Homemade rice koji with Koji Kin
With Koji Kin spores you can grow koji on steamed rice: it is the starting point for miso, amazake and shio koji.
- Type
- Fermentation
- Prep
- 30 min
- Cooking
- 50 min
- Resting
- 44–48 hours’ fermentation
- Serves
- about 1.2 kg fresh koji
Ingredients
- 1 kg short- or medium-grain rice, not wholegrain
- 2.5 g UMAMI Koji Kin
- A clean cotton cloth
- A heat source you can keep between 28 and 32 °C (for example the oven with just the light on, and a thermometer)
Method
- 01
Wash the rice and soak it in cold water overnight. Drain well for 1 hour.
- 02
Steam it for 45–50 minutes: the grains should be cooked but separate, not sticky.
- 03
Spread the rice on a clean cloth and leave it to cool to about 35 °C.
- 04
Sprinkle over the spores evenly, mixing with clean hands.
- 05
Gather the rice into a mound, wrap it in the damp cloth and keep it between 28 and 32 °C.
- 06
After about 18–24 hours, break it up and spread it in a layer 3–4 cm deep: koji generates heat, so check that it does not go above 40 °C.
- 07
After 44–48 hours the grains are covered in white mycelium and smell of chestnuts: the koji is ready. Stop before any green or yellow spores appear.
