Celebrating New Year with traditional Japanese food アメリカでお節作り



Happy New Year 2014!  

In our family, we are celebrating the New Year's day with traditional Japanese new year food. You know, we have two teen/tween girls who are born and raised here in the U.S., and we try our best to incorporate Japanese new year tradition into this special day for them. Which means I end up spending long hours in the kitchen prior to the New Year, preparing the food... 

あけましておめでとうございます。

アメリカ生活の長い我が家ですが、毎年お正月にはできるだけ伝統的な日本のお節料理でお祝いするようにしています。それもこれもアメリカ育ちの二人の娘達の「食育」のためと思い毎年年末は台所で調理に明け暮れる母です~><;今年もなんとかお節を作り終えて、皆で元気に元旦を迎えることができて嬉しいです。



Japanese new year food is called "O-se-chi Ryo-ri" (お節料理) and each and every dish and ingredients have meaning, such as health, wealth and prosperity, good harvest, long life, happiness, and more babies in the family (really!)  Some of these food are too "traditional" for our girls, but I still cook them anyway ;P

日本の皆さんにはお馴染みのお節料理ですが、このブログを読んで下さっている日本人以外の方々のために、今日は私が作ったお節料理を簡単にご紹介させて下さいね。お節作りはすべて自己流なので日本の方々から見るとおかしな点も多々あるかと思いますが・・・。最後までお付き合いしていただければ幸いです~。今年も、数の子とかまぼこ以外は全て手作りしてみました。

Let me quickly show you some of the Japanese food that I prepared for this new year. 


Cooked veggies in Japanese style broth (煮しめ)



Konbu-maki or simmered seaweed rolls (昆布巻き)



Sweet black beans (黒豆)



Japanese style cha-shu pork, or marinated and braised pork (煮豚)


Cooked Burdock roots wrapped in sliced beef (ごぼう巻き)



Bu-ri or cooked yellow tail (鰤)


Marinated fried salmon and onions(紅白鮭マリネ)



Pickled carrot and daikon radish (紅白なます)



Mashed sweet potato with sweet chestnuts (栗きんとん)


Dried sardines cooked in soy sauce.  田作り(ごまめ)。




We store the prepared new year food in these "Ju-bako" or stackable lacquered boxes.(お重)




Here the food is being cooked and ready to be stored in the boxes. (I aim to finish the entire cooking by noon of the New Year's eve).  Every year I prepare new year food in abundance, pack them in several ju-bako lacquer boxes (I own several of them), so that I can share the food with my friends and neighbors.

大晦日の正午までにはすべての調理を終えて、重箱に詰めます。我が家にはいただきもののお重がいくつかあるので、毎年お節料理を多めに作って数あるお重に詰めて、お世話になった方々やご近所の方にお配りしています。今年も大晦日にはお重をいくつかお届けさせていただきました。





For the food prep, my youngest daughter helped me by cutting out the carrots and dai-kon radishes into flower shapes.

次女がにんじんと大根を花形に抜くのを手伝ってくれました。


She also folded chopstick holders from origami papers.

元旦用の箸袋も次女が折り紙を折って作ってくれました。


O-zo-ni or clear soup with mochi rice cakes, another traditional Japanese style food eaten on New Year's Day that I prepared.

もちろん、お雑煮も用意しました。




Thanks for following along this long food post! lol  I wish you all have a happy and healthy 2014 with good food and of course, lots of crafty moments!! 

最後までお付き合いいただいてありがとうございました! 今年も皆さんにとって、おいしいものいっぱいの、健康で、ご多幸な一年になりますように!もちろん、今年も手芸タイムも満喫しましょうね~♪

***Love, Amy***

5 comments:

PamKittyMorning said...

thanks for sharing that, its very interesting!

PamKittyMorning said...

Happy New Year!

Alyce @ Blossom Heart Quilts said...

明けましておめでとうございます! Our version of osechi was pizza and salad, although it was mostly cabbage, which is very Japanese ;)

Grace and Peace Quilting said...

おいしそう!May I come to your home for New Years?! Every dish looks delicious! Great job!

Unknown said...

Thank you ladies!!

@Grace and Peace Quilting-ありがとう!Hope you had a wonderful O-Sho-gatsu (new year) with your loved ones!!

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