Ozoni (New Year Mochi Soup)
Updated Jan. 10, 2024
- Total Time
- 3 hours 50 minutes
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 3 hours 40 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
Advertisement
Ingredients
Yield:8 servings
- 1ounce kombu
- 1¾ounces bonito (skipjack tuna) flakes (katsuobushi)
- 2cups soy sauce
- 1cup sake
- ½cup mirin
- ½cup granulated sugar
- 1(5-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and thickly sliced
- 2pounds pork belly without skin
- 6ounces mizuna, cut in 2-inch lengths, or spinach
- 8pieces fresh or thawed frozen mochi squares (see Tip)
- 3ounces fish cake (kamaboko), cut into 8 (¼-inch) slices
- 4scallions, thinly sliced
Preparation
- Step 1
In a large pot, combine 18 cups water and the kombu and cook over moderately high heat until barely simmering, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and let steep for 1 hour. Remove the kombu.
- Step 2
Bring the kombu liquid to a boil. Add the bonito flakes, turn off the heat and let steep for 5 minutes. Pour the kombu-bonito dashi into a clean pot through a fine strainer.
- Step 3
In a large saucepan, combine 4 cups of the strained dashi with the soy sauce, sake, mirin, sugar and ginger; whisk to dissolve the sugar. Add the pork belly and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to maintain a simmer and cook until the pork belly is tender, about 2 hours. Transfer the pork belly to a cutting board and let cool slightly. Cut the pork belly into 24 slices.
- Step 4
Meanwhile, cook the mizuna in a medium pot of boiling water for 1 minute. Drain and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking. Form the mizuna into 8 small bundles.
- Step 5
Assemble the ozoni: Bring the dashi to a simmer. In each of 8 bowls, arrange a mizuna bundle, a piece of fresh mochi, a slice of fish cake, 3 slices of pork belly and about a tablespoon of scallions. Pour the hot dashi on top and serve at once.
Tip
- If you can find only dried mochi, microwave it for 35 to 40 seconds until soft and stretchy.
Private Notes
Leave a Private Note on this recipe and see it here.
Cooking Notes
Chris from Utah
Often, recipes suggest that one discard this or that. The cooking liquid for the pork will be a bit greasy because of the rendered pork fat but very flavorful. I wouldn't use it in the ozoni as it would muddy the otherwise clean flavors. I would, however, save it as an umami addition to some other dish. Side note: When I strain my tomato soup, I put the solids in a dehydrator and grind the result for a delightful addition to my flavoring palate.
Marir
Does the cooking liquid for the pork get discarded?
r lee
Toasting the mochi is also a better move than microwaving! Also adding shredded chicken instead of pork belly is what some families do
Erika
As I read this, the dashi broth is made first, with the kombu and the bonito. After straining the solids out of the dashi, four cups of that liquid plus two cups of soy sauce and a bunch of other stuff (sake, mirin, etc.) are used in a separate pot just to cook the pork belly. The cooking liquid for the pork belly doesn’t go into the finished soup; only the drained, cooked, sliced pork belly itself goes in. So the soup doesn’t contain two cups of soy sauce (or the sake, or mirin, etc.).
Bruce McLin (Ninomiya, Japan)
There are lots of versions of Ozoni, from those filled with lots of ingredients to those with only a clear soup. My wife (Japanese) makes her ozoni with a powder dashi plus soy sauce. Her version is from the northeast of Japan. More a stew than soup, it includes chicken tenders (I think that is what it is called in English), yatsugashira (a kind of yam), spinach, shitake, naruto (a kind of kamaboko), strips of carrot, then the toasted mochi. I look forward to this year New Years.
Misa
I don’t think what’s used to cook the pork belly goes into the zoni, it has too much flavor and fat in it. Save it for ramen!
kaoru watanabe
There are many regional variations of ozoni but putting pork belly in is definitely not common. If NY times is providing readers a glimpse into recipes from around the world, why not go with a standard version? (This is not one) Anyone can add whatever they want- you can add popcorn or ice cream for all I care- but the basic recipe should be given priority in this setting, no?!
Kelsey
Love the small bits of salmon in place of the pork... This ozoni broth is so good.
Bruce McLin (Ninomiya, Japan)
There are lots of versions of Ozoni, from those filled with lots of ingredients to those with only a clear soup. My wife (Japanese) makes her ozoni with a powder dashi plus soy sauce. Her version is from the northeast of Japan. More a stew than soup, it includes chicken tenders (I think that is what it is called in English), yatsugashira (a kind of yam), spinach, shitake, naruto (a kind of kamaboko), strips of carrot, then the toasted mochi. I look forward to this year New Years.
BFF
I wouldn't add the pork belly-- it's unnecessary and bad luck for the pig and our climate. The way you serve ozoni is either with a clear soup base or miso base (it's mochi soup, not pork soup). The first foods you enjoy in the new year should be with a clear conscience, that will set you up for a prosperous year!
Erika
As I read this, the dashi broth is made first, with the kombu and the bonito. After straining the solids out of the dashi, four cups of that liquid plus two cups of soy sauce and a bunch of other stuff (sake, mirin, etc.) are used in a separate pot just to cook the pork belly. The cooking liquid for the pork belly doesn’t go into the finished soup; only the drained, cooked, sliced pork belly itself goes in. So the soup doesn’t contain two cups of soy sauce (or the sake, or mirin, etc.).
Priscilla in Austin
2 cups of soy sauce?! The photo certainly does not look like it has that much.
Miso girl
Two cups of soy sauce are only for cooking the pork. They do not go in the finished soup. You don't add pork cooking liquid to the soup.
r lee
Toasting the mochi is also a better move than microwaving! Also adding shredded chicken instead of pork belly is what some families do
Bruce McLin (Ninomiya, Japan)
Agreed; toasting the mochi until it expands is the way to go. The hot soup softens the mochi further.
Misa
I don’t think what’s used to cook the pork belly goes into the zoni, it has too much flavor and fat in it. Save it for ramen!
Jeff S
No, the pork belly is for the soup base as well.
Marir
Does the cooking liquid for the pork get discarded?
Chris from Utah
Often, recipes suggest that one discard this or that. The cooking liquid for the pork will be a bit greasy because of the rendered pork fat but very flavorful. I wouldn't use it in the ozoni as it would muddy the otherwise clean flavors. I would, however, save it as an umami addition to some other dish. Side note: When I strain my tomato soup, I put the solids in a dehydrator and grind the result for a delightful addition to my flavoring palate.
Private notes are only visible to you.
Advertisement
