Editor’s note: In the Taste of Life series, cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.

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“We get a lot of joy from going through the same familiar rituals every year,” says cooking expert Kazuko Goto about preparing for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

The busy era we live in can rob us of time to appreciate life’s milestones. When we see what is happening around the world today, we realize how challenging it is to retain the “same” state.

The words “be thankful for everyone’s safety this year” and “pray for a huge harvest during the coming year” become even more meaningful.

At the home of tea ceremony masters where Goto grew up, her family would have “ozoni,” a soup associated with New Year’s celebrations that contains rice cakes, while it was still dark on New Year’s Day.

Then her father, who was the head of the Mushakoji Senke tea ceremony school, prepared “obukucha,” a special New Year’s tea, using water drawn for the first time that year.

The family’s ozoni featured boiled round rice cakes, celebratory daikon radish, young satoimo yam and “yatsugashira” yam.

“Despite the cold, the thick ozoni soup with white miso was filling. Then we were served ‘koicha’ (thick tea). It tasted wonderful even to us children,” recalls Goto.

When dawn arrived, the refreshing sunlight would stream in through the ceiling window--all part of her memories of New Year’s Day.

After marriage brought her to Shizuoka Prefecture, Goto started cooking three kinds of ozoni during the first three days of the new year: the Kanto-style clear soup that her husband grew up eating; the Kyoto-style soup with white miso; and her original soup.

Goto says this is how she “expresses her hometowns and family history through cooking.”

From among the auspicious New Year’s dishes, this week Goto will introduce “tataki gobo” (pounded burdock) that will be useful throughout the year.

It is one of three celebratory dishes that are a must--along with ozoni. In some regions, “tatsukuri” (dried young anchovies coated with syrup), “kazunoko” (marinated herring roe) and “kuromame” (sweet black soybeans) are eaten on New Year’s, but in Kyoto, it is “tataki gobo” instead of kuromame. 

It is said that the dish is meant to train the teeth. The refreshing sesame vinegar dressing goes well with the aroma of burdock.

The cooking process is not complex. The key to turning out a dish that looks nice is cutting all the burdock the same length and not squashing the surface by pounding it too strongly.

The dressing is designed to taste the best the day after it is made, as part of the New Year’s feast. If you intend to eat it right away, increase the amount of seasoning a little.

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Kazuko Goto is a cooking expert and vice chairman of the Washoku Association of Japan. Her mother, Sumiko Sen, was also active as an expert on “kaiseki ryori,” the meal served to guests before a tea ceremony. Goto has written books including “Cha-kaiseki ni manabu hibi no ryori” (Daily Dishes Inspired by Tea Ceremony Meals).

BASIC COOKING METHOD

Main Ingredients (For an easy amount to make)

300 grams burdock (gobo) on the thin side, 3 Tbsp white toasted sesame (shiro-iri-goma), 2 tsp each of sugar and light-colored soy sauce, 1 and 1/3 Tbsp rice vinegar.

1. Wash the burdock. Remove dirt on the surface by scrubbing lightly. It is convenient to work under running water. Cut burdock into pieces that fit the pot.

2. Place burdock in pot and cover with water, add bit of vinegar (not listed above) and place on heat. When pot comes to a boil, turn to medium heat and cook for about 10 minutes to desired softness. Drain in colander.

3. When burdock is no longer piping hot, place two to three pieces on cutting board. Lightly tap the root ends with a pestle to break apart the flesh. Cut into 3 to 4 cm lengths. Cut thicker parts into quarters lengthwise and thinner parts in half likewise.

4. To make the dressing, place white sesame seeds in mortar and grate by moving pestle in a figure 8. Grate only halfway so sesame seeds retain some shape. Add sugar, light-colored soy sauce, rice vinegar and grate further.

5. Dress burdock.

About 340 kcal and 1.9 grams salt per portion
(Nutrient calculation by the Nutrition Clinic of Kagawa Nutrition University)

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From The Asahi Shimbun’s Jinsei Reshipi (Life Recipe) column