Zōni

A clear dashi broth with grilled mochi added at the last second so it does not dissolve.

Chicken, Fish. Not vegetarian — contains chicken, fish.

Ingredients

• 800 ml dashi
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sake
• 0.5 teaspoon salt
• 200 g chicken thigh, in small pieces
• 1 carrot, in thin rounds
• 100 g komatsuna or spinach
• 4 pieces dried mochi
• 4 sprigs mitsuba
• yuzu zest, to finish

Method

1. GRILL THE MOCHI SEPARATELY AND ADD IT LAST. Mochi boiled in the broth dissolves into it and turns a clear soup into glue within three minutes. Grilled dry until it puffs, then lowered into the bowl at the moment of serving, it stays as a piece.
2. Grill or toast it 4 to 5 minutes, turning, until it puffs and splits and is brown in patches. It will swell dramatically and then slump, which is correct.
3. KEEP THE BROTH CLEAR. This is a dashi soup with almost nothing added -- soy, sake and salt only -- and its character is restraint. Anything that clouds it is wrong.
4. So the chicken is blanched 30 seconds in separate water first and rinsed, rather than being simmered in the broth and throwing scum.
5. Dashi, soy, sake and salt brought to a bare simmer.
6. Chicken in, 5 minutes. Carrot in, 4 minutes.
7. Greens wilted separately in boiling water, squeezed and cut -- again to keep the broth clear.
8. Arrange in the bowl: mochi first, then chicken, carrot and greens around it.
9. Broth poured over at the table, not the mochi dropped into a pot.
10. Mitsuba and a sliver of yuzu zest on top. Eat straight away, before the mochi starts giving to the broth.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Japan · All recipes