standing still

Yesterday (and today) something happened that NEVER happens . . . the University actually closed.

I woke up around 4am yesterday morning to howling wind and snow drifts in my back yard, but by midday, the sun was out and shining and the whole world was completely silent (we’re all trapped!)

Eve and I spent the day in extreme comfort, walking in the freezing weather and cooking.  A much-needed mental health day, just when my midterms were really starting to get to me.

And of course, in the wake of some neighborhood kiddies, sled tracks.

I returned to a cooking experiment I’ve been putting off, which turned out to take about ten minutes from beginning to end.  I am beginning to prepare and test recipes out for my おせち料理 for the New Year’s Eve dinner.  Here’s the product:

These little candied sardines are called tazukuri and, while I think they are absolutely delicious, nobody else in my house can stomach their fishiness!

About them, The Japan Times says:

The characters used to write tazukuri are the pictographs for “field” and the verb “to make.” Combined, they mean “to ready the fields for planting.” In tazukuri at New Year there is a play on tsukuri, another word for the first-course sashimi that generally begins a formal meal. Before refrigeration, in the inland areas where rice is cultivated, fresh sashimi-quality fish was not always available. Small gomame sardines — the same ones fishermen scatter in the waters as bait, as if sowing a “field” in the ocean — were dried, roasted and seasoned for special occasions to make “farmers’ sashimi” or “field tsukuri.”

SUPER EASY TAZUKURI RECIPE

~ 1 oz. dried sardines (ごまめ)

~ 1 Tbsp shoyu

~ 1 Tbsp sugar

~ 1 tsp mirin

~ 1 tsp white roasted sesame seeds

1. Scatter dried sardines in a dry skillet (cast iron works best for me) and cook on medium heat, stirring gently and often to prevent burning, until they begin to pop and can snap in half between your fingers.  Remove them from the pan and clean out any debris the fish have left behind.

2. Add shoyu, mirin and sugar to the pan and turn the heat back on.  When the sauce begins to thicken, throw the sardines back in and toss to coat.  Turn the heat off, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and remove tazukuri to a tray to cool (they will stick together if left in a pile, but it doesn’t affect the taste, just the presentation!)

Enjoy these as a jobina (side-dish) or on top of hot, white rice.  They are deliciously salty-sweet and extremely calcium rich.

And of course, we ended our wonderful day with the absolute best cookies my wife has ever made.  Bless these cookies.

Happy Holidays everybody and stay warm and safe!

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