Drying and rehydrating maitake

I got my hands on some Maitake back in October, thanks to D. S was out of town at the time, so I wanted to save some for him. I decided the solution was to dry some in the dehydrator. It dried quite quickly - probably a couple of hours at ~130F. I then transferred it to a resealable plastic bag and kept it in the cupboard. Yesterday I was making pizza and fancied some mushroom on it, remembered the maitake and that we hadn't tried rehydrating any of it yet, so brought it out. I just put it in a small bowl, poured enough boiling water over it to cover generously, and after about 10 min it was rehydrated and honestly almost the same as before dehydrating. When it was tender, I drained the mushroom (saving the liquid to use as mushroom stock in future recipes), then it was ready for whatever. If using the dried maitake for something wet (stew, risotto, whatever), you wouldn't even need to do the rehydration step: just throw it straight in. I put it on my pizza along with walnuts, olives, broccoli, capers, rich tomato sauce (with secret ingredient pomegranate molasses), a couple of fresh tomatoes, and some blue cheese on S's bits - always a bit of a random fridge clear-out when we make pizza. The pizza was a great success (good crust, from this recipe) and so was the mushroom!

I had tried drying chanterelles and hedgehog mushrooms previously, which also worked well, but had then powdered them as I'd read that they do not rehydrate well, so I had not tried the rehydration step before.

For preservation of chicken of the woods (from the wonderful, huge haul of it I found with D+A in the woods, post-swim, after our day at Drumlin) I have frozen some in a resealable bag, yet to see how it comes out.

Coffee and walnut cake (S's birthday)

I had been saving these coffee granules ready for a cake for S for ages. It's his birthday tomorrow, coffee and nuts for his cake is perfect (I hope) - I wanted to make a classic coffee and walnut cake and make it as good as I could. For the cake part I used approximately this recipe (ramping up the coffee but no other real changes), then I added syrup.

I thought I'd try a cream cheese icing, inspired by Delia's coffee and walnut cake and by the icing Seb made for my birthday cake (at which time I discovered that Trader Joe's carries vegan cream cheese and it really isn't that bad - doesn't even have palm oil in it).

For the cake:
1 cup fake milk
1 tsp cider vinegar
1¼ cups plain flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
⅓ cup veg oil
¾ cup sugar
2 tsp coffee granules dissolved in 2 tsp hot water
¼ tsp vanilla essence
¼ cup walnut pieces

For the syrup:
1 tsp coffee granules
2/3 oz demerara sugar
28 ml boiling water

For the icing:
2 packages (~500g total) vegan cream cheese
2 heaped tbsp icing sugar
1 tbsp powdered coffee granules
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 tsp cider vinegar

To decorate:
More walnut pieces plus 10 walnut halves, toasted

Heat oven to 350F. Line the bases of two cake tins. Mix the fake milk and vinegar and set aside to curdle.

In a medium bowl, beat together the fake milk mixture, oil, sugar, coffee and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, bicarb, and salt with a fork. Add wet to dry and mix until no large lumps remain, adding the walnut pieces in the final few strokes. Divide the mixture between the cake tins and bake for ~30 min.

While the cakes bake you can make the syrup - put the sugar and coffee in a small bowl or mug, pour the boiling water over and mix until the sugar and coffee are dissolved. When the cakes come out of the oven, while they are still hot, prick all over with a skewer and then spoon the syrup evenly over the surface. Leave to cool.

While the cakes cool you can make the icing. Put the cream cheese, powdered coffee granules (I crushed them in small pestle and mortar) and sugar in a bowl and beat together. Taste and add maple syrup, cider vinegar and/or some fake milk if you feel like it needs more sweetness or acidity, and until a good spreading texture is obtained. Refrigerate until needed (if you're not planning to assemble as soon as the cakes are cool).

Bring the icing to room temperature before assembling the cake. Take the cooled cakes out of the tins and strip off the backing papers. Place one on a plate, spread with ~ half the icing and sprinkle with some toasted walnut pieces. Then put the other cake on top, spread the rest of the icing over it, and arrange the walnut halves on top. I used the finer walnut crumbs to make the letter S on top too. Keep refrigerated if not eating right away.


At first I thought the cake layers were a bit thin, but by the time I'd piled them up with the icing and toasted nuts it ended up as a good total cake thickness, so perhaps not (although, final word, would probably increase cake recipe by half as much again if making again). The icing I thought was very successful - nice soft brown colour, good creamy consistency that sat up well by itself, not too sweet. So I was happy using more than usual to layer up the cake as it didn't overpower with sweetness or drip off the edges. Instead, it provided a definite coffee hit to mix in with the toasty walnut flavour. All in all, a pretty successful birthday cake - definitely suitable for breakfast (when we always end up eating birthday cake) as it is loaded with coffee and not very sweet! One thing: I think both the syrup and the addition of walnuts to the cake batter are perhaps not really necessary and the cake would probably be just as good without.

Miso

Having made koji over the last few days, I decided to move right on to making miso from it while the koji was fresh. I decided to test a couple of variants: one with 48h koji, another with 60h koji; some with soybeans and some with chickpeas. So, four tubs prepped in total (in empty 1 quart yoghurt tubs; double the recipe below in total ie half the recipe in each tub).

Instructions came from this awesome website.

1 cup dried soybeans (or chickpeas)
3 1/2 cups koji (at room temperature)
2 1/2 tbsp sea salt (used coarse; plus some extra for sprinkling on top)
1 cup cooking liquid (from the pulses)
1 tbsp unpasteurised seed miso (any unpasteurised miso - I used the one that came with the kit)

Soak the beans in a good covering of water overnight (at least 6 hours). Rinse, drain and put in a pan. Cover with water and boil ~3 hours until the beans are soft. Drain and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Bring koji to room temperature.

Mash the beans thoroughly in the bowl. Add the salt and cooking liquid and mix well. Check the temperature is not too hot (ideally ~60C). Mix in the miso. Then add the koji and mix again.

Transfer the mixture to clean, dry, straight-sided containers (you will need 1 1/2 quart total - I used two quart yoghurt tubs for this quantity but glass or ceramic would have been preferable). Pack it down well, trying to squish out any air bubbles. Sprinkle the surface with an extra 1/2 tsp salt.

Cover the surface with clingfilm, bringing the clingfilm up the insides and over the edges. Put a flat lid on the surface, on top of the clingfilm, and add a weight. Cover the whole of the top with paper, secured around the perimeter with string or elastic bands. Label with date and recipe.

Incubate at 25C (77F) for at least 3-4 weeks.


Notes: I followed exactly the same protocol for chickpeas as recommended for soybeans (there is a nice chickpea miso from South River and chickpeas are a similar size, thought it could work?). I used yoghurt tubs, with smaller yoghurt tub lids, and full jam jars for the weights. I am incubating near the radiator, monitoring temperature with the outdoor thermometer. To minimize contamination risk, I do not want to open them until the minimum expected incubation time is over.

At 1 week I sniffed around the edges of the paper lids and they smelled mildly alcoholic / fermenty, not bad - I figure if they are just rotting in there it should smell really bad?

At three weeks I opened up all the tubs and checked them. They all smell quite alcoholly, and have a layer of liquid on top while the rice-pulse mush underneath looks quite similar to how it did at the start, and is not very soft or paste-like. On a few of them, where the liquid had risen high up the edges, there was some mould at the top of the liquid layer (esp 60h soybean, a little on 48h soybean). I took some out and put the rest back at 25C. Now I am not sure how to tell if they are good or not - they don't seem disgusting, at the same time more alcoholic than I expected? Need more time?

My koji baby (for miso)

A gave me a koji / miso making kit. Exciting, but several days' work followed by a wait of at least a month to see if even the quickest kind of miso is good...

I wasn't sure when I would get around to it, but travel plans this weekend fell through, and S is away, so I thought: why not do it now? And, you know, I just realised, incubating the koji felt a little like looking after a pet or a baby. So, it kept me company!

The starter (and instructions) came from this awesome website.

6 cups of polished rice
2 tsp koji starter

Day 1 (evening):
Rinse the rice until the water runs clear. Put in a large container, cover to double its depth with fresh, cold water and leave to soak for 6-12 hours.

Day 2:
Put ~1 1/2 inches of fresh water in the bottom of a large pan for steaming. Put steamer in it and line the steamer with a ~1 foot square of muslin or cheesecloth. Put the rice inside the muslin. Cover the pan and bring to a boil. Steam the rice for 50 min starting from when the steam rises through the rice as well as round the edges.

Meanwhile, toast 1/4 cup of flour in a frying pan to sanitise, then tip into a bowl and let cool. Add 2 tsp of koji starter to the flour and mix well.

Lay out two layers of towel in a 2 foot square, with another two layers of towel in the middle and a 2 foot layer of sheeting in the middle. When 50 min is up, lift the rice out of the steamer carefully along with the muslin. Carefully transfer the rice from the muslin to the middle of the sheet. Spread out to into a square about a foot long, about 1 inch thick, mixing the rice with your fingers (I wore fresh lab gloves anytime I handled the rice) to break down any lumps and spread out any pockets of wetness or stickiness.

Let the rice cool to ~ 40C, then wrap it up, first in the sheet, then in the towel layers. Transfer the bundle to a 30C incubator (I used my oven, which is gas and always a bit warm due to pilot light). Ideally you would wrap a thermometer in the middle of the rice so you can monitor the internal temperature - I only have a outdoor-style thermometer, so I monitored the temperature in the oven (typically ~32C) but not inside the bundle - tried to keep track just by comparing with body temperature using my fingers.

Every couple of hours, unwrap the rice, mix it and check the temperature. Continue for 24 hours - check it before and after going to sleep.

Day 3:
Check the rice when you wake up. Prepare a large (8x12x3 in) pyrex dish by washing in hot soapy water, pouring boiling water oven, then inverting and leaving to air dry.

When the rice has been incubating for 24 hours open it up and check on it. The rice should look as it is covered with white floury stuff. Mix well, breaking up any lumps, and transfer to the prepared dish. Spread out evenly, then create furrows 1 inch deep and 2 inches apart (to help it not to overheat in the middle). Cover with a 'lid' made of clingfilm, touching the surface of the rice to keep in the moisture. Wrap back up in the towels and put back in the 30C incubator. Check it every 4 hours, stirring and recreating the furrows each time. Modify the amount of insulation (and temperature if you can) if it is overheating. Check just before and after going to sleep.

Day 4:
Check in the morning and keep incubating until ~ 48h. It should look nice and white and powdery, grains should break easily and show the powderiness extending about halfway through. When it's ready take it out of the incubator and let cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally. Now it is ready for miso making!


Notes: I used the rice Anna left (cheap long grain). It was not cooked when I stopped steaming it - not sure if it should have been? I got a bit confused about steaming time, so... On Day 4 (48h) the powderiness did not seem to have extended all the way through the grains - perhaps due to undercooking rice? But it did smell good and look reasonably powdery so I decided to try some anyway. I set some miso up that day (used 3 1/2 cups), left the remaining koji @ 30C for another ~12 hours before setting up more miso (used another 3 1/2 cups), and after that stored the remaining koji (2 3/4 cups) in the freezer). So, total koji yield was nearly 10 cups - enough for approx. three batches of light miso.

Kong ja ban

 I bought soybeans for miso making, this recipe was on the back of the packet. It is Korean, I liked the sound of it, so why not give it a try - I have lots of soybeans. That's all I know.

1 cup dried soybeans
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 cup water
1/6 cup sugar
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1 1/2 tbsp golden syrup (corn syrup in original recipe)
1/2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Soak soybeans in water for four hours. Drain and transfer to a pan. Add water, soy sauce and sugar and simmer for ~45 min, until the liquid is much reduced. The soybeans should retain a bit of bite. Finally, add the sesame oil, golden syrup and sesame seeds. Let cool before eating.


Hmm, wasn't sure about this at first - thought perhaps the instructions had lost something in translation: wondered if the beans were undercooked, and it was rather salty. But eating cold, with plenty of rice, the saltiness is mediated, the bite in the beans becomes nuttiness, and it ends up as a superior kind of baked beans.

Blueberry pancakes

This was breakfast on Sunday. They were good. The blueberries made them much more exciting, and the crabapple sauce was thick and sweet and cinnamon-y.

(makes 4 large, fat pancakes - about right for 2 people)

2 cups plain flour
1-2 tbsp gram flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 cups fake milk
2 tbsp veg oil
~4 tbsp blueberries (smaller ones better, used frozen but fresh should also work)
more veg oil (used sunflower) to fry

crabapple sauce and maple syrup to serve

Mix flours, baking powder and bicarb in a medium bowl with a fork. Add fake milk and veg oil and mix until just combined. Heat ~1 tbsp of veg oil in a frying pan. Scoop or pour ~1/2 cup of mixture (about a quarter of it) into the hot pan. Spread it out into a circle approx 1 cm deep. Sprinkle ~1 tbsp blueberries over the top. Cook for ~ 3 min on the first side, perhaps a little longer, until the mixture starts to bubble on top. Then flip. Cook on the other side til it is lightly browned. Transfer to a plate and eat with maple syrup and/or crabapple sauce (or keep them under a folder teatowel until they are all ready to go). Repeat until you've used all the mixture (should make 4).

Hot toddy

This was cobbled together from the contents of my cupboards, on a snowy Saturday evening. The ginger wine is unorthodox but it seemed appropriately warming; I used bitter orange instead of lemon because it's what I had, also because I thought it might be good.

(makes two)

~1/2 cup whiskey
~1/2 cup ginger wine
juice of one seville orange and ~5 strips of zest
1/2 tsp honey
~1/2 cup hot water
2 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 green cardamom pod

Put all ingredients in a small pan. Heat very gently until almost boiling. Strain through a sieve into a jug, pour into small mugs and sip.

Mulberry, cranberry, wheatberry, walnut

All these berries seemed so coincidental - the wheatberries, the dried berries, the pickled berries, even the berry molasses appeared just when I was about to get out the honey. I am gradually plundering my cupboardful of preserves - these juicy pickled mulberries were from the first harvest of last year. So, salad or grain, either way, this is nice.

1 cup wheatberries, cooked until tender in ~ 2 cups water
~1 tbsp white miso
~1 tbsp mulberry molasses
~2 tbsp mulberry vinegar (from the pickled mulberries, top up with red wine vinegar if you don't have enough)
~2 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper
~20 pickled mulberries
~1/4 cup walnut pieces
~2 tbsp dried cranberries
~1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
~2 tsp cacao nibs (optional)

Put the wheatberries on to cook, and in the meantime prepare all the other ingredients. To make the dressing, whisk the miso, mulberry molasses, vinegar, olive oil and some salt and pepper together in a small bowl and taste to check balance. Put the cooked wheatberries in a serving bowl and add the dressing. Toss and let cool a little. Add the pickled mulberries, walnuts, cranberries, parsley and cacao, mix up and taste to check seasoning etc. Eat warm or cold.

Cabbage, watermelon radish and bitter orange salad

I couldn't resist marmalade orange season. But since I still have several jars of last year's marmalade in my preserve stash, I am trying to resist actually making marmalade. Instead, I thought I'd see what else I could come up with using bitter / Seville / marmalade oranges. We are out of lemons, so the idea of using bitter orange in salad instead seemed an interesting one. I was just reading about some Japanese citrus the other day - there's so many other kinds of citrus out there beyond lemon, lime, orange and even grapefruit. I knew yuzu, but there are all these other ones I'd never even heard of too. Anyway, I'd never used marmalade oranges for anything other than marmalade, so here's a starter foray into the world of alternative citrus.

1/3 of a small white cabbage, shredded
2 small watermelon radishes, peeled and finely sliced (or cut into matchsticks)
1/4 cup golden raisins
1-2 tbsp sesame seeds
1-2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
juice (and a little bit of zest) of half a bitter / Seville orange
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp white miso
pepper and salt

Put the prepared cabbage, watermelon radish, raisins, sesame seeds and coriander in a bowl. Put the orange juice and zest in a separate, small bowl, add the olive oil, miso and seasoning and check it tastes good. Just before serving tip the dressing over the salad and toss.

Avenotto aka savoury porridge

Is it the Scottish childhood? Who knows, but ever since I was the only one out of three sisters who ate porridge along with mama and papa bear and chattered about Goldilocks while pouring on the golden syrup... I have been a lover of oats.

I've never used them like this before - like a risotto, but with oats instead of rice as the grain - avenotto (? - I made that up). Seemed like you can't go wrong with oats.

1-2 tbsp sunflower seeds
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 tiny onion, peeled and sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
4 mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 cup oats
1 cup veg stock
1 cup boiling water mixed with 1 tsp mushroom powder
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1-2 leaves kale, washed and chopped
1-2 tbsp chopped parsley
salt, pepper, vinegar

Heat a medium saucepan and toast the sunflower seeds until golden and fragrant. Tip into a bowl. In the same pan, heat the oil. Add the onion and garlic and cook until almost soft. Add the mushrooms and saute until starting to crisp around the edges. Tip the onion, garlic and mushrooms into the bowl with the sunflower seeds. Put the oats in the pan and toast until slightly coloured and fragrant. Add the stock and boiling water-mushroom powder mix. Bring to a boil and add the dried herbs. Simmer until the oats are almost tender and the mixture has thickened (as for regular porridge). Add the kale and then cook until kale and oats are done. Add back in the sunflower seeds and onion-mushroom mixture, along with the parsley. Mix together, add salt and pepper and a splash of vinegar if you like, taste and add more if it needs it. Eat straight away.


Quick and good and digestible. Ha, so far today I had muesli (mostly unadulterated oats mixed with almond milk) for breakfast, this for lunch, and oat yoghurt for after lunch. What was I saying about oat love?