4th Koji-- success!

After three attempts, I feel I have mastered tomo-koji method. My Denby enameled cast iron pot proved to be good enough an incubator for koji, so far as I am using tomo-koji method.

This time, I have put another moist tea towel (microwaved for sterilization and put into the bottom of the pot in order to give extra moisture. My steamed rice in my linen tea towel went on top of that wet towel and, well, it seems my koji seems to love it there.

For the first time I experienced koji emanating heat. Very, very excited.

Three koji making attempts summary

I tried to make koji three times in the last month.  Here are a few things that I learned.

1. Keeping moisture right is more important than keeping temperature warm. 
2. I should not worry too much about temperature being too cold. I just need to wait longer. Higher temperature, on the other hand, is a sure way to killing oryzae.
3. Once I see white mould coming out ("blossoming" or "budding" as it is traditionally called-- rather beautiful, isn't it?) I should mix koji and rice very well.
4. Then I should really, really keep it alone. In my first attempt, I kept mixing it too much. The books said that I should mix koji well as they start to produce heat themselves, but in a small scale operation of one enameled pot, my koji didn't really become that hot. Also we are talking about growing koji in winter without a particular attempt to keep heating on.
5. And I should leave it alone.
6. And leave it alone.

I also picked up tips here and there.

1. If my koji is patchy just like my last attempt, I shouldn't worry too much. It is not perfect, but it still is a koji. I need to give it more time to do its job. i.e. longer maturation time for miso, for example.
2. Well made koji should NOT taste sweet.
3. Smell and judge if your attempt is right, but if in doubt, make amazake.

My next goal is to try and make my koji good enough on its own to be the next batch's "mother".

photo from flickr: fo.ol

Coping with Failure 2

The last post was about my third attempt at making koji. Now, what happened to my second failure?

Before talking about my second koji,　here is what I tried to do with my second attempt.

First, I tried to use my little rice cooker rather than steaming my rice. Following Mr Yamada's recipe, I thought I would be able to prepare dry enough rice by using less water in a rice cooker. Then, instead of wrapping the rice in a clean tea towel, I have directly put it into a plastic container and wrapped the container with towel to keep it warm. My first attempt failed as there was not enough moisture, so this time, I went for a lot of moisture in a full swing.

The result was koji mixed rice too soggy to become a proper dried koji. If anything, it smelled and tasted like very condensed amazake, slightly sour.

After 3 days of gazing and marveling at this,  I decided to mix the whole thing with hot water and keep it warm overnight. The result was amazake alright, which also means that my clumsy attempt at koji making did not, at least, develop wrong sort of mould on my rice.  The books tell me if I am not sure if my koji is alright, take some and make amazake. If I can make sweet amazake, without strange smell or taste, I have something edible there.

OK. I do have amazake alright. Now the question is if I would put any yeast in this hot, sweet concoction.

It is not at all like the refinement of proper sake, but I do taste something akin to junmai sake (pure rice sake) in this failure no.2 amazake.

36 hours later

With much trepidation, I opened my pot. Koji has grown well--- at least in parts. I could see in some parts, the rice grains are covered by velvety white fur. In other parts, they are white, but still retained some opaque texture. The rice seemed to be mostly stuck together and in one place, overgrown koji was beginning to turn yellow-- when that happens, it will become unsuitable for making sake, though suitable for miso paste. While it is still 'young' with white fur, koji is full of amylase and thus has more power to change starch into sweetness. When koji turns yellow, it starts to have more protease , thus acquiring the smell not desirable in sake but ability to change protein into  what we recognise as 'nice taste'.
As I used brown rice koji, the result had a little brown rice here and there.

Now, I am ready to try what Yoichi Yamada had taught us in his How to Make Doburoku a la Champagne in your Kitchen (in Japanese).

I cooked 3 cups of rice with water for 2 cups of rice as he suggested. When the rice was ready, I added a liter of chilled boiled tap water, which brought down the temperature.　I boiled tap water as chlorine is supposed to interfere with fermentation.

Then I mixed 200g of my own home made koji.

After adding some wine yeast, I wondered--- I am supposed to give some lactic acid bacteria so that harmful bacteria would not grow in my brew. That's what the book says but I don't have any.

Well, in goes two table spoon full of ASDA's Greek yogurt.

Now it's sealed again in my pot. Should ferment at least for 4-5 days in current climate, I guess.

The rest of the Koji are stored in my Tupperware. I am hoping to mature it a bit more and make miso paste.

24 hours later

This is a photo from the first attempt 24 hours later.
Some grains started to have white bits. So far, not much difference.

Third attempt

I soaked rice in water overnight. Drained it for about an hour.  Steamed it for an hour. Mixed it with 100g Genmai Koji (Brown Rice Koji).

This time, I will be using enamelled cast iron casserole. From the past experiences, I have taken a clean tea towel and dampened it with water, rung the excess water off and put it microwave to sterilise. This will be wrapping the koji rice giving it moisture required (I hope). I have put a hot water bottle below the pot and wrapped the whole thing in linen sheets.

Kitchen koji making

I want to make koji in my own little kitchen. Books talk about making incubators, koji boxes, or even koji making rooms. But none of that. At least at this stage of my life, everything has to be done within limited means. I have to be able to make koji as if I make my jars of jam.

Making things at home shouldn't have to be difficult. Even while I was a full time working mother in Tokyo I made British style bacon ( or approximation of it) at home.
And women do seem to make koji everywhere. I found Japanese women making koji in Greece, in Germany as well as, of course, in Japan. But what interest me the most are women making koji in Europe. They are working in similar environment to my own. While Japanese women talk about kotatsu, they talk about how to use bread proofing oven.

Koji attempt no.1

Saturday night. I washed 3 cups of rice very, very well. Put it in a big bowl of water.
Sunday morning. Sieved the rice. Went to church.

When I came back, steamed rice for an hour, cooled it to 35c , mixed it with 100g of brown rice koji. After much consideration, I wrapped it up in a dry tea towel and put the whole thing into my thermal cooker to keep temperature right.

3 hours later, I checked the temperature. Too cold! I put just a bit of 40c water at the bottom of the outer pot.