Obaku Soft Barley Rice with Beans and Root Vegetables

Rinse 500g barley and soak in cold water for 3 to 4 hours.

Drain, cook with 800ml potable water on a grain or brown-rice setting, spread in a wide container, cool, and refrigerate.

Soak 125g red kidney beans in at least three times their volume of cold water for 8 hours and discard the soaking water.

Rinse 300g rice until clear and soak in 800ml potable water for 30 minutes.

Combine the soaked beans and 3L potable water in a large pot.

Bring to a boil, lower the heat, skim foam, and cook 40 to 60 minutes until a bean is only slightly firm at the center when pressed.

Cut 200g daikon into strips 2mm thick and 4cm long.

Peel potato, sweet potato, and taro, cut into 1.5cm cubes, and boil each separately for 8 to 12 minutes until tender but intact.

Add daikon and the cooked barley to the bean pot and simmer 15 minutes, scraping the bottom every 3 minutes.

When bean and daikon are nearly tender, add the soaked rice with all 800ml soaking water.

Keep low heat and scrape the pot bottom continuously with a long spatula for 25 to 35 minutes.

When rice is fully bloomed and stirring exposes the bottom for about 2 seconds, lower to minimum heat.

Add the boiled potato, sweet potato, and taro and fold bottom to top only four times without breaking them.

Warm 5 minutes, turn off the heat, and rest 10 minutes.

Thinly slice two long onions and mix with 200g miso, 10g bonito flakes, and 3g sugar for negi miso.

Divide obaku among twenty bowls and serve the seasoning separately for each diner to add.