Tori-Kan (Chicken Jelly)

Ingredients

• 2 pounds chicken flesh
• 0.5 pound seaweed jelly or gelatine
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• salt and pepper
• 0.25 pound dried mushrooms
• 1 cup mirin sauce

Instructions

1. Cook a young, tender chicken in boiling water until tender.
2. Remove the chicken from the liquid, take off all bones, and cut the meat into small pieces.
3. Remove stalks from the dried mushrooms and soak in lukewarm water for twenty minutes.
4. Cut the soaked mushrooms into small pieces and boil in about two cupfuls of water for twenty-five minutes.
5. Add the mirin sauce to the mushrooms and boil for about five minutes more.
6. Wash the dry seaweed jelly and soak for about two hours.
7. Remove the seaweed jelly from water, squeeze it dry, and break into small pieces.
8. Boil the seaweed jelly pieces in one quart of water until they dissolve.
9. Strain the dissolved seaweed jelly into another saucepan and add a pinch of salt and a tablespoonful of sugar.
10. Add the cooked mushrooms and mirin sauce to the seaweed mixture.
11. Mix all together with the chicken meat, salt, pepper, and spices.
12. Pour the mixture into a lacquered box, smooth wooden box, or mold.
13. Let the mixture set, then cut into slices for serving.