Osechi from Sushi Taro 2026 すし太郎のお節

Like other New Years, we picked up Sushi Taro osechi box on New Year Eve. Although there is some changes/improvements every year, we have posted osechi dishes in details before. In any case, this is a real treat.  The left is the bottom box and the right is the top box.

All are very good but our absolute favorites are “An-kimo terrine 鮟肝豆腐” and “Karasumi Japanese bottarga 唐墨”. We try to finish most  perishable first and finish everything at the end. When it comes to “delicious treat”, this is tops.

“Ozoni” New Year’s Soup お雑煮 2026

New Year has arrived and we are now in 2026! As usual, we had our regular breakfast on New Year’s day consisting of cappuccino, yogurt with fruit, and baked goods. We had the New Year’s soup or “ozoni お雑煮” and other auspicious Japanese New Year foods for lunch (picture #1). Along with the soup I served daikon-namasu 大根なますwith ikura イクラ salmon roe and sliced boiled octopus (small bowl right upper) as well as a number of additional sides of auspicious goodies (shown as a group on the left). 

Our ozoni doesn’t vary much every year. The mochi 餅 rice cake is encased in a deep fried tofu “abura-age 油揚げ” pouch as per my wife’s request. However, this year instead of pieces of chicken meat, I made small chicken dumplings from ground chicken which worked well.

The additional auspicious sides I served were a mixture of some from the Sushi-taro osechi boxすし太郎のお節 and some I made. With this combination I think we covered most of the New Year’s auspicious food items (picture #3).  

The items from the osechi box included; white and red kamaboko fish cake 紅白蒲鉾 (top left), kuro-mame black bean 黒豆, small bait fish “arima-ni” 雑魚の有馬煮 (both middle left),  Kazuniko herring roe marinated in miso 数の子の味噌漬け on the “hanawa-renkon 花輪レンコン” (middle center). 

Since I made “datemaki 伊達巻” New Year’s omelet, I served a piece of the one I made (middle center) although the osechi box also had it. This year, instead of making the omelet as I usually do on the stove in the rectangular pan I use to make dashi-maki, I baked the omelet in a small baking dish at 390F or 200C in the toaster oven on convection mode for 20 minutes. It cooked up OK but came out with uneven thickness which made it difficult to roll nicely. (This method needs a bit of more work to achieve “perfection”).  I also served salmon kelp roll 鮭の昆布巻き (middle right), Russian marinated salmon with ikura 鮭のロシア漬け (lower left) and fried salmon filet in sweet vinegar 鮭の南蛮漬け (lower right) all of which I made and which were the rest of my contribution to the occasion. 

We had our usual symbolic sake with this. We hit the osechi box more in the evening.

Happy New Year 2026 明けましておめでとうございます

2025 was a somewhat eventful year but we came through OK and are looking forward to what 2026 brings. To celebrate the New Year, we usually decorate in the Japanese style by getting a disposable plastic “Kagami-mochi 鏡餅” containing individually wrapped mochi. Although, according to Japanese tradition, New Year’s decorations are “disposable” because they should be renewed every year, we felt the Kagami-mochi was a bit wasteful especially since we almost never ate the mochi that came in it. (Besides, this year it was completely sold out by the time we tried to order it, so we had to come up with an alternative). As an innovation, we went with an “Arita-kiln 有田焼” Kagami-mochi decoration, which being ceramic, is permanent and can be used year after year. The top comes off and the bottom segment is hollow. So theoretically, we could place fresh mochi inside in keeping with Japanese tradition. In any case, we are very satisfied with this new decoration shown is the picture below. 

Since according to the Chinese zodiac calendar this is the year of the horse, we displayed several horse zodiac figures we have collected over the years. We got the horse in the back on the right, last year (2025) at one of our favorite stores called “Kuroda-ya 黒田屋本店” next to “Kaminari-mon 雷門” in Asakusa 浅草. The one in the back on the left is from the same store but we got it in 2017. The small wooden one in front, is part of a complete set of zodiac figures we got many years ago but could not recall when or where. (My wife thought maybe Kyoto but wasn’t sure).

In any case, we managed to pick up “Osechi お節” from “Sushi-taro すし太郎”. I made a few New Year’s dishes. We are ready!

Table of Contents 2026

January 2026
January 1     Happy New Year 2026 明けましておめでとうございます
January 2    “Ozoni” New Year’s Soup お雑煮 2026
January 5    Osechi from Sushi Taro 2026 すし太郎のお節
January 8    Chocolate Brownie Pudding チョコレートブラウニープディング
January 11    Japanese “Kabu” Turnip Simmered in Broth 蕪の煮物
January 14    Japanese Sweet potato Blini さつまいもビィリニ
January 17    Simmered “Satoimo” taro with squid 里芋とイカの煮物

Lotus root salad with Yuzu-kosho Mayo 柚子胡椒マヨ蓮根サラダ

This is the second dish I made from fresh renkon (lotus root) we received recently from Weee. This a simple renkon salad. I have posted several renkon salads and this is a variation of renkon salad dressed in yuzu-mayonnaise. I think I saw a recipe on line from which I got the idea for this but could not locate it again. In any case, the dressing is made with mayo plus yuzu-kosho* 柚子胡椒 so in addition to yuzu flavor it has some heat from the yuzu-kosho. This was a really good dish. The renkon is crunchy. It absorbs the yuzu flavor which gives it a bright citrus taste. The mayo mutes the spiciness of the yuzu-kosho but it is still there. Just for green color I added blanched green beans.

* Japanese condiment/ paste made from chili peppers, yuzu peel and salt, which is then allowed to ferment. Usually made of green pepper but also made with red pepper.

Again this is not really recipe. Just for my notes:

Ingredients:
3 inch renkon, peeled, blanched and cut into small bite sized pieces.

Some green for color (blanched green beans, broccoli etc)

Dressing:
1 tbs mayonnaise 
1/2 tsp yuzu-kosho (more for spicier dressing)
1 tsp ponzu shoyu ポン酢醤油
(Because the ponzu also has yuzu juice in it the dressing gets a double dose of yuzu Japanese citrus flavor)

Directions:
Boil the renkon in salted water with a splash of rice vinegar for 10-15 minutes.
Let it cool to room temperature.
In a bowl, add the renkon and dressing and mix.
Add the green beans cut diagonally in a bite size. 

This is a very refreshing salad. The crunchiness of the renkon combined with the bright citrus taste and slight spiciness of the yuzu-kosho provide lovely contrast of flavors for any meal. 

Roasted Bone-in Leg of Lamb 骨付き子羊脚ロースト

Christmas and New Year are approaching. Since my wife likes lamb, we splurged and got a large bone-in (or as they described it, “minimally boned and halal”) leg of lamb from Whole Foods. Clearly this is too much meat for us but we figured once it is cooked we can eat it in several sittings and use it to make other dishes such as lamb stew. I thought about making a special dry rub for it but decided to go with the natural flavor of the meat and used only olive oil, salt and pepper. We hot smoked it using mesquite wood chips in the Weber grill. I soaked the wood chips and added them directly on the hot coals which were separated on either side of the center in a metal baskets so the lamb roasted on indirect heat. I maintained the temperature at 400F. The lamb was done in almost one and half hours cooking time. I set the meat temperature probe in the middle of the thigh fairly deep but not touching the bone and cooked it to an internal temperature of 140F. The meat came out really nice (#1). We let it rest covered loosely with a sheet of aluminum foil for 30 minutes while we cooked some Japanese sweet potatoes to go with it.

The doneness ranged from well-done (close to the shank) to medium rare (middle of the thigh meat). Close to the boned (or de-boned) end (the largest diameter potion)  was medium which I served (#2). I made a quick pan sauce and served it with mashed sweet potato.

This was a simple meat-and-potato affair but very satisfying. We had a Joseph Phelps 2022 Syrah.

This is a very good American Syrah that went perfectly with our lamb dinner.

”Boti Gosht” Indian style Meat Cubes インド風の豚肉キューブ

Whenever we get a large bone-in, skin-on, hind-or fore-quarter pork (called picnic cut), I do secondary butchering to produce one large and one small roast. We cook the large roast in the Weber grill and make the small roast into Chinese-style simmered pork using the InstantPot pressure cooker. I cut the remaining trimmings into small chunks and cook them in the InstantPot. We usually use these to make some kind of curry but this time my wife used them to make scrapple. After all this, we found ourselves with leftover roasted pork. My wife decided we should use it to make something interesting that we hadn’t made before. She came up with this Indian-style meat (pork) cubes dish based on a recipe in Madhur Jaffrey’s cookbook “Quick and Easy Indian Cooking”. (The original recipe called for uncooked cubes of goat/lamb/pork.) This is a highly seasoned dish but does not include the extra sauce characteristic of a regular curry. In any case, this turned out to be quite good. It was quite spicy (but not too spicy, at least for me). (My wife ate it topped with yogurt to mute the spiciness a bit and she said it was very good), with lots of flavors. 

Ingredients
3 tablespoons vegetable oil 
1 or 2 onions roughly diced
½-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and very finely chopped 
4 cloves garlic, peeled and very finely chopped
15 fresh or dried curry leaves, if available
1 pound boned shoulder of lamb or pork, cut into 1-inch cubes (We used the left over roasted pork cut up) 
2 teaspoons store-bought garam masala
1 teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 fresh, hot green chile, finely sliced
½ teaspoon salt or to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
1½-2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Directions:
 Saute the onion in a frying pan until soft and lightly browned. Add the ginger, garlic, and curry leaves and stir until wilted. When the garlic is wilted add the spices to bloom their flavor.  Add the meat. Add enough chicken broth so the ingredients in the pan do not scorch. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes. Remove the lid and cook, uncovered, until all the liquid has gone. Stir as you do this and be careful it doesn’t scorch. Then stir in the lemon juice.