Japanese “Kabu” Turnip Simmered in Broth 蕪の煮物

We recently received another order of Japanese vegetables from Suzuki farm which included Japanese “kabu 蕪” turnip with attached greens.  I immediately separated the greens and blanched them in salted water. This way, both the turnips and the greens last longer. (If the greens are left attached they quickly go bad and then make the turnip go bad too.) In any case, I made this classic simmered dish with “kabu 蕪” turnips and “abura-age 油揚げ” fried tofu and garnished it with the blanched turnip greens. This is a very comforting dish with the distinctive but subtle flavor of kabu and the more assertive flavor of the greens. The abura-age also adds a nice texture and flavor, This is good as a side dish or appetizer.

Ingredients (for two servings)
4 small “kabu 蕪” Japanese turnips, peeled and quartered.
1 large or 2 small abura-age 油揚げdeep fried tofu, soaked in hot water to thaw and to remove excess oil, moisture squeezed and cut into small triangles.
Blanched turnip greens as garnish.

Simmering liquid:
1 cup Japanese broth (made of dashi pack which contain bonito flakes and kelp)
2 tbs “shiro-dashi* 白だし” Japanese seasoning sauce (from a bottle).
1 tbs mirin

*”Shiro” means white or clear and “dashi” means broth. This is a universal Japanese seasoning sauce available in a bottle at most Japanese grocery stores. It is made out of dashi broth, white or light colored soy sauce, mirin and sake. Since I usually do not keep white soy sauce or light colored soy sauce in our household, this is very convenient to have especially when you do not want to add dark color to the dish. I often use it to make “chawan-mushi 茶碗蒸し” and a dish like this one when I want to keep the turnip’s light in color.

Directions:
Add, the turnip and abura-age to the simmering liquid and simmer with a lid on for 10-20 minutes or until the turnip is cooked and soft
Garnish with the turnip greens
Serve warm

This is not as elegant as “Kabura-mushi 蕪蒸し” but a very good simple dish laden with umami and unique flavors of “kabu” turnip. 

Chocolate Brownie Pudding チョコレートブラウニープディング

When my wife made “Lemon Sponge Pudding” using a recipe from Marsha Adams’ “Cooking from Quilt Country”, she spotted this recipe for “Chocolate Brownie Pudding”. It is made in the classic “Pennsylvania Dutch” style basically with a batter put on the bottom of a baking pan and the makings of a chocolate syrup poured over the top. Then as it bakes they reverse with a brownie like cake forming on top and a chocolate sauce forming on the bottom. She had never tasted it before so she decided to make it. This pudding is not particularly photogenic but the taste is really great, moist and very chocolaty. The recipe recommended to served this upside down so the brownie part is on the bottom and chocolate sauce/goo is on the top making it look somewhat like an amorphous dark mass (picture #1). The pecans added nice crunch in contrast to otherwise soft consistency.

After it was cooked, the top became a brownie and bottom was a chocolate sauce (picture #2).

Ingredients: 
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
I teaspoon salt
2/3 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons cocoa powder, divided (2 Tbs. used in batter, 4 Tbs. used in sauce) (I used King Arthur double dutch dark cocoa) 
1/2 cup milk 
2 tablespoons butter, melted 
I teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup chopped pecans
1 cup brown sugar
1½ cups boiling water

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350° F. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, granulated sugar, and 2 tablespoons of the cocoa into a large bowel Add the milk, butter, and vanilla; mix until smooth. Stir in the pecans transfer to an oiled 1-quart (10 x 6-inch) baking dish. 

In a medium bowl combine the brown sugar and the remaining 4 tablespoons cocoa. Sprinkle over the cop of the chocolate mixture. Pour the boiling water over all. Do not stir in. 

Bake 40 minutes or until the top appears to be firm. Remove from oven and allow to stand for 10 minutes before cutting. 

This is without a doubt one of the best desserts ever. The brownie/sauce texture combination is extremely pleasing. The taste is a rich velvety chocolate. This one went really fast! 

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
January 19    Grilled Beef Tongue 牛タンの焼肉
January 20    Persimmon in Tofu Dressing 柿の白和え
January 23    Cauliflower-puree Blini カリフラワーピュレー　ビィリニ
January 25    Gingerbread Pancakes with Date Sauce ジンジャーブレッドパンケーキ
January 26    “Bento” Lunch Box 弁当

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.