イギリスでおせちを作る Making Japanese New Year food in the UK

イギリスではお正月に特別に食べる料理はありません。お正月らしく、ということで今回限りある材料で日本の伝統的料理を作ってみました。

There is no tradition of eating special food for New Year's Day in the UK. To create the atmosphere of a Japanese New Year celebration, I tried making traditional Japanese New Year food using the limited supplies obtainable here in the UK.

まず大みそかに長寿を願って食べる年越しそば。スーパーマーケットではそばが見つからず、色々な国の食材が置いている小さな自然食品ショップでようやく買うことができました。そば粉１００％のそば。でも香りはほとんどなく、ちょっとゴムみたいな感じでした（笑）。でもおいしくいただきました。

On New Year's Eve, we Japanese eat soba, buckwheat noodle, hoping for a long life. I couldn't find soba at any supermarket stores, but finally got it at a small natural food shop which sold food from diverse countries. It was made from 100% buckwheat but didn't have the normal smell and the texture was a bit like rubber, unfortunately. Anyway it turned out agreeable.

元旦にはおせち料理にチャレンジ。錦玉子、なます、筑前煮。大根がなかったのでなますにはセロリとにんじんを使いました。そして里芋、ごぼうも手に入らなかったので、代わりにサツマイモとにんじんと鶏肉で筑前煮らしきものを作りました。まあ気分だけでも、ということで。そしてデザートとして、栗きんとんならぬリンゴきんとん、アイスクリーム付。こちらのサツマイモはオレンジ色でした。オレンジ色でも金運よくなるのでしょうか。
ともあれ、全く違った料理を夫は楽しんでいました。おいしかったかは聞かないことにします。元々私はおせち料理なんてあまりおいしくはないと思っていましたが、日本を離れると食べたくなるから不思議です。おもちがないので芋団子でお雑煮も作ってみましたが、いまいち。やっぱりお正月にはおもちが食べたいものです。イギリスのクリスマスには欠かせないミンスパイのようなものでしょうか。

On New Year's Day, I made imitation special dishes, two colour egg, red and white pickles, and simmered chicken and vegetables. The pickles are supposed to be made from carrot and Japanese radish to provide red and white which are redolent of happiness, but I couldn't get radish so I used celery instead. Neither, could I find burdock roots or taros, so I made the simmered dish with carrots and sweet potatoes. Even though they were different from Japanese orthodox dishes, they still put me in a New Year mood. For dessert, I served a sweet potato paste and apple compote with ice cream, which is normally made from sweet potatoes and chestnuts and not eaten as a dessert. Here, sweet potatoes are not yellow, but orange. I hope the dish, which is supposed to be yellow to indicate gold, still brings us good luck with money.
My English husband seemed to enjoy the very different food, setting aside whether the taste was good or not.
I didn't like Japanese New Year food very much, but somehow, after leaving Japan, I miss it. I tried to make rice cake soup as well. Instead of rice cake, I used potato dumpling, which was not so nice. Rice cake is the taste of New Year for me, it may as important as mince pies are for Christmas in the UK.