What a great question! Nuka is the Japanese word for rice bran. When brown rice is “polished” to make a whiter rice, every grain of rice is slowly rubbed so that some of the outside bran comes off. What you are left with is a ...]]> Nuka? What’s that and what can I do with it?

What a great question! Nuka is the Japanese word for rice bran. When brown rice is “polished” to make a whiter rice, every grain of rice is slowly rubbed so that some of the outside bran comes off. What you are left with is a sawdust like substance that is the rice bran, aka nuka. Nuka has many uses, one being making pickles.

BASIC NUKA PICKLE

2.5 lbs Rhapsody rice bran (nuka)
½ – 1 ½ cup salt (about 15-25% of the rice bran)
5 cups water

Roast the rice bran over a low flame until it gives off a pleasant nutty flavor and the color has turned a darker gold. Let it cool to room temperature.

Boil the water with the salt and let it also cool.

Mix the liquid with the bran and put it in a crock pot or other non-reactive container. Some say that mixing by hand is essential to get the fermentation process going. Live organisms in the air might take longer to really get in there to do their job. Wait a few days before putting your first vegetables in the mash so the fermentation can get started properly.

Next push cleaned and washed vegetables into the paste. In general, the firmer the vegetable the longer the pickle time. Chinese cabbage or sliced cucumber, for instance, can be eaten the next day, but experiment with the length of time you leave anything in the paste and the flavor they develop. If you have the time and patience, dry some vegetables ahead of time like daikon, radishes, carrots, or watery vegetables to reduce the amount of liquid going into the paste.

Maintenance:

Stir daily, especially during the warmer months, to add oxygen and keep a friendly fermentation going.

Every time you take a pickle out add some roasted bran and salt to replace what has been taken out. You can keep going like this for years, but it requires care and attention.

Don’t leave vegetables in too long as they tend to acidify the paste.

Notes:

When the paste become too runny soak some old, dry pieces of bread in it, or if it is really wet drain it in cheesecloth.

You can hold the pickling paste over when not in use, for quite a while actually, by draining the liquid and adding several tablespoons salt to prevent spoilage. Also sprinkle salt on top to prevent mold growth. Leave the crock in the refrigerator and cover with a heavy object.

VARIATIONS

MISO: As a variation you can add miso to the paste to introduce other enzymatic activity and add flavor. The younger lighter miso lend themselves very well for this. They impart a new sweetness and depth of flavor to the pickles. Simply add several tablespoons of miso to the mix. Make sure you use unpasteurized miso if you want to benefit from the live culture these miso contain.

BREAD: Sourdough bread, from San Francisco to dark rye, will also add its own benefits. New flavors and microorganisms that can surprise you.

ADDED NUTRITIENTS, FLAVORING, AND MICROORGANISMS: By adding eggshells, garlic, ginger, flavorful seeds and spices, and kelp or dulse, even (dried) fruit, a little wine or beer.

We now offer our own Certified Organic Short Term, Long Term and Amazake Koji. With the launching of these products I thought it would be appropriate to write a little bit about what koji is, what we can use it for, and how it works.

What is ...]]> Koji! What is it for and how do I use it?

We now offer our own Certified Organic Short Term, Long Term and Amazake Koji. With the launching of these products I thought it would be appropriate to write a little bit about what koji is, what we can use it for, and how it works.

What is Koji you ask? It is a filamentous fungus that is grown on rice. It’s Latin name is Aspergillus oryzae. It is used in Asian cuisine to ferment soybeans and grains to produce foods such as miso, soy sauce, amazake, sake and other alcoholic beverages.  There are hundreds of different stains of koji used for the different varieties of miso.

To make Amazake, Koji works as an enzyme to start the fermentation process by breaking down the complex carbohydrates into simple sugars. It requires specific temperatures for it to being this process and can’t be heated over 140 F. At this temperature it kills the fungus and will stop fermenting and increase the risk of spoilage. In the miso making process Koji breaks down the proteins at room temperature, with salt being used to control this process.

In following posts I will describe how to make miso and share some recipes using miso including dressings, soups, sauces, slowly cooked vegetable dishes and more! Also, when you order Koji from us we will add the instructions on how to make Amazake or Miso.

Now, onto how to make Amazake!

HOW TO MAKE AMAZAKE

Directions:

Tools/equipment:

Pot with lid
Double boiler or large pot with lid
Probe thermometer
Flame diffusers
Blender (optional)
Mason jars

5 cups organic rice (brown or white) (soak brown rice for 6 hours or overnight)
7 cups water
pinch of unrefined seasalt
1 cup Rhapsody Amazake Koji

Bring water and rice to a boil, add salt and cover. Let simmer for 50 minutes.

Let rice cool down to 135°F. Add koji and stir well. Cover.

Insert pot with koji and rice mixture in a pot with water (double boiler style) that’s between 135°F and 140°F. Use a thermometer to be able to control the fermentation process closely. Slip one or more flame diffusers and/or a skillet under the double boiler, to maintain the water bath at the right temperature.

Check temperature of water bath regularly in the beginning to get the temperature right. You can adjust the temperature by the number of flame diffusers. The temperature should range between 135°F and 140°F. If it goes over 140°F it will kill the Koji and stop the fermentation process and if it goes below 135°F the fermentation will stop and there is a higher risk of spoilage.

Let sit overnight or for about 8-12 hours at that critical temperature. Stir occasionally.

When fermentation is done and the rice mixture smells nice and tastes sweet your amazake is ready. Bring to a boil to stop the fermentation process and prevent souring. Simmer for 10 minutes while stirring regularly to prevent burning it. Blend until smooth if desired and pour in a mason jar (rinse the jar first with hot water to prevent the glass from cracking) while boiling hot.

Unopened the amazake will last for months refrigerated.

Note: To make the amazake sweeter use 50-100% more koji.

Variations: Use oats, roasted millet, or any other grain to get different types of amazake.

I made two zucchini breads at the same time to compare recipes. One was with Amazake and oil as ...]]>

Got zucchini?

Got Zucchini? Who doesn’t in New England at the end of August and beginning of September? Here is a delicious recipe for zucchini bread with Amazake as the main liquid ingredient and only sweetener (along with raisins).

I made two zucchini breads at the same time to compare recipes. One was with Amazake and oil as the liquid and sweetener and the other had apple juice, oil, and sucanat (natural sugar cane) as the liquids and sweetener. The Amazake recipe was noticeably more moist and sweeter than the one with sucanat.

The only slight bummer about this recipe is that it doesn’t use up more zucchini! I still have more zucchini’s than I know what to do with. I’m going to try a zucchini marinara sauce next.

Amazake Zucchini Bread

• 6 cups unbleached pastry flour (or 3 cups each, whole wheat and white)
• 3.5 cups Rhapsody Amazake
• 1.5 cups sunflower oil
• 3-4 cups raisins
• 1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon
• 1 quart grated zucchini
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar or 2 tsp lemon juice

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Start with combining all the dry ingredients; flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and raisins in a large mixing bowl. Mix the wet ingredients; Amazake, sunflower oil, apple cider vinegar or lemon juice) in another bowl. Grate the zucchini and mix into the wet ingredients. Oil a 6”x12” (or something similar to a large baking dish) and pour the batter into the pan. The batter should be somewhat thick as the zucchini will release liquid as it cooks. I don’t cook it in a taller bread pan because it has a tendency to not rise. So it comes out more as a cake than a bread. Place in oven and cook for 90 minutes or until the top has browned and a toothpick comes out clean.

Adjustments:
If you want it sweeter, add more raisins.