# Toshi-tori Zen/Toshi-tori Zen/Toshi-koshi Ryori (New Year’s Eve Feast) ｜ Our Regional Cuisines

**Cuisine Name**: Toshi-tori Zen/Toshi-tori Zen/Toshi-koshi Ryori (New Year’s Eve Feast)

**Region**: Our Regional Cuisines

## Main Lore Areas
In the northern and central regions, etc.

## Main Ingredients Used
Fish such as sea bream and salt sardines, kelp, daikon radish, carrots, tofu, shiitake mushrooms.

## History, Origin, and Related Events
On the night of New Year's Eve, the family gathers together to enjoy a lavish meal served on a high table tray to welcome the New Year. It is the time when 'Toshi-tori Zen' is eaten. The same dish is served as an offeriing to thank the Toshigami (the god celebrated at the beginning of the New Year) for a year of good health and to welcome the new Toshigami. On New Year's Eve, people stay up from midnight until dawn to celebrate and go and pay their respects at shrines and temples. On New Year's Day, breakfast is served with zoni (a soup containing rice cakes and vegetables), but it is customary to do as little housework and cooking as possible, eating the leftovers from the previous night and quietly celebrating the beginning of the new year. Some areas still retain this custom today.This custom is an old way of welcoming the New Year and dates back to the days when the lunar calendar was used. According to the old calendar, the day began after sunset, so the new year was celebrated whereby New Year's Day began from the evening of New Year's Eve. In those days, age was expressed by counting the year of birth as being one years old, so by celebrating New Year's Day, one more year was added to one's age. No doubt it must have been some special New Year's dish, as it was used to rejoice in growing one year older as a family, and to welcome the god of the year and the New Year.

## Opportunities and Times of Eating Habits
It is eaten from New Year's Eve through to New Year's Day to thank the god of the year for a year of peace and good health. The meal is often prepared with 'Toshi-tori Zakana,' (fish eaten at the New Year) whereby sea bream is served in coastal areas as a fish which brings good luck, and mainly salt sardines are served in mountainous areas. In the days when transportation was not as convenient as it is today, fish was considered a precious foodstuff and treated as a feast.

## How to Eat
The ingredients and contents used vary from region to region, but the arrangement of the New Year's feast to be eaten includes toshi-tori zakana, nishime (vegetables, konnyaku, etc., boiled down in soy sauce and water), shirae (salad dressed with tofu, white sesame, and white miso), cooked beans, namasu (raw fish and vegetables seasoned in vinegar), rice (okowa), and clear broth soup. Leftovers are often eaten during the three days of the New Year, and each region and each family makes its own unique nishime.

## Efforts for Preservation and Succession
(Outline of the traditions, the preservation society, social media use, modern approaches at commercialization)Even today, there are regions where this custom is handed down and preserved. The way in which the meal is served and its contents differ from area to area, but the tradition is preserved and handed down within regions and households.

## Ingredients
- [Nishime] dried royal fern: 50g
- [Nishime] dried of bamboo shoots: 30g
- [Nishime] small dried shiitake mushrooms: 10
- [Nishime] of hayani (quick boil) kelp: 50g
- [Nishime] pieces of thick deep-fried tofu: 5
- [Nishime] konnyaku: 1 and a 1／2 pieces
- [Nishime] small taro: 10
- [Nishime] dried sardine stock: 5 cups
- [Nishime] sugar: 5 tbsp
- [Nishime] sake: 3 tbsp
- [Nishime] soy sauce: 3 and 1／2 tbsp
- [Cooked pinto beans] pinto beans: 500g
- [Cooked pinto beans] water: as needed
- [Cooked pinto beans] sugar: 300g
- [Cooked pinto beans] salt: a pinch
- [Shirae] konnyaku: 2 and a 1／2 pieces
- [Shirae] Chinese cabbage: 1／4
- [Shirae] carrot: 1
- [Shirae] tofu: 2 blocks
- [Shirae] white sesame seeds: 5 tbsp
- [Shirae (seasoning A)] sugar: 2 and a 1／2 tsp
- [Shirae (seasoning A)] soy sauce: 1 and a 1／2 tbsp
- [Shirae (seasoning B)] sugar: 1 and a 1／2 tbsp
- [Shirae (seasoning B)] salt: 1 and a 1／2 tsp
- [Namasu] daikon radish: 500g
- [Namasu] carrot: 75g
- [Namasu] salt: 1 tsp
- [Namasu] vinegared horse mackerel: 2 pieces
- [Namasu] sesame seeds: a sprinkle
- [Namasu] matsuba yuzu citrus: a little
- [Namasu] (sweet vinegar) sugar: 7 tbsp
- [Namasu (sweet vinegar)] vinegar: 180ml
- [Namasu (sweet vinegar)] water: 75ml
- [Namasu (sweet vinegar)] salt: 1 tsp
- [Chestnut rice] glutinous rice: 6 cups
- [Chestnut rice] chestnuts (net weight): 250g
- [Chestnut rice] adzuki beans: 1 cup
- [Chestnut rice] salt: 1 tsp
- [Chestnut rice] white sesame seeds: a sprinkle
- [Clear broth soup] Japanese yam (sticky): 250g
- [Clear broth soup] a block of firm tofu: 2／3
- [Clear broth soup] flour: as needed
- [Clear broth soup] oil: as needed
- [Clear broth soup] small dried shiitake mushrooms: 10
- [Clear broth soup] Japanese parsley (mitsuba): 10 pieces
- [Clear broth soup] matsuba yuzu citrus: 10 pieces
- [Clear broth soup] soup stock (dried sardine): 5 cups
- [Clear broth soup] light soy sauce: 3 and a 1／2 tbsp
- [Clear broth soup] salt: 2 and a 1／2 tsp
- [Clear broth soup] sake: 2 and a 1／2 tbsp
- [Grilled salted sardines for New Year's Eve] salted sardines: 10
- [Grilled salted sardines for New Year's Eve] citrus rings: 10 (1／2 of a piece)

## Recipe
1. 1. [Nishime (Preparation)](1) Pre-boil dried royal ferns and dried bamboo shoots to remove scum.(2) Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms, and cut off the tough stems.(3) Soak the kelp in water for 2 to 3 minutes, tie into long knots about 10 cm apart, and then cut.(4) Peel taro while cutting off the corners, sprinkle with salt and rub well, and rinse with water to remove the sliminess.(5) Cut konnyaku into thin slices, cut a slit in the middle, and make a rein knot.
2. 2. [Nishime](1) Pour soup stock into a large pot, add shiitake mushrooms and knotted kelp, and simmer until the kelp becomes soft.(2) Take out the kelp, add royal fern, bamboo shoots, taro, and konnyaku, and simmer until softened.(3) Add thick deep fried tofu, put the kelp back in, and add sugar, sake, soy sauce, and salt, then cover with a drop-lid and simmer. When everything has softened, turn off the heat and leave for about 3 hours to let the flavors soak in.(4) Serve one portion at a time.
3. 3. [Cooked pinto beans](1) Soak the pinto beans in water overnight.(2) Bring the pinto beans to a boil, and when the scum starts to appear, discard the water.(3) Add fresh water and simmer over low heat whilst skimming off the scum until the beans are tender.(4) When soft, add the sugar a bit at a time and finally add a pinch of salt.
4. 4. [Shirae](1) Cut konnyaku into 3 cm thin strips, boil, and season with seasoning A.(2) Cut Chinese cabbage into 1 cm strips and carrots into 3 cm sticks, and boil them.(3) Grind drained tofu with a mortar and pestle, and season with seasoning B.(4) Mix 1 and 2 into 3, place in a bowl, and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
5. 5. [Namasu](1) Cut the daikon radish and carrot into strips, sprinkle with salt, and squeeze out the moisture when they become tender.(2) Cut the vinegared horse mackerel into thin strips.(3) Mix 1 and 2 and dress with sweet vinegar.(4) Arrange in a bowl, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and top with matsuba yuzu citrus.
6. 6. [Chestnut rice](1) Boil chestnuts in boiling water for 1 minute, peel off the skin and the inner astringent peel, and cut into 1／2 pieces. (2) Boil the adzuki beans in plenty of water for 2 to 3 minutes and get rid of the scum by temporarily discarding the water. Put adzuki beans and enough water to cover the adzuki beans in a pot and bring to a boil, then lower the heat and hard boiling the beans a little. Repeatedly scooping the broth from the adzuki beans with a ladle and letting it from fall from as high a point as possible will result in a bright broth.(3) Separate the adzuki beans from the water. (The amount of water is about 60% of the glutinous rice.) Separate 1.5 cups of the boiled adzuki bean water and add 1／3 teaspoon of salt. Wrap the boiled adzuki and salted water in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator.(4) Soak the glutinous rice in the cooled stock overnight so it can fully absorb the liquid. (5) The next day, heat up the steam cooker.(6) Spread the drained glutinous rice on a steaming rack lined with a steaming cloth (fukin), cover with a lid, and steam over high heat for about 20 minutes.(7) Remove the glutinous rice from the steaming cloth and place it in a bowl. Pour over the bean water that was put to the side in step 3, and return it to the steamer rack. Sprinkle chestnuts and adzuki beans on top and steam over high heat for another 20 minutes.(8) Remove the steaming cloth from the steamer and cool in a rice cooker. Place in a bowl and sprinkle with sesame salt (white sesame)
7. 7. [Clear broth soup](1) Peel and grate yam and mix it with the drained and mashed tofu. If the mixture is too loose, add flour to adjust the consistency. (It should have a gloopy texture.)(2) Spoon the mixture into the oil and deep-fry until the surface turns brown.(3) Add the soaked dried shiitake mushrooms to the broth and heat, then season with light soy sauce, salt and sake.(4) Put the two yam dumplings and shiitake mushrooms in a bowl, cover with the broth, and garnish with boiled mitsuba leaves and matsuba yuzu citrus.
8. 8. [Grilled salted sardines for New Year's Eve](1) Grill the salt sardines on a grill etc., but be careful as the tail burns easily. (2) Arrange the dish on a bed of sawara cyprus leaves and garnish with citrus rings.

## Provider Information
provider : Teruko Fujimoto

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