Renkon (lotus root) has been part of our family’s New Year’s buffet for as long as I can remember. It’s not something that I chose to eat. But it’s one of the dishes that my late father very much enjoyed so Mom would make it for him every year. We’d joke that my not eating it meant there was that much more for him.

Last year was the first time my mother wasn’t able to make osechi ryori for the family and I decided to cook the Japanese dishes. I was obsessed with having renkon, which I’d never made. I sat with Mom and she told me what to do. I wrote the recipe in a notebook of her recipes. Being a good cook, she does so much by taste with nothing or only generalities in writing.

It was Mom approved so I made it again this year in honor of Dad.