Homemade Miso

One of my students, Yoko, is an amazing cook and baker. I don't want to say I've made a pest of myself... but I may have mentioned once or twice (or every time I see her) that I'd love to get together and suck all the knowledge from her brain talk about food.

So, when she invited me to her house for a miso-making lesson, my only question was, "when?".

Yoko ordered a half-order of DIY miso from this company, which roughly translates to School of Miso. Yes, the site is in Japanese, but that's what Google translate is for!

They sell rice miso, wheat miso, barley miso, and combos. Yoko's husband is from Kyushu and wheat (koji) is more popular down there, so being a good wife, she keeps both misos on hand.

This is so easy, it's mind-boggling why more Japanese people don't do it.

Here is what the kit looks like:

 

The top bag is dried rice and the live cultures that make it tasty and healthy. The bottom bag is crushed up soybeans. Yoko once ordered dried beans, and boiled and mashed them herself. She never did that again.

 

 These are miso samples. The green one is from January 10th and the red ones were made on January 20th. They're now dark-red and delicious.

Heat up water, put beans and rice in a gigantic bowl and mix for three minutes. Yoko went first since she'd done it before. Her daughter, Yuki, was also there and had never made it before either.

We used some seriously strong sochu alcohol to sanitize the containers and packed the miso in, being careful to press out any air bubbles.

We sprinkled it with salt and a little more sochu and that was it. We covered it with plastic wrap, labeled the top and called it a day.

So easy. Here's the bad news. It won't be ready for its first tasting until October. In spring and summer it takes 1-2 months to properly ferment. In fall and winter it takes 3-4. The good news is that once it's done, it doesn't really go bad. It will just keep fermenting and growing and getting funkier and funkier.

They do include these little cloths that will prohibit mold and things from growing, but Yoko didn't use them and therefore, neither did I. Apparently it's not a dangerous mold, just a natural byproduct of miso being, well, alive. You scoop it out and don't worry about it.

I also brought home a sample packet of miso, which I plan on eating in a new way that Yoko taught me- smeared on veggie sticks. Since this miso is homemade and ridiculously good, you can just eat it plain on veggies. Delicious! Yuki's husband likes to make it into a dip by adding some mayonnaise. It cuts down on the saltiness and gives it a creamy texture.

So that's homemade miso. Easy and definitely the best tasting miso you'll ever put in your mouth.