Authentic Japanese Cooking: New Year's Cuisine Part 2

The second of two episodes where we introduce Osechi-ryori, the special cooking for celebrating the new year in Japan. In this episode, we'll be focusing on items served inside of a traditional ju-bako box, in particular Chef Saito's own unique take on nishime and a colorful namasu salad. Nishime is a fairly common household dish, and for the new year, we'll be preparing it with shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, burdock root, and carrot, cut into shapes reminiscent of pine, bamboo, and ume plum trees, signs of good luck in Japan; each item is selected for its meaning, and carefully prepared. Because Osechi-ryori dishes have strong flavors to help them keep, our second dish, namasu salad, makes a great palate cleanser, with the slightly tart vinegar giving a light flavor to the daikon radish and carrot. We'll be garnishing it with yuzu citrus peel, which has the perfect fragrance for ringing in the new year.