● Herring kelp rolls
This is high-quality kelp from Hokkaido. The powdery parts are removed with a scrubbing brush. If any powder remains, the soup will become cloudy during cooking and will not be cooked properly. This is a job that is not often done in the kitchen because the powder flies around so much that it turns your fingernails white.

The herring fillets are rehydrated in rice water. The herring used is not as tough as traditional real herring fillets, but it is not the soft type that is commonly sold in stores these days. The important thing about herring konbumaki is that the softness of the konbu and herring are integrated when the roll is completed. Since the konbu is softer than the herring, it is important that the konbu is not dissolved when the herring is completely softened.

The soaked herring is wrapped in two pieces of kelp. The kelp will become a little longer when it is soaked, so at this point, keep the kelp a little shorter. The kelp will also expand, so it is important not to wrap it too loosely or too tightly. You will need to wrap it so that the kelp will have the right thickness later, but this is quite difficult. When wrapping, place the seam facing down.

Once the konbumaki is wrapped, it is time to tie it up with dried gourd. The dried gourd is rubbed with salt and then rinsed with water to rehydrate. It is best not to rehydrate it too much, just enough to distribute the salt evenly. The konbumaki is tied, boiled, and boiled again, so it is best not to rehydrate it too much. The dried gourd is also used long, without being cut, to avoid waste, and is tied in a knot. The number of pieces per konbumaki varies depending on the store, but we generally use five pieces, so when tying it up with dried gourd, hold down the ends and tie the middle, both ends, and the area in between. Always wrap each part twice to tie it up. The first wrap can be tightly wrapped, but the second wrap should be a little looser, or fluffy. If you wrap it too tightly the second time, when the konbumaki rehydrates and expands it will turn like boneless ham and break, but if you leave it completely loose, it will fall apart while boiling. The knot must be on top to prevent the knot from being crushed under pressure. As I mentioned in the introduction, in the old days, people would tie the pillars together when building a house. Tying was also important in the context of marriage, which connects families.

Now we'll arrange the pot, but this time we make sure to leave some gaps between the pieces, and stack them in three layers, changing the direction. They're arranged nicely, but this is so that when they're done cooking, the broth will circulate well throughout. We've arranged them so that you can see the bottom of the pot from any angle. Even though there are three layers, the bottom and top should get the same broth circulating. You can pack the top a little tightly, but leave some space at the bottom and in the middle. You'll understand this if you boil it once and it will return to its original shape and become firm, so you want to leave some room to maneuver when that happens, imagining what the kelp will look like when it expands. Leave some room. That's why it becomes difficult to stack them in more than four layers.

Put this on the fire and boil it once, then turn down the heat just before it boils and boil it again. Unlike conger eel, herring produces a lot of fat, so boil it two or three times. Once it's boiled to a certain extent, add sake and dashi, and at the end add pickled plums and boil it again. Put a lid on and put a weight on it to apply some pressure, but it's quite difficult to adjust this pressure as it will change the way the kelp expands. If you don't put a weight on it, it will expand, but it's not as simple as just putting something on it; traditionally, the weight of a single brick has been considered the perfect weight.

The time to finish varies slightly depending on the condition of the kelp at the time and how soft the herring is. Just before it is done, it already tastes as good as commercially available kelp rolls that contain preservatives. However, we don't use any preservatives at home, so we need to make it a little thicker to make it last longer. The volume has increased a lot since I first decided on the pot, but ideally the bottom and top of the pot should be cooked the same way. The whole pot should be finished with the same firmness and taste. When I first decided on the pot, I imagined how much the broth would rise from the bottom of the pot when the kelp was softened, so I decided on the pot with some gaps. Also, when I wrapped it in dried gourd, I thought about how thick it would be when it was cooked and tied the dried gourd a little loosely. Now it's thick and just firm, but the dried gourd is still not torn anywhere. I imagined it growing a little bigger like this, so I decided on the pot and wrapped the dried gourd.

Conger eel wrapped in kelp
All the conger eels are split open here. The ingredients used for the konbumaki vary from year to year, but we always make them with herring, which keeps well. We also use meat or conger eel depending on the year, and change the filling almost every year. We use conger eel because, compared to filleted herring, which does not produce broth and has a simple taste, conger eel is fatty and produces broth from the ingredients, so it is popular with young people, and it is easier to make because it softens faster than herring. Conger eels are in season in the summer, but in winter they are fatty, and large ones like Matsushima conger eels are available. Large conger eels can be quite hard on the bones, but when made into konbumaki, the bones become soft.

◎This time, I made two kinds of konbumaki, using conger eel and herring, but herring is more difficult to make. Conger eel is grilled once, and it is unlikely to become hard, so it is not that difficult to make konbumaki. However, herring has a tendency to become hard when seasonings are added, and since it has been dried once, the flavor does not easily penetrate to the inside. The longer it is boiled, the more sugar is added, the harder it becomes, and conversely, the more konbu is boiled, the softer it becomes, so it is quite tricky to keep an eye on it. Different ingredients have different fibers, and the degree of soaking and the way of adding flavors such as sugar are different. It is hard enough to eat, the flavor penetrates to the inside, and the konbu is not dissolved. One point is to balance the three ingredients, dried gourd, konbu, and the ingredients inside, so that they are cooked to the same hardness in the end. Since it is boiled and dyed, it is cooked for about three days, but it cannot be cooked for more than that. This time it becomes a different food, and you lose the taste of the kelp and the ingredients inside. Whether it's herring, conger eel, or meat wrapped around it, the seasonings are all different, but osechi is not just about taste, it's also about preservation, so it's important to think about how to infuse the flavor deep inside so that it lasts for three days, and how much seasoning to use to achieve that.