Koji Magic...Making Donabe Steam-roasted Amazake Salmon

I've blogged a number of postings about my homemade donabe-fermented amazake by now, because I love it so much and also because I want more people to know about its remarkable health benefits.

Amazake, is essentially a product of koji culture, and koji doesn't only bring health benefits to your body, but also makes food tastier (with its natural umami flavors) and more tender.  I like marinating fish filet in koji.  The process is very simple.  You just season fish filet with relatively generous amount of salt and leave for 30 minutes to let it sweat.  Once you wipe off the moisture released from the fish, just marinade it in undiluted amazake for 1-2 days.

Here's my 24-hour marinated amazake salmon filets in my microwavable donabe steam-roaster, "Tochinsai".  In just 3 minutes in the microwave, super tender steam-roasted amazake salmon was ready.  Magic of Koji, and magic of Tochinsai.

Happy donabe life.

Home-brew Sake-kasu x Shio-koji x Sun-dry veggies = Umami Souffle

With my sun-dried vegetables and mushrooms, I've been enjoying making souffle-style dish.

Sun-dry vegetables (such as zucchini & asparagus), as well as my usual sun-dry mushrooms are packed with developed umami flavors. The texture becomes much nicer after 1-2 days of sun-bathing.

So, what I came up with was...first, I saute and steam-fry these sun-dried veggies & mushrooms with onion and garlic. Then, I add boiled potatoes and kale.

Once all the vegetables are cooked, I put them in a food processor along with my home-brew sakekasu & shio-koji to puree! Then, the pureed vegetables are mixed with eggs, shredded Gruyere cheese, and some nutmeg.

The mixture is put in a baking dish and cooked in oven for 25-30 minutes at 450F.

My umami-packed vegetable souffle is served with 4:1:1 (Greek yogurt/ shio-koji/ amazake) sauce. Heavenly.

Here's my recipe:

Sun-dried Vegetable Souffle

Ingredients

2 medium-size (about 6 oz) zucchini, sliced and sun-dried for 1 full day

8 oz asparagus, cut and sun-dried for 1 full day

6 oz king oyster mushrooms, sliced and sun-dried for 1 full day

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 oz onion, thinly-sliced

2 cloves garlic, thinly-sliced

2 tablespoons sake

3-4 oz kale, sliced

10 oz potatoes boiled

1 tablespoon shio-koji

2 oz Swiss cheese, grated

3 eggs

a pinch nutmeg

Procedure

1. In a saute pan, saute onion and garlic in olive oil until the onion is soft. Add zucchini, asparagus, mushrooms, and stir. Add sake and cover. Let them steam-fry for 3-4 minutes.

2. Uncover and add kale and cooked potatoes. Cover again and steam-fry until kale is cooked through. *Add some water if necessary.

3. Once the moisture is reduced down to almost nothing, turn off the heat. Let them cool down for 5-10 minutes.

4. Transfer the cooked vegetables to a food processor and puree.

5. In a large bowl, whisk eggs and add a pinch of nutmeg. Add the pureed mixture and stir well. Add the cheese and stir again.

6. Transfer the mixture to a large-enough baking dish and cook in the 450F oven for 25-30 minutes or until it's done.

7. Serve with "4:1:1" sauce (mentioned above), or your choice of accompaniment(s).

Happy koji life.

Roasted Beets with Creamy Koji Sauce

Another koji recipe...super simple, healthy, and delicious it is.

For this creamy koji sauce, I blended 4:1:1 of Greek yogurt, shio-koji, and donabe-fermented amazake base.

I simply spread some sauce on a plate, and arranged roasted beet cuts over. They were sprinkled with some roasted pistachio and shiso leaves and some avocado blood orange oil was drizzled.

This sauce is extremely versatile, so you can use it for so many different recipes.

Happy koji life. Happy donabe life.

Donabe-roasted "Yaki-imo" with Green Tea Koji Cream Spread

My kind of snack one day...

I simply roasted a satsuma yam (Japanese sweet potato) in my tagine-style donabe, "Fukkura-san", over medium-high heat on gas stove top. Because this donabe is safe for dry-heat cooking, and also because it promotes natural FIR (Far-Infrared Radiation), it makes wonderful "Yaki-imo" (roasted yam). I just put a yam on a grate and covered with wet lid (which gives steam-effect during roasting), and let it cook for nearly 60 minutes to achieve extra density in the interior of the yam.

The result...just as I expected! It was so dense and sweet inside. I served it with my koji spread (2:1:1 cream cheese/ shio-koji/ amazake base + a little green tea powder). It was a match made in donabe heaven.

Happy donabe life.

Donabe cooking class report…"Power of Koji"

Last Saturday, we hosted a special "Koji" class, and it was so much fun!

I've been crazy about koji and have been making my own miso at home past years. I've also hosted miso-making classes since then. And, this time, we had a new Koji theme class, which were "Shio-koji" and "Amazake".

Koji is right now a huge food trend in Japan, although Japanese food culture have been heavily based on koji products for hundreds of years. People are rediscovering the amazing flavors and health benefits this "magic mold" brings to your body. So, I really wanted to introduce more about koji and koji dishes to people in LA, too.

Everyone made his/her own shio-koji.

They also tried my 10-day shio-koji. We used American koji to make shio-koji today, but we also used Japanese koji (fuzzy and semi-dry kind) to make amazake.

We tasted 4-day marinated shio-koji tofu, and freshly fermented amazake (came right out of donabe and heated in a pot).

Shio-koji kabu "overnight" pickles, and Cream cheese/shio-koji/ amazake spread, were also served with shio-koji tofu.

Daikon salad with shio-koji vinaigrette, and shio-koji salmon with radicchio.

Donabe shio-koji chicken in soymilk/amazake cream sauce, and donabe chirashi sushi with shio-koji sauteed sun-dried mushrooms & kale.

We even had my home-brew doburoku (nigori sake).

Every dish and drink was made with koji! Super probiotic meal.

"Power of KOJI"

Menu

(Making of Shio-koji & Amazake from Scratch)

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Shio-koji tofu

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Daikon radish salad with shio-koji vinaigrette

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Roasted shio-koji salmon with radicchio

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Shio-koji chicken & satsuma yam in soymilk & amazake sauce

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Chirashi-sushi with shio-koji mushrooms & kale

Sake Selection

Naoko’s home-brew “doburoku” (nigori-sake)

I keep fermenting.

Happy donabe & koji life.

Donabe - Amazake - Scones

Crazy donabe - mushroom - koji lady here.

With my homemade Amazake, made in my double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san", this time, I made...

SCONES!

I've completed my new Amazake scone recipe, and it's fantastic. They are almost guilt-free scones, because they got so much amazake in it!

They came out so tasty that Jason ate 6 of them in the morning, and I had to stop him from eating more. The good news is that these scones are much healthier, because only 2 tablespoons of sugar is used for the entire batch (16 scones) and the rest of the sweetness comes only from amazake. Also, amazake gives creaminess to the scones, so there is no heavy cream used in this recipe (but I still like to serve it with cream on the side:-) The amazake cream I serve with the scones is also super tasty with the very natural mellow sweet flavor of amazake in it.

Here's my amazake scone recipe.

Amazake Scones

Ingredients

2C (about 10 oz) whole wheat flour

1T BP

2T raw brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

6T cold butter, sliced

1/2C dry currants

1 egg

5 oz amazake base

(Amazake cream - optional)

6 tablespoons heavy cream

3 tablespoons amazake base

Procedure

1. In a bowl, whisk together whole wheat flour, baking powder, raw brown sugar, and salt. Cut in butter (with a pastry blender).

2. Toss the mixture by hand until the mixture is nicely smooth and flakey. Add currants.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg and amazake base. Fold the mixture into flour mixture by a spatula.

4. Once they are mostly mixed, knead gently by hand.

5. Roll it out to 3/4" thickness. Cut and bake at 425F oven for 13-15 minutes.

6. To make amazake cream, whip heavy cram until almost firm. Gently fold in amazake base. Serve with the scones.

(To reheat the scones)

Simply put them in a toaster.

Jason's amazake morning...enjoying freshly-fermented amazake, amazake scones and amazake cream.

Happy donabe - koji life.

Soymilk Shabu Shabu with Pork & Oysters

Donabe hot pot time...

This time, I did Soymilk Shabu Shabu with Pork & Oysters. I saw on a Japanese cooking show that pork slices would stay very tender in the broth if you douse them with a little amount of amazake, so that's what I did this time! I also got really nice oysters.

For this recipe, I used my beautiful classic-style shallow donabe, "Kyoto Ame-yu".

Broth itself is very simple...water, dashi kombu, soymilk, and Saikyo miso. First, shiitake mushrooms and bottom part of napa cabbage were added.

Once they were cooked, other ingredients were added.

Indeed, the pork came out super tender and really nice! Oysters were great with a little amount of ponzu sauce.

Maybe the best part of this "nabe" (hot pot) was the "shime" or the end of the meal course...I made risotto-style creamy cheese "ojiya" porridge!

Cooked rice and some shredded cheese (this time, I used some leftover Emmental and mozzarella) were added and simmered for a short time. It was served with some ground black pepper and herb topping. Fantastico!

You can find the full recipe on toiro's website. Hope you will get to try it.

Happy donabe life.

Secret weapon...Donabe Hat

Making Amazake with donabe has become my regular routine lately. When I need a big batch, I use big Kamado-san (like shown in this blog post), but for regular home consumption, I normally use a regular (3 rice-cup) size donabe rice cooker, Kamado-san.

Now, instead of using a blanket to keep the donabe warm during incubation, I have a special insulated "hat" for Kamado-san! It's a gift from Nagatani-en (and we don't sell it in the US yet...sorry). It has a cute "iga-mono" logo stitched.

It works really well...I wrap Kamado-san with hand warmers in towel, and just cover with this donabe hat. In about 12 hours, beautiful Amazake is ready.

No, it's not a hat for your head, Jason!

Happy donabe life.