – small round rice cake (mochi ) sits on a larger round rice cake. On top of the rice...
Read MoreShrimp for our toshikoshi soba and final dish
I found fairly large size shrimp ( 12 to 15 pieces per pound; not head-on; farmed in Vietnam, frozen, and defrosted) at my neighbourhood Whole Food store. It was pricy at $19.99 per pound but I purchase some for the special occasion. Before frying the shrimp I did usual trick. First I made several shallow diagonal cuts on the belly side of peeled shrimp (without cutting through the shrimp). Then, I picked the shrimp and pulled both ends, bending backward. This prevents...
Read More