Recipe: Candied Chestnuts in Sweet Potato Mash or Kurikinton (Patreon)

The New Year is right around the corner and in Japan that means osechi ryouri (御節料理), or all those very curious and meaningful dishes to be eaten January first, second, third...until the stores open and people can get sushi and pizza again. 

That sounds like I'm poking fun, but everyone I know here makes the same joke. Osechi is to be eaten little by little for several days. But even older folk comment that it's great when you first open the jubako (重箱)  (kind of square obento boxes), but by day three everyone, especially all the grandchildren who have come to visit, are wanting something a little different. In this area sushi and pizza make a killing around this time.

Another thing that seems to be ubiquitous is everyone's love of kurikinton (栗金団). While nothing is really called a dessert in osechi there are some dishes that are more sweet than others, like the boiled sweet black beans (黒豆) and nishiki tamago (錦卵) (a sweet egg roll thing that is quite good, too), and, of course, the star: kurikinton.

Chestnuts are quite expensive and arguably the best part of the dish. So it seems to be a thing for people (kids?) to pick them out and eat them so that by day three there is only sweet potato mash left and boy does that make some people mad. You kind of want a big lump of kurikinton so you can dig through and find the chestnut. 

Anyway, the geranium pod (kuchinashi) adds a gorgeous golden color and the whole dish is supposed to symbolize wealth and good fortune in the coming year. 

ETA: I just gave some to my two older lady students. They might have just been being nice but they really, really liked it. I told them about how I'd found and old recipe but thought there was too much sugar and they laughed and said, 'yeah, old recipes are always too sweet or salty. It was how things were preserved.' 

Ingredients: 

Sweet potatoes (satsuma imo) - 500 grams give or take

            Note: there are a variety of super sweet sweet potatoes called anno imo. I would                        have loved to have used these, but we can't find them very often. 

Sugar - 100 grams (about a half a cup)*

Mirin - 2 tablespoons (makes shiny)

Pinch of salt

Candied chestnuts - about 12 but more or less is fine with some of the sweet syrup

Kuchinashi no mi (gardenia) - 2 pods, for bright golden color (can use food dye, too)

*The original recipe called for 300 grams of sugar! I did 200 grams (1 cup) and found that too sweet as well and ended up adding more potatoes. I wrote half a cup in this recipe and recommend adding more (or the chestnut syrup) to taste.  

Peel and chop the sweet potatoes into pieces. With two smashed open kuchinashi gardenia pods, boil until soft. Kuchinashi is used for its pretty golden color, if you can't find it, you can add a couple drops of yellow/golden food coloring later. 

Kuchinashi whole pot and smashed.

Once soft, remove the kuchinashi, but save some of the water (it should be a bright yellow). Put the potatoes in a bowl and traditionally you smush the potatoes through a sieve-like thing (photo). I used a real sieve here. But it's a little labor intensive. I found some recipes that said you could just mash them up with a potato masher or do in a cuisinart. (Note: I did a batch with a mashed potato masher and it worked fine, maybe a little lumpy).

Back in a pot add the mashed up potatoes and the sugar along with some of the water from boiling and some of the sweet syrup from the chestnuts. I probably added 3 tablespoons of each. Here you can adjust for taste, too. Kurikinton's consistency is like stiff mashed potatoes. So you don't want to added too much. But it does thicken somewhat when it cools.

Boil on low heat, melting the sugar and mixing well. I used a whisk to keep it moving and make it smooth. Add the pinch of salt and two tablespoons of mirin. Mix well. Turn off heat. Add in the chestnuts, saving a few to cut in half and use for topping. 

Tadah! 

Chestnuts are super expensive here. That little bag of 12 cost about 7 bucks. But if they're not expensive where you are are, I've seen some versions of this recipes where you chop them up (or make a paste with) some of the chestnuts to add to the sweet potato mash.