Umami chef is delighted that 3 of their newly launched products have all won accolades at the Farm and Deli Shop product awards. Our sweet white miso made from British fava beans picked up a silver award, as did our filtered shio koji. Our unfiltered shio koji also picked up a bronze award
Kinzanji miso is different to most other misos in that it is not used as a seasoning, but is designed to be eaten as a side dish. It is made by fermenting vegetables with koji to create a dish that is sweet and sour – the perfect accompaniment to most Japanese dishes. It is also frequently used as the Japanese equivalent of sofrito or mirepoix – saving the time needed to fry the vegetables used in the base of dishes.
Very little information about kinzanji miso is available in English, so I’ve researched Japanese texts to discover everything I can about this dish.
Traditionally kinzanji miso is made using a combination of three kojis – rice, soy and barley – all in equal proportions. The other ingredients are harder to tie down – it’s the sort of dish where every family seem to have their own version. The common themes are that they have 6% salt (5.8% according to the Standard Food Composition Table of Japan) and an equal amount of sugar. Most recipes also call for double this percentage in honey, although if you’re not a fan of sweet dishes, or looking to create a vegan version, this can be left out.
Another ingredient that is in almost all versions is ginger, although the amount varies wildly – some contain a tablespoon, whilst one recipe I found had 1.5Kg of ginger in a 7kg recipe! In the recipe below I’ve used a more moderate amount of ginger, but feel free to increase this if you’re a big ginger fan.
The vegetables used also vary – aubergine, daikon radish, courgettes, melons, burdock root, shiso leaves and various seaweeds are the most commonly mentioned, but modern recipes also tend to include carrots, peppers and garlic.
Some recipes also called for the addition of sake, mirin or soy sauce, but mostly in very small amounts. I’ve chosen to leave these out as they didn’t appear in the older recipes I found; but feel free to experiment by adding them to your dishes.
Note: I’m unable to eat soy or wheat so have created a recipe to avoid these ingredients. If you’re looking to make a traditional version, replace the rice koji and beans in the recipe below with a mix of rice koji, soy koji and barley koji.
Koji beer is a fusion of east and western styles of beer. Sake is generally called a rice wine but it is in fact more like a beer than wine. It is made using rice and top quality koji and this formed the “Eastern” element of the brew. When making sake, only rice and koji are used and a special yeast which can reach the 18-20% ABV levels in sake (although it is often diluted down to 15% when sold commercially).
The Western part of the brew was a mash made using extra pale malted barley and flavoured with Saaz hops (which are used in European beers like Hoegaarden). These two elements were blended together and fermented using an American yeast which gives a crisp finish. This is a truly international beer!
The final ABV of the beer was 7.8% which places it fairly well up the normal beer ABV range of 3 to 9%. It fermented most of the sugars out to give a fairly dry finish similar to traditional ciders but without the astringency. This is a very different tasting beer and one which goes well with dishes made using koji.
Shoyu koji is made by mixing soy sauce with koji. This means it combines the flavour of soy sauce with the power of koji. Use it in place of soy sauce in any recipe for an extra depth of savoury flavour.
The real power of shoyu koji comes when you use it as a marinade – coating food for a few hours/overnight so the koji can perform it’s magic.
If you use it in a marinade:
It is really simple to make – just mix koji and soy sauce together, then leave at room temperature for 7 days.
If you can’t wait then it is perfectly safe to eat it before the 7 days are up, it just won’t have reached maximum deliciousness!
We’ve been working with Foxpak, Europe’s leading provider of sustainable packaging, to produce a new package for our koji.
It’s been specially designed to use less energy during its manufacture; whilst also releasing fewer greenhouse gases.
It’s made entirely from plant-based materials and is compostable!
Many thanks to Ryan from Multiple Graphics for the sleek design.
You can buy koji in our new sustainable packaging here: 200g White Rice Koji
Shio koji is a special marinade that provides three major functions in cookery:
Add shio koji to almost any food as an alternative to salt. If you replace one teaspoon of salt in your recipe with two teaspoons of shio koji your food will taste just as salty, but you will only be using 10% of the salt.
A high salt diet can raise blood pressure and lead to coronary heart disease and stroke. The NHS recommend that adults should not eat more than 6g of salt a day – this is around a teaspoon. Any steps you take to reduce your salt intake is beneficial for your health.
The enzymes present in shio koji have the ability to break down proteins, which makes meat more tender. Marinade any meat (chicken and white fish are especially good) overnight in a thin coating of shio koji and it will be transformed to another level!
Shio koji contains protease which has the ability to transform protein into a range of amino acids. This creates a depth of savoury flavour that tastes delicious! It also contains amylase, which performs a similar function on starches; this makes carbohydrate rich food taste sweeter. To improve the flavour of dishes it is best to leave shio koji to ferment for one week before using.
Koji is the term for a grain or bean that has been inoculated with Aspergillus Oryzae, a special fungus that has been domesticated for about 9000 years.
White Rice Koji is made by steaming white rice and then allowing spores of Aspergillus Oryzae to germinate and multiply on it.
This process is carefully controlled to ensure conditions are perfect for koji growth, with both temperature and humidity monitored continually. The fungus then converts starch within the rice into a range of enzymes, which go on to create the delicious range of savoury/umami flavours within foods like miso and soy sauce.
Before being packaged, the koji is gently dried to preserve it, and it is then delivered to fermented food enthusiasts around the world!
There are thousands of different misos - ranging from warm yellow misos that can be made in a few weeks; to rich, dark misos that take several years to mature.
Amazake is a traditional Japanese drink made from koji. It can be drunk ice cold in Summer, or gently heated to provide a delicious warm drink in Winter. It has recently been labeled as a super food due to it’s high nutritional content – including complex B vitamins and all the amino acids the body […]
Warm Broccoli Salad with a Hazelnut and Miso Dressing
Sweet white miso (for example, 10 Day Miso) is perfect in salad dressings – it adds a depth of flavour that brings dishes to life. I’ve chosen hazelnuts, as they’re in season at the moment, but all nuts work well in this warming autumnal salad. Warm Broccoli and Hazelnut Salad with a maple, hazelnut and […]
Green lentil miso adds a beautiful, earthy umami flavour to dishes. It is perfect in simple soups and stews, but goes especially well with ones containing coconut milk.
Shio koji is a special marinade that can help to reduce your salt consumption and tenderise meat whilst providing a deep umami flavour.
