MOTOism: Natto Brie Dip

I've made quite a few dishes using natto (fermented soy beans) in the past years -- from Natto Moffin to sweet Natto Sandwich. If you like natto, it's good with everything (almost), but if you hate natto, you wouldn't understand any of my creations. That's ok, I proudly HATE cilantro myself and I refuse to eat any dish that contains cilantro.

Anyhow, as is often the case with natto, this dish smells pretty funny, since I am combining cheese (fermented) with natto (also fermented) together.  But it's quite nice and it's very good with crusty bread.

INGREDIENTS



1 round brie
1 pack of natto (use the sauce and mustard pack as well)
1 stalk chopped scallion
1 tsp miso
0.5 tsp each of cooking sake and mirin

METHOD

First make natto with all the ingredients without the cheese by mixing them together. Make sure miso is completely mixed with everything else.



Usually you only use the sauce that comes with the natto pack, but since I am mixing this with cheese I added the miso/sake/mirin mixture to highlight the natto flavors.

Then cut off the top of the brie:



Discard the top part.

Push your thumb into the cheese to make indentations -- this is so that when you place the natto on top, it doesn't all slip off:



Put brie in a pre-heated 350˚F oven for about 5-7 minutes...



...until brie is soft but not completely melting:



Then pour natto over the brie:



Put this in broiler for about 2-3 minutes until you can smell the natto browning. Then it's ready!



It's super gooey:



Dip baquette into this and your snack is ready!



This is funky. Since both natto and cheese are fermented, it's a super umami explosion. Also, the strong natto taste subsides when mixed with melted cheese.

Natto is awesome.