Here is my home made Osechi in 2023!

Japanese wives used to spend for about 3 days to prepare Osechi for New Year Celebrations.

Nowadays, many department stores and shops sell various types of osechi, and many people just buy them.

In the family where I grew up, my grandmother and mother worked together to make osechi from scratch at the end of each year and I loved to help them.
Even now that both my grandmother and mother have passed away, I still take pride in making handmade osechi every year and enjoy making osechi with my daughter and granddaughter, remembering how I made them with my grandmother and mother.
This year again, we spent lots of time making various kinds of osechi and celebrating the New Year with them.

Usually, an osechi stacked box consists of three tiers, called from the top “iichi no ju”, “ni-no-ju” and “san no ju”. The first layer contains festive snacks such as black soy beans（黒豆：sweet black soy beans) chestnut kinton (栗きんとん：sweet chestnuts with sweet potatos paste), tazuki (田作り：caramerized dried sardine), red and white fish cake (紅白かまぼこ) and datemaki　(伊達巻：rolled omelette).

 

The second layer contains grilled and vinegared dishes such as shrimp (海老), namasu (紅白なます：shureded and vinegared daikon and carrot).

The third layer contains simmered vegetables (煮しめ).

My mother trictly told me that as it was a festive meal, each tier should always contain an odd number of items and I still struggle to put the right number of items.

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