Making soy miso

Now that I have something looking like passable koji, I decided to embark on miso making!

It is a wonderfully versatile seasoning/condiment and vital to Japanese food. Though Japanese ingredients have started to be more popular in British supermarkets, they  rarely go as far as miso. I need some!

The standard recipe is pretty simple:

 dried soy:koji:salt (2:2:1)

But, as I am starting to find out, nothing is ever simple. There are countless variations. More koji means you will have a shorter maturation time, sweeter miso, but you need to be careful not to let it go off. I know barley and some pulse based koji can make really wonderfully rich miso, but I used my white rice koji for this one because, well, it's the only type I have.

Method

I soaked soy beans overnight and boiled them in a pressure cooker. It took about 25 minutes to make them so soft that I could squash them with my fingers easily. The pressure cooker did help. Without one, you could easily be spend 5 hours before reaching the right softness.

Once cooked, I drained the beans. Keep some of the water---it is full of soy goodness and you use it in order to adjust softness of miso.

While cooking the beans, I mixed salt and koji well--- this is called Shiokiri-koji.

My book told me to mash the cooked beans using a mortar and pestle. I used a food processor. The end result was like hummus (was tempted to mix in lemon and garlic!)

I mixed the paste with the Shiokiri koji (koji-salt mixture) very very well.  My seven-year-old insisted on 'helping' at this stage. It tasted like increadibly salty hummus.

The books said I should keep it in a barrel or a container and make sure that there is no air. Apparently air is the biggest cause of failed miso making, allowing unwanted mould to grow.

My problem: no container of exactly the size for the amount of paste I made.  But why not a ziplock? (Or an Ikea approximation of one?) My theory is that the ziplock might also make it easier to spot and squeeze out air pockets in the thick paste that might go unnoticed in a traditional pot. We'll see if I am right.

Now, I just have to wait 6-9 months until it matures and I will have miso! The most versatile of seasonings/ condiments. I could even mix it with a bit of tomato ketchup to make a quick pizza sauce. Used in moderation, its nutty, cheesy flavor adds depth into most bland tomato sauces. But that is only one of a myriad of uses.