01/07 Dinner: 七草粥

Today is nanakusa no sekku (festival of the seven herbs, also called jinjitsu or 'day of mankind'). These days it is mostly celebrated by eating nanakusa-gayu (rice porridge with the seven herbs of spring), and for a few days leading up to January 7th the supermarkets sell little packages of fresh herbs in the perfect amount for this dish. You can also sometimes find them as live herbs, planted together in a long-handled basket; presumably this is meant to be carried home so the family, nostalgic for the days when the herbs were foraged for in the fields, can 'pick' them.

The potted herbs were a bit too dear for me, so I went with the regular package. This is what it contained:

Pretty, aren't they? Can you count all seven? I can, but don't ask me to name them. I managed to identify them all in last year's post, but one year later I just can't remember which is which. After washing them I chopped them up and added them to the okayu I'd just made, along with a tiny bit of salt. And that was our dinner- simple and healthy, but we'll be starving in a few hours for sure. (I think most people have this for breakfast, but hey- I have a bad habit of always being late.)

I went into more detail about nanakusa-gayu last year, and posted the recipe as well. Do check it out at the link above if you're interested.

Tags: japanese food food cooking new years new year japan oshougatsu herbs seven holidays rice dinner

Comments

[santos.]

aaaah. i bought a very similar packet at my local japanese market, but it was just marked "eatabile herbs", i had no idea that there was more significance to it. thank you for the information! i may be a day late, but i shall definitely make some porridge with them.

[kat]

I love your photo of the herbs. We had nanakusagayu too. I served it with a salmon patty. :)
Enjoy the weekend.

[Amy]

It's a shame there wasn't more info on the package. Good for you for picking it up though- a mysterious package labelled "eatable herbs" would probably scare most people off.
I hope you enjoyed your okayu.

A salmon patty sounds much better than the leftovers I rounded up from the fridge to accompany with my okayu!