Kagami Biraki Zenzai 2019

On the 11th of January in Japan is kagami biraki. Which is the breaking of the Mochi of the Kagami mochi, which literally means “mirror mochi rice cake,”. Kagami mochi is two round mochi, the smaller placed atop the larger, and a daidai Japanese orange with an attached leaf on top. You can buy plastic ones like this in many convenience stores leading up to New Years in Japan and inside you will find the Mochi rice cake. 

Today it is tradition to eat your rice cake often in a dish called Zenzai ぜんざい or Oshiruko お汁粉 a sweet azuki bean soup . Zenzai is a traditional Japanese dessert.  It’s a thick sweet soup consisting
of boiled azuki beans and often served with mochi (rice cake) or shiratama dango (  I had a delicious Zenzai in Kyoto on my last visit so this meal really takes my thoughts back there. Oshiruko is more watery in consistency.

This is a comforting dessert in Japan sold hot in winter and in the summer you can see similar desserts with sweet beans dango and agar jelly called anmitsu . See a previous post . Also I have a previous Zenzai post from 2017 but thought you might like to see this years .

I used sweet red bean paste in a pan simmered in some  water and added grilled Mochi and a sweet chestnut often used in Osechi which I had a few left over from.