Vegan Sweets and Treats
Kuri-kinton is a Japanese sweet dish made of pureed sweet potatoes and boiled chestnuts. It is traditionally eaten at New Years and symbolizes wealth perhaps because of its gold color. This year I decided to add sweetened pureed white bean for more variety. I then …
After much preparation we finally finished making all of the dishes that we wanted to have in our osechi-ryori. This year we made kobumaki (carrot, fried tofu, and burdock root wrapped in kelp), kuromame (black soybeans simmered in a sweet and savory sauce made from …
Osechi Ryori is eaten in Japan at New Years. It consists of many special foods that are not usually eaten throughout the year. Many of the foods are symbolic or contain special meaning such as good health or prosperity. These foods are displayed in “jubako”, special boxes traditionally made of lacquer.
Many of the foods in Osechi Ryori can be made in advance and kept at room temperature without going bad. We have already started making some of the items to go in our jubako. One of the items that we made today is kobumaki.
Kombu and kampyo are both dried and need to be soaked in water before using
Kobumaki is made by wrapping vegetables such as carrots and gobo (burdock root) in kombu (kelp). It is the tightly tied shut with kampyo (dried gord). It is then simmered in a soup stock made from kombu, soy sauce, sake and sugar.
