Book Review – Scott

Koji – Peaso

It started with stopping by a shop in Oakland called Preserved. A great shop for lots of DIY home cooking projects. Fermenting, canning, and all kinds of fun methods can be found in the books of the shop and the ingredients and tools to are there too. I had heard about this magical thing called Koji. It’s a major player in Japanese cuisine and having a new day in the sun due to some creative chefs using it in new ways. Koji-tane is the base form and spores of this fungus. The fungus is grown on rice, barley or a number of different grains. The fungus, Apergillus oryzae, is fairly easy to grow on grains in the right environmental conditions. A temperature and humidity controlled fermentation chamber is best.

I thought a good entry into Koji was to buy the rice or barley and go from there. I made Shio-Koji which can be used as a marinade to up the umami of things. If you’ve had Japanese Karaage, fried chicken, you may have tasted this special umami and not known what it was. After cooking my first shio-koji marinaded chicken I immediately recognized the flavor. I was hooked.

Just then I heard David Zilber on Fresh Air with Terri Gross. He was all about the Koji. He spoke gloriously about the spore that is essential in Japanese food. It’s used to make Miso, Sake, soy sauce and amazake. Fortunately he’d just written a whole book about fermenting, including extensively about Koji.

I ordered the book and worked with purchased Koji-Rice and Koji-Barley. I made Koji oil, Koji lacto fermented water both of which I used in Thomas Keller’s quiche recipe. The onions are slowly wilted and never browned with thyme. The koji made these the best sautéed onions I’ve every tasted. They were just so delicious. I made Koji flour to bread fish with.

Buying already inoculated Koji-rice and barley got expensive so I finally set out to make a fermentation chamber. I had a lot of the supplies needed anyway from my days of meat curing. I already had a temperature controller that I bought way back when we lived in Hawaii to control my crock pot for my first Sous-Vide cooking. This was before there were affordable alternatives. I later used it to control my meat hanging fridge. I had a seedling heat mat. I just needed to order a small humidifier and humidity controller, a stainless steel perforated hotel pan and the Koji-Tase spores. Zilber suggests setting up in styrofoam cooler but I couldn’t find one of the right size so I first used a plastic storage bin. It didn’t work out great, so I switched to my oven. Once I learned that I needed to take out the light bulb or it would easily get too hot, it worked out fine. However, it means that my oven isn’t usable for 3-4 days. That’s OK, I have a toaster oven and a large microwave/convection to tide me over.

At this point I’ve made two batches of rice Koji and one of barley.

While my process is never complete at 48 hours like Zilber says it will be, I carry on and eventually get a nice growth of mold. What should happen is everything grows together into a mat of sorts. I sort of got that my second round of rice koji, but I’ve found that even with my less than optimal growth the koji is fine.

The whole reason I wanted to pursue the barley one was to make what Zilber calls Peaso. It’s miso made with yellow split peas instead of soy beans. I did not get the yield in weight from my barley koji so I had to supplement with rice koji to get enough to make the peaso. It ferments for 3-4 months and I’m so excited every time I check it. After just two weeks an amazing flavor had developed. As Zilber says it’s magical. It just smells so delicious when I open it up.

So, if you’re adventurous I would highly recommend getting some Koji rice and Zilber’s book and play. When you’ve played a little you can make your own by buying the spores and inoculating your own rice and barley. Other grains work too. I think some day I’ll try farro. That nutty grain should be great.

Sources

Koji Rice: https://chefshop.com/Cold-Mountain-Dry-Rice-Koji-P8772.aspx
This brand is also available locally at the Berkeley Bowl.
I imagine in Japantown in SF you’ll find Koji rice available too.
Amazon.com also sells koji rice.
Koji Rice & Barley: Preserved, 5032 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA 94609
Koji Barley: https://www.amazon.com/Rhapsody-Natural-Foods-Organic-Barley/dp/B01N03SLLN
Koji Kin: https://www.amazon.com/Koji-Starter-Steak-Sake-Spore/dp/B07KCLMY5H Koji Kin can also be used to quickly dry age a steak in just a couple of days. It was an interesting experiment, but not completely to my liking. Koji Kin is also known as Koji Tane. And possibly available in Japantown, San Francisco.

Moroccan Chicken

Well, yes I have made this many times. But it’s easy and comes out great every time. So when new people are around and I’m not feeling super creative the recipe comes out. It’s from The New Basics, which was published 1989. The book was a big hit and so many of us bought it. If you don’t own it, you can find it used on Amazon for very little money: Amazon.com (42 cents!)

A little bit of Google searching and you can find the recipe online too. But, this book is well worth having. The recipes are short and straightforward. They also turn out great, which means they were well tested. You might think them a bit dated, but I counter that delicious food never goes out of style.

Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Practical Pantry

Update: Cathy has just won the IACP award for Single Subject. See, I told you it was good.

Stop reading this and go order this book. Did you? I mean it. All six of you.

Cathy Barrow, a.k.a. Mrs. Wheelbarrow, was half of the duo that started #Charcutepalooza in 2011. I don’t remember how I got involved, but I’m pretty sure it was through Sean Timberlake of Punk Domestics. As one of our fearless leaders every month Cathy would post our challenge on her blog. These posts were always instructive and had a spirit of cheerleading us on to try some “scary” things, like hanging meat. The challenge grew, prizes were donated and over 300 bloggers joined in. I think around 30 of us made it through all 12 months. Cathy was a great help during that year.

Little did I know that she was also a writer for the New York Times, Washington Post and others, often about canning and preserving. Cathy’s too modest to brag about such things and I don’t always Google everyone I meet. The more I got to know, the more we found in common. Her blog posts have often inspired and enabled me to make things that have been on my cooking bucket list for a long time, like croissant dough. I recently bought canelle molds because of her.

So, her book. It’s really pretty and such a great all around reference for several subjects. Cathy makes everything straightforward and approachable for the novice or more experienced cook. One of the great things about the book though is the bonus recipes. So, you’ve made way too much jam? Make rugelach. You’ve got extra duck fat from making confit? Make a crust with duck fat. And if you make one, I guarantee it won’t be the last one. I’ve made two already. This crust rocks and is justification alone to buy this book. The crust is just amazing. It’s flaky and crispy and layered. It holds up after refrigeration even.

During #Charcutepalooza I got stuck on making Pancetta. It’s always in the house, along with Guanciale. I never did get around to making bacon because I feel so hard in love with Pancetta. This book got me out of my rut with Maple-Bourbon Bacon. OMG. Delicious! And it only takes 7 days. I’ve also got Cathy’s recipe of Pancetta Tesa hanging and a Guanciale curing in the fridge.

The book covers preserving and canning, charcuterie and cheesemaking. Plus recipes to use the items you’ve made.   I’m excited to try more recipes in this book. Do check it out.

The duck fat crust!

Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Sugar Snap, Carrot, and Radish Refrigerator Pickles

Are you into almost instant gratification? Do you like pickles? Mrs. Wheelbarrow, Cathy Barrow, has a recipe for you. It’s in her book Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Practical Pantry.

Make this recipe. It only takes a few minutes to throw together and the next day you’ll have delicious pickled vegetables.

I urge you to buy the book, but if you can’t wait for it to come, listen to Cathy with David Leite on The Splendid Table here. You’ll also find links there to the recipe.