It's always a happy new year for me if I can start the day with ozoni.
We don't follow any precedents or handed-down recipes: we're outsiders, we don't have to. Each year we adjust the ingedients and ratios. It really doesn't matter what foods you use in your ozoni as long as a) the dashi is good; and b) there's some mochi lurking at the bottom of your bowl.
This year the dashi was prepared from ne-kombu and premium katsuo-bushi. The miso was white Yamari from Kyoto, a lovely creamy miso that's neither too salty nor too sweet. The mochi was made yesterday by our neighbourhood wagashi artisan, still soft and pliable and puffing up effortlessly under the grill before being added to the mix.
Also in the bowl: sake-grilled buri (yellowtail); a slice of Miura daikon; slivers of kyo-ninjin carrot; a big fat fresh shiitake; and a few leaves of young komatsuna and nanohana greens.
And I feel positively celebratory if there's tai (snapper/sea bream) on the table too.
Ours — the smaller of the two below — was freshly salt-grilled (shio-yaki) by our local fishmonger on his curb-side charcoal grill.
And yes, we did see out the old year with the usual toshi-koshi soba. It's just that the photos didn't turn out so well. We'd already laid into the nihonshu by the time we ate them. But this is what the noodles looked like straight out of their cute little package (love that photo of the buckwheat plants in bloom) fresh from our local te-uchi sobaya...
Top noodles — delicate and aromatic, hand-rolled and chopped, of course — packed with wonderful rich savoury tsuyu dipping sauce, along with twists of freshly grated wasabi and pink-tinged Himalayan rock salt.
