Natto - Japan's Marmite

Natto

Just like marmite in the UK, natto is a food that divides opinions in Japan - you either love it or you hate it. So what exactly is natto? Basically, natto is made of soya beans fermented using natto yeast (bacillus subtilis) which I understand comes from rice straw. Natto is well known for its health benefits - if you want to find out more about this, you can find find lots of information on the internet - (personally, I make natto and I eat natto because I like it but it's nice to know it's doing your body good as well!) Natto's flavour matures after it's fermented. You can keep it for two weeks in the fridge and the flvaour will keep on improving. You can also freeze natto which means you can make a big batch and divide it into eat now and keep for later portions. Although most Japanese eat natto with a bowl of rice, there are other ways you can use it like Natton Linguine and Natto Maki sushi rolls. I'll be putting some other recipes on the blog in the coming weeks. But first, you have to have some natto. Of course, you can buy it but why not try to make your natto instead? It isn't really that difficult - it's a bit like yoghurt, it's easy to do but you have to wait for the result. If you're interested in making natto, the first thing you will need is some natto yeast (or natto spores as you'll also find them described on the internet). Alternatively, you could buy a pack of ready made natto and use that as your activator although I have to confess I always use natto yeast as a starter.

Next, you'll need some raw soya beans - you can buy these at most supermarkets or online. For the fermentation stage of making natto, I use my oven, which has a low temperature setting down to 30C. If you can't use your oven, I've heard of people using breadmakers or slow cookers - the key is to keep the soya beans at 38-40C for 20+ hours. You can find a written recipe by clicking Make your own Natto.

The Youtube video tutorial is here on the right, above.

I do hope you'll try this out - I know there are a lot of gimmicky features and videos showing people grimacing when they try natto but if you like rich, savoury flavours like blue cheese and marmite, you may well think natto is great too.

Happy fermenting! Kurumi XXXX.

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Ingredients:

450 g soy beans

0.1 - 0.2g natto yeast*

* the amount of natto yeast you need is tiny - it won’t hurt if you put a little more in though

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how to:

wash & rinse the soya beans 3 times under running water

next, soak the beans in a bowl under cover for 24 hours

drain the beans and steam for 40 - 45 minutes in a covered pan (but preferably in a pressure cooker)

meanwhile, use boiling water to sterilise a pyrex dish (or other container) a large spoon and a small glass

let the beans rest 15 - 20 minutes after steaming

take 25 ml of the steaming water and put it into the sterilised cup. add 0.1 - 0.2g of natto yeast to the water and mix

spoon the soya beans into the sterilised pyrex dish. then,

pour the natto yeast solution over the beans and stir gently with the sterilised sppon

cover the pyrex with clingfilm and pierce 10-12 times with a knife. then, push the clingfilm down to cover the beans

next, cover with another layer of clingfilm and pierce but this time leave the clingfilm covering the top of the pyrex

put the pyrex into an oven* and ferment the beans at 38-40C for 24 hrs

remove the dish from the oven. you can eat some your natto straight away if you wish but the beans will gain more flavour if left for a day or two in the fridge. your natto supply will last 7 - 10 days refridgerated.

*i use the oven method for fermenting but you can try other methods such as a slow cooker - the key is to keep the beans at a constant temperature to allow fermentation to take place

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hMR5AFQMFQ

How to Make your own Natto