Daikon Stew... soup...

I'm trying a new recipe tonight with my daikon radish I purchased.
Sounds lovely and I had almost all of the ingredients (vegetable broth instead of bullion, I actually added a bit of beef bullion for more consistency anyway).

Check it out:

Rice Stew with Daikon (Daikon Zosui)

2 ½ cups cooked short-grain rice* (I used long, oh well)
¾ cup shiitake mushrooms*
1 ½ cups daikon (about a four-inch-long chunk), sliced as directed*
¼ cup carrots, sliced as directed*
5 cups vegetable stock (4 cups vegetable broth)
1 teaspoon salt* (or 1 ½ tablespoon beef bullion rather)
2 ½ tablespoons soy sauce* (I used mushroom soy, m'mmm)

Optional:
½ cup Wakame, soaked five minutes in cold water to cover, then chopped into one-inch long pieces (do discard soaking water)

Peel the daikon and carrot, and slice into two-inch-long by one-half-inch wide ribbons that are no more than one-eighth-inch thick. Thinly slice the shiitake mushrooms also. Heat the stock in a soup pan with the daikon and carrot, and cook until the vegetables have softened, around 10 minutes. Add the cooked rice, mushrooms and wakame, and bring to the boil again, stirring occasionally. Stir in salt and soy sauce. Eat hot. Partners well with Daikon Pickles. (Note: Be careful not to cook the rice too long; otherwise, it will end up the unappetizing consistency of glue. [LIES! I've never had that happen!])

Reaction:
Mmm, soup. Some people like raw daikon, but I don't. I used to love popping radishes until one day at a party I popped one too many in my mouth and they started burning my throat, thus ended my relationship with the little red and white taproot. Daikon are much the same. It's that same pungent, raddishy taste in the back of the mouth every time, even though daikon are less strong and are sweeter. But when boiling them in a soup, the radish taste diffuses in the soup and it becomes soft and picks up the flavors of the spices and seasonings used instead. I'm not sure what the directions mean by "ribbons" of daikon, but I plained, and diced them nicely.

The directions also call for seaweed (wakame), but I opted against. It somehow didn't feel included in this dish, like it were more or less an afterthought. It doesn't bode well with the savory aspects of the mushrooms, soft daikon, soft carrots, vegetable taste, etc. As an added bonus I put in some chili and garlic sauce in addition to my mushroom soy, but I can barely make out either.

Enjoy! Serves four, goes well with fish!

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(Pictured: Nerima Daikon Brothers)