Kiriboshi - Daikon (Dried Shredded Daikon)

Hello,

Today, I found walnuts and miso paste in the freezer. I totally forgot about them! (There is a post about this walnut miso paste on June 14th, 2010 in this blog, thanks!)

Well, I found the sauce, but what should I make? I started to think and look around at the kitchen what I have inside of refrigerator, in the shelf and pantry...
Here I found some vegetables, soba noodles and package of KIRIBOSHI-DAIKON.

KIRIBOSHI-DAIKON is a dried shredded daikon radish. I would say that is probably one of my most favorites among Japanese dried ingredients. I use this for everything; various types of soup, salads, noodles, and simmering dishes...Preparation is so easy, you can soak it in water / luke warm water before use. But I always put directly into the pot when I cook soup or simmering dish. That way I always use their nutrients from the water.

They have very strong and unfamiliar flavor for people have never tried, so some(maybe many) people might think it's not so pleasant.

But! this is a great source of potassium, calcium, fiber, and iron. These are all very important nutrients for our diet, and you can take all those nutrients from one great ingredient.
Is it wonderful, or what?

That's of the reasons that I want to introduce this ingredients at my cooking class. And I actually used last month's class putting into Japanese style pilaf with other dried ingredients.