The thousand faces of the Koji mushroom, making of miso or fermentation do-it-yourself

MISO is one of the most basic, most elegant, most delicious, most vibrant, most noble ingredients. One of the pillars of Japanese cuisine. It is very rich in minerals, contains live enzymes, dissolves cholesterol, thus helping heart patients, people with high blood pressure, and helps to cleanse the body of toxins.

Its different forms have been consumed for thousands of years in soups, sauces, pasta, bread, salads, cakes. Its flavour is characterised by the so-called fifth taste, umami. Traditionally, it is made from soya beans or spelt, rye or wheat fermented by koji noble fungus. In contemporary cuisine, miso is fermented from many other ingredients. It can be made from seaweed, toadstools, old bread, grasshoppers, bee larvae. It is made using a similar process to soy sauce, so if you learn the basics of miso making, you will be able to make many other koji-based ferments.