Tag Archives: miso

How Miso is Made

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MisoBeans Ever wonder what miso is?  If you’ve been to Japan or eaten at a Japanese restaurant, you’ve likely had or at least seen miso.  I remember my first time having miso soup.  I was in college trying out a little Japanese restaurant that had popped up just outside the UofA.  I was pretty green as far as Japanese food went so I ordered teriyaki chicken (I’m sure the chef was thinking all kinds of bad things about me).  Before the meal, a bowl of soup appeared.  It was a clear broth with some kind of brown particles floating in it.  I tried the soup, but the flavor was so different from anything I had eaten before.  I didn’t really enjoy it, but then it quickly grew on me.  Now, I look forward to miso, be it in my soup, as a glaze for fish, or in the middle of a rice ball.

I’ve studied Japan for a long time, and for most of that time I’ve always translated miso as ‘fermented soy bean paste.’  Just like soy sauce, miso is made from soy, but that is only part of the story.  A few weeks ago, my island had its sangyo matsuri where I was able to meet one of the people who make miso here (Kumejima‘s miso is quite popular).  I was interested in the process so I wrangled a visit to the factory.

One of the first things I found out is that they don’t make miso all the time.  Traditionally, miso was something made at home.  Each family would make their own miso for their own use.  As with so many things, the miso making skills are fading with the convenience of store-bought foods.  Still, there are a few places that still do local miso.  Since it is a fermented product, the temperature is an important factor, thus miso can only be made in moderate seasons.  If it gets too cold, or too hot, the fermentation wont go on as well.

The process also takes more than three months.  At the small local factories, they make large batches two or three times a year as needed.  The rest of the time, they focus on other projects or on creating new items.

Day One

I was actually shocked to learn that miso is mostly rice and has few other ingredients.  Overall, only boiled rice, soybeans, salt, and koujikin make up the delicious, umami food that is such a huge part of Asian cooking.

MisoSteaming

On the first day of production, large amounts of rice are steamed.  At Aguritto, the factory I visited, they use two large boiler/box steamers to steam 35kg of rice in two batches. The rice takes about two hours to steam, after which it is removed to large wooden trays with blanket linings that absorb excess water to cool. These blankets replace the rice stalks that were traditionally used. Once the rice has cooled, the koujikin is added.  Koujikin is a fungus (Aspergillus oryzae) that acts as the catalyst in the fermentation of many Japanese foods and alcohol. It replaces the human saliva originally used to make sake.  The rice is bundled into the blankets and left to dry and ferment for two days.

Day Two

MisoRiceThe second day of work on a miso batch starts three days after the rice is cooked. Roughly 2/3 the amount of beans are used in relation to the rice. they are also steamed then cooled. The beans are sent through a large grinder to process them. The fermented rice is also removed from storage and broken up into manageable batches.

Once everything is prepared, each rice batch is added to a drum mixer with salt and a measure of the processed beans. Once everything is well mixed, it is packed into containers and sealed against the air. These packages are left in a dark area for two to three months to ferment.

MisoMix

MisoPackageThere are many kinds of miso, all with different purposes. The color and flavor of the miso changes with the time allotted for fermentation. The miso made in the video is for soup and will end as a light brown. The picture to the left is a much darker version used in cooking that has fermented far longer.

Aguritto’s miso is just one of several companies that produce miso on the island. Some households still make their own since it is a simple process (though it requires significant planning and patience). This company has only been making miso for about two years, based on Fujiko-oba’s recipe. I made an advanced miso soup recipe that turned out very well, and I can attest that local will likely beat out the major brands any day.

MisoPacks

 

Now that you know what’s in miso, try a few recipes on your own!

IMG_2373

Miso Onigiri

Miso Soup

Miso Soup

School Lunch April 19-25

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Thursday April 19

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Milk, barley rice, meat balls, gourd stir-fry, miso soup, apple jelly

This week had a delicious stir-fry with combu and kanpyou (dried gourd shavings).  The miso soup had enoki (long white mushrooms with small caps), and seaweed.  The meatballs were Japanese-style with a slightly sweet sauce.

Friday April 24

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Milk, Okinawa Soba, Chingensai and beansprout salad, orange

Here’s an Okinawan classic.  Soba are buckwheat noodles, in Okinawa they usually served in a bowl with a thick slice of bacon, one or two fish paste slices, onions, and a hearty broth.

Monday April 23

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Milk, bibinba, seaweed soup, cheese and small fish

Bibinba is actually a Korean dish popular in Japan.  Like many Japanese ‘don’ it is a rice bowl topped with thinly sliced fried egg, meat and vegetables.  In this school friendly version, the hot sauce was left out, but the meat (very nice beef) was well seasoned.  The soup was Wakame or ‘brown seaweed’ with tofu.

Tuesday April 24

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Milk, barley rice, small fried fish, lotus root kinpira, ‘strained’ soup, brown sugar cake.

This one got mixed reactions among the elementary school students, mostly for the lotus root rather than the fish heads. I actually liked the kinpira (cut vegetables) which were mostly root vegetables cooked in a broth but served separately.  The soup had daikon (giant white radish), mushrooms, and chingensai, in a clear broth.

Wednesday April 25

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Milk, Kobe bread, cabbage cream stew, burdock root salad, marmalade jam

This was my favorite meal of the week, and it was made more fun since I ate with a group of third grade elementary students.  Most of them thought the marmalade was too sweet, which is common since most Japanese sweets don’t use as much sugar as their western versions.  The stew was full of potatoes carrots, chicken, and cabbage, among other things.  I’m pretty sure burdock is something I never had before coming to Japan, but it is a favorite of mine now, especially in dishes that mix it with carrot.

Which is your favorite School Lunch for April 19-25?

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Making Miso Onigiri (Riceballs)

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Onigiri are the original Japanese fast food.  An onigiri is simply a rice ball.  Like bread to westerners, onigiri is the go to food on the move.  Its portable, easy to make, and contains plenty of calories.  Today there are a lot of different types of onigiri in different shapes and sizes.  Here’s a deliciously easy version that will take you a step or two past plain rice.  Its also something you can make with the left over miso after making some miso soup.  DON’T try making these with straight miso from the tub.  You’ll be sorry (I was).

Ingredients

  • Boiled Rice (follow rice cooker or stove top instructions or check out this post on curry rice.)
  • 3/5 packet dashi ie 3grams (a traditional Japanese seasoning made of seaweed and dried bonito.  It comes in packets.  You’ll probably want the 5g size.)
  • 2 tsp garlic
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 2 tbsp finely diced onion (optional)
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 small can tuna in oil
  • 4 tbsp light miso (a fermented soy bean paste)
  • 1 strip nori (optional seaweed)
  • salt

Recipe

Cook rice as directed by your rice cooker or following the instructions on the bag.  Generally 1 cup of rice makes 2 onigiri.  For the video I used 2 cups of rice (slightly less rice, two full cups water), but had left over miso mix.

While the rice is boiling, add tuna to a small fry pan on medium to low heat.  add onions and mix of dashi, pepper, and garlic.  Stir together until combined.  Add miso. Lower heat to low and add soy sauce.  Mix occasionally, ensuring it doesn’t burn.  After about 7 minutes of cooking (when parts of the miso mix start to stick) remove from heat and place in a bowl to cool.

When the rice is finished, place it into a container to cool until you can touch it without burning yourself.  Prepare a bowl of salt water.  If you haven’t already, ensure your hands are clean.  ”Wash” them again in the salt water.  This keeps the rice from sticking to your hands and seasons the onigiri at the same time.  Place a small portion of rice in your hand, then flatten it and place a teaspoon of miso mix in the center.  Cover with another portion of rice.  If the rice sticks to your hands, add a little water to your palms, but don’t over wet it or it will fall apart.  Use light pressure and rotate the rice ball to form the traditional triangle.  cup one hand to form the point, while the other manages the width.  Don’t squeeze to hard, but exert enough pressure to form the rice together.

Optionally, you can add a bit of dried seaweed, nori, to the outside of the onigiri.  Nori adds flavor and is a convenient wrapper to help keep sticky rice off the consumer’s hands.  Generally you should only add nori if the rice ball will be eaten soon or it will become soggy.  You can wrap the onigiri in plastic wrap for later use.

Note: The limiting factor in the recipe is the can of tuna. You can probably make quite a few (at least a dozen) onigiri from just one batch of miso mix, but I didn’t test it.

School Lunch February 16-22

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Thursday February 16

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Milk, millet (awa) rice, stir fry vegetables, ‘fat’ tofu soup, orange

So this one is a bit hard to translate, but its high on the Japanese side of things. The ‘bubble’ rice is regular white rice mixed with a small yellow round grain. If anyone knows what it is in English please comment! Update: Thanks to dave for the correct translation of awa! I had it marked as ‘bubble’ before. The soup is broken tofu with green onions.

Friday February 17

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Milk, Barley Rice, Bansansu, Ma-Po- Tofu, apple

In case you haven’t noticed, I base the above off the Lunch Center’s monthly menu… which has a lot of hogen. I’m iffy reading Japanese, and since I lived for 3 years on a place that spoke minimal hogen, my Okinawan dialect is even worse. Still I’ll try to do my best. The bansansu is a kind of salad very similar to a common Japanese summer food of somen. Just like that its served cold with noodle, ham, egg, and cucumber in a soy based sauce. The Ma-Po is a kind of very delicious meat sauce with tofu and vegetables that I’ve had before. It’s somewhere between stew and chanpuru.

Monday February 20

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Milk, barley rice, teriyaki chicken, Cabbage and veggies in sesame dressing, tofu and vegetable soup.

The ‘Japan-ness’ of teriyaki chicken can be disputed… but at least its a Japanized version of chicken.

Tuesday February 21

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Milk, Miso udon, Pickled vegetables with whole (Kibinago) fishes, Purple potato mochi

It’s this week’s 5! You don’t get much more Japanese than mochi, little fishes, and udon. If you look closely, on the left there are whole fishes that you’re supposed to eat whole. I’ve gotten to the point where I can eat the bones, but still leave the head, which then becomes a great talking point on different cultures for my kids. My mom would tell you that I’ve come a long way from the extremely picky eater I used to be, but Japanese food is just that awesome… I did feel bad for leaving the heads. One of my elementary students offered to eat them for me. ^_^ The Udon was also awesome. It’s a traditional thick Japanese noodle usually in a sauce.

If you tried out my miso soup recipe and still have left over miso, maybe try cooking up some udon! (add a lot less water but the same ratio of miso to dashi)

Wednesday February 22

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Milk, Whole Wheat (haiga) bread, tomato omlette, cheese salad, Chinese cabbage (hakusai) soup, apple jam

From Japanese to ??? the very next day. This one was pretty eclectic. The jam was meant for the bread, which kind of needed it because it was dry, but tasty. The omelette worked pretty well as a sandwich item, which I demonstrated to the interest of some of my elementary students. The salad was a nice mix of minced cheese, mayo, veggies, and I think a little kimchi. Soup was tasty and nice for dipping the bread (another skill not common in Japanese dining).

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So where do you draw the line on fish? Growing up in the desert, I never liked fish. When I got to Japan I gradually grew to enjoy various cuts of fish and will now eat the mini dried fishes whole, and the fish above up to but not including the head. Share your view in the comments!