June 30th: "Nagoshi Gohan" (Summer Purification Meal) - One Soup, Three Dishes
Time flies, and half of 2024 has already passed.
The Nagoshi no Harae (Summer Purification) on the last day of June
The Nagoshi no Harae on the last day of June is a Shinto ritual to purify the body and mind of the impurities accumulated over the past six months and to pray for good health. At shrines, the "Chinowa Kuguri" (passing through a reed ring) is performed to purify these impurities and pray for good health for the remaining six months of the year.
At shrines, the Chinowa Kuguri is performed to purify the impurities of the past six months and pray for good health for the remaining six months..
This year, too, I made Nagoshi Gohan on the last day of June for lunch.
The tea for the tencha is definitely rooibos tea!
But!
It actually goes really well.
so I included a fish dish in my one-soup, three-dish menu.
Nagoshi Gohan Menu
・Tencha: Multi-grain rice with vegetable kakiage, grated ginger, and a pinch of salt when eating.
・Miso soup with fresh wakame seaweed and kale stems.
・Grilled silver salmon marinated in shio-koji and plum wine.
・Celery, myoga ginger, and cherry tomato wasabi-ponzu salad.
・Pickled cucumber and cabbage core in rice bran (nukazuke).
Red onion, yellow zucchini, asparagus,
orange and yellow bell peppers.
I put the thickly julienned vegetables into a bowl,
sprinkled rice flour over them and mixed,
then added a batter of shio-koji, water, cake flour, and rice flour, mixed lightly, and fried them.
For the frying oil, I used rapeseed oil with a little sesame oil added for fragrance.
A marinade made by adding alcohol (wine, shochu, plum wine, etc.) to shio-koji or soy sauce koji is so convenient.
I was out of white wine, soI marinated it in plum wine and shio-koji.
Soy sauce koji is also delicious, but
I wanted to preserve the salmon color, so I used shio-koji.
Thinly sliced myoga ginger, radishes, and celery with
cherry tomatoes and red radish sprouts,
tossed simply with wasabi, soy sauce, and yuzu juice.
The recipe calls for ponzu, but this is delicious enough as is.
and decorated with it.
The nukazuke are cabbage cores and cucumber.
Cabbage cores are actually quite good when pickled in rice bran.
I marinated the silver salmon from the night before and started the nukazuke the day before, but everything else I made on the day.
The vegetable kakiage takes a bit of effort, but I don't think it's too much of a big deal for meal preparation.
I set the dishes on the table and say, "Itadakimasu."
Ah, I'm glad I was able to eat Nagoshi Gohan again this year.I thought, and as I ate the tencha, I sprinkled a little salt on it,Ah, I've received the blessings of early summer!I felt a modest joy on this last day of June.
My recommendation! Rooibos tea-steeped rice.
I love this recipe so much!
You can arrange it in many ways, and tencha is of course delicious, but my absolute favorite isItalian-style tea-steeped rice!
with black pepper, capers, and Italian parsley,
Italian-style ochazuke
It's exquisite.
This year, the day after the Nagoshi no Harae (Summer Purification) is Hangesho (Summer Solstice minor term).
Octopus for Hangesho! For the first time in a while,
Galician-style octopus, maybe I'll make that...
✳︎The recipe is here↓