Ai Hosokawa started an activity called ``Fermentation Club'' this fall. She says this is a place to think about and share ideas about how to prepare fermented foods such as salt koji, soy sauce koji, miso, and amazake, how to cook them, and how to use them in everyday eating.
Her right-hand man is Risa Onishi, one of the taishoji staff members. She has been fascinated by the charm of raw koji for several years, and when she was about to be posted overseas, she wanted to enjoy making koji there as well, so she started studying. Onishi learned that raw koji cannot be taken out of the country, so she crossed the ocean with koji mold and a box of koji. Every day I use local rice, make my own koji, and cook. Since then, making koji has become his life's work, and as he learns from her, Hosokawa also discovers how interesting koji cooking can be.

In spring, we make sansho koji and parsley koji, and in early summer, we make fava bean miso with tomato koji, fava beans, and rice koji. Walking through the gardens of Taishoji Temple, combining the blessings of the four seasons with koji, and applying it to daily cooking...this kind of enjoyment enriches Hosokawa's cuisine.

This time, we were introduced to ``Kami Shio Koji'', which is made by adding flavorful vegetables to salt koji. As a fragrant salt koji, it is a very versatile preservation recipe and can be used as a cooking ingredient or seasoning. For example, to make boiled dumplings, all you have to do is add this flavored salt malt to the minced meat. You can also make a soup by adding hot water to the flavored salt koji and adding curry powder to your liking. Of course, you can make a flavorful dish by marinating meat or fish and grilling it.

The versatility of shio koji makes any dish mellow and delicious.

Shio-koji was once all the rage, but there is no set way to use it. You can try using it in a variety of dishes to add flavor and sweetness to salt. It can be used in any genre of cooking, Japanese, Western or Chinese, and can also be used in making sweets as long as you are careful with the amount.

The rice koji used this time is a product of Mitsuru Soy Sauce Brewery in Itoshima City, Fukuoka Prefecture. Mitsuru Soy Sauce Brewing Company is known as the brewer whose dark soy sauce ``Igenari,'' which was created in 2013, caused a stir among brewers and the culinary industry.
Mitsuru Soy Sauce Brewery stopped making soy sauce in-house in the 40s, but Yoshinori Jo, the fourth generation owner who was in his 20s at the time, revived the old-fashioned soy sauce making process. Due to his excellent workmanship, he is attracting attention as a young and promising soy sauce brewer.
The flavor of this soy sauce has many fans throughout Japan, and Hosokawa is one of them. This time he used rice malt made from rice grown in Itoshima.

The salt koji that will be the base for this time starts by raising rice koji. There are commercially available shio koji, but some products have been adjusted to prevent fermentation from proceeding during the distribution stage. This time, we recommend making it from rice malt, so that it will ripen better when preserved.

(Titles omitted)

Boiled dumplings for 24 people (about XNUMX pieces)

皮
150g all-purpose flour
75g water
5g salt
Potato starch (floured)

Ingredient
200g minced pork
Flavored salt koji 20g
Sesame oil 10g

Soup
Kelp and dried sardine soup stock 800g
4 teaspoons of yuzu pickling liquid

Add your favorite flavored salt koji to the minced pork and mix thoroughly until the mixture becomes sticky.
Put the peel powder and salt in a bowl, pour in water little by little, mix, knead well, and let it rest.
Divide the dough and filling into 20 equal portions.
(10g of dough, 10g of filling) Sprinkle with potato starch and roll out with your hands.
Divide the ingredients into equal parts and wrap.
Add the water to a boil over high heat, and when it floats, boil it over medium heat for 2 minutes.
Boil the konbu and sardine stock and season with the yuzu salted liquid.
Place the boiled dumplings in a bowl and pour the soup over.

*Yuzu pickled in salt water: A flower yuzu pickled in 100g of water and 15g of salt and aged. (Consider whether you can shorten the time by cutting the soup in half or slicing it into rounds.) If you don't have one, add yuzu peel to the soup to add flavor and add salt.

This time's order

Malted rice
Mitsuru soy sauce brewer

Rice koji is made using Itoshima-produced rice using a careful method using a koji box.
Product: Rice malt
Price: 500g 756 yen (tax included) / Cool delivery
Address: 925-2 Nijo Fukae, Itoshima City, Fukuoka Prefecture
TEL: 092-325-0026
How to purchase: From the online shop.

Ai Hosokawa

Cook. He hosts cooking classes and cooking parties in taishoji, Kumamoto. He is currently releasing new books ``Toast'' (BON Publishing), ``Standard Cooking Collection'' (Anonyma Studio), ``Travel and Cooking'' (CCC Media House), and ``Taishoji Cookbook 1.2'' (Shobunsha).

Photography by Ai Hosokawa