About Japanese Food: Shiruko - Sweet Mochi Soup

Japanese Food In the Spotlight | More Topics |   from Setsuko Yoshizuka   In the Spotlight Shiruko - Sweet Mochi Soup Shiruko or o-shiruko is a Japanese red bean soup with mochi rice cakes. It's sweet and is often eaten during the winter in Japan. There is a Japanese tradition called kagami biraki which literally means "opening the mirror." It actually indicates breaking of kagami mochi (a stack of two round rice cakes) which was placed in the house during New Year's holidays. Kagami biraki is held on January 11th, and the broken pieces of kagami mochi are cooked in various ways. The most commonly eaten mochi dish on this day is o-shiruko. If you don't have the time to make anko yourself, use a can of yude-azuki (boiled red beans) and make the soup. Shiruko Recipe              More Topics Japanese Sauce & Japanese Seasoning Japanese Food Pictures Japanese Drinks & Japanese Tea Japanese Holiday Food and Traditional Japanese Food Japanese Food Online Stores Introduction to Sushi Cooking Tempura Rice Porridge It's a Japanese custom to eat seven-herb rice porridge (nanakusa-gayu) on January 7th, praying for good health. Seven harbs include seri (water dropwort), nazuna (Shepherd's purse), gogyou (Cudweed), hakobera (Chickweed), hotokenoza (Nipplewort), suzuna (turnip), and suzushiro (daikon radish). Since rice porridge (okayu) is easy to digest, nanakusa-gayu is a perfect dish to eat after holiday feasts. Seven herbs are sold at supermarkets in Japan, but they might not be available in your areas. Try using radishes and some leaf vegetables as substitutes. Okayu Recipe   Japanese Recipe of the Week: Zoni - Rice Cake Soup Zoni is Japanese rice cake soup which is usually eaten during Japanese New Year's holidays. There are many different zoni recipes around Japan. In general, round mochi is used in western Japan, and square mochi is used in eastern Japan. This is how I cook zoni for my family. Zoni Recipe     Sponsored Links   Feeling Under the Weather? Evaluating Your Cold Symptoms How to tell when a runny nose is just a cold, and when it might be turning into something more serious and require a visit to the doctor. More> Japanese Food Ads Japanese Language Japanese Culture Schools in Japan Japanese Cooking Ice Cream Recipes Advertisement     Visit Related About GuideSites: Japan for Visitors Chinese Cuisine Japanese Language Asia for Visitors     Search About      Sign up for more free newsletters on favorite topics. You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed to the About Japanese Food newsletter as ignoble.experiment@ARCONATI.US. If you wish to change or remove your email address, please visit: http://www.about.com/nl/usgs.htm?nl=japanesefood&e=ignoble.experiment@ARCONATI.US About respects your privacy. Our Privacy Policy. Our Contact Information. 249 West 17th Street New York, NY, 10011 © 2010 About, Inc.