Kiriboshi Daikon Natto!

Well as you may have already guessed from just the nature of this blog but I love Japanese food! One great find for me was Kiriboshi Daikon, which is simply dried strips of daikon radish usually mixed with dried carrot. It can be re-hydrated and stir fried or eaten any number of ways. I am lucky enough to have some that is hand made as well as home grown by some of my wife's family in a very rural and beautiful of Tochigi prefecture.

On one trip to Japan a friend gave me some natto from Ibaraki that was made with Kiriboshi daikon as well as soy beans and it has always been my favorite natto memory ... until now! I made some, using my standard natto method except that for the last 5 minutes of steaming the beans I added some re-hydrated, chopped Kiriboshi daikon. The result was amazing, the natto was richer, stronger and stickier than ever. A friend of mine gave me a (backhanded) compliment by telling me it tasted "like from a store". Ok I can live with that I guess, although I would like to believe that it tasted better!

Hey folks, feel free to comment or add your recipes or requests!

pjt