It was really cold today…30C which is a drop from the usual 40C so we were both seeking some warming, comforting food. So, today I made steamed glutinous rice balls…I have deliberately not called them mochi balls because they are made Chinese-style ie. the way I watched my mum make them and she is Chinese. I note that mochi balls are made from steamed dough which is cut into rounds, filled and then ready to eat. My recipe uses uncooked glutinous rice flour dough, which is filled and then steamed. Instead of the typical red bean paste, I made sweetened black bean paste and because black beans are eaten here in Belize, I have called the recipe Belizean-style!
This morning we visited a friend who is growing grapes on his farm-land. The grape vines are only 12 to 18 months and are already producing abundant bunches. It is truly amazing to see grapes actually growing in the Toledo region of Belize because our average rainfall here is lots… annual rainfall is about 4000mm compared to about 1600mm for Northern Belize. When I think about grapes growing, I usually think of Mediterranean climates. Anyway, it just goes to show that you can make things happen if you have discipline and patience:
Row of Grape Vines.
Another picture with Munchkin:
Munchkin and Grapes.
The grapes will be ready to eat in about 2 months…we will be re-visiting soon!
By the way, Gnome is going crazy with making another lot of Rice Koji today…and for the next 4 days! He is unstoppable…
As Gnome would put it, “Biomass is a Bitch!” and I truly agree with him, after the amount of work I have done in gathering medicinal herbs to dry. As mentioned before, we are working in partnership with BotanicaBelize to produce a line of facial products. One of the products is a facial tea which is jam packed with an array of medicinal herbs and plants (according to the season in which they are picked). This entire week, I have been picking Red Head (Hamelia patens), Plantain, Bamboo, Hierba del Cancer, Lemongrass, Hibiscus (Sorrel), Sage, Basil, Chanca Piedra, Noni Leaf, Mint, Culantro and Jackass Bitters.
Hamelia patens or Read Head.Fresh Chanca Piedra.
And it is not just a few plants here and there as I gaily skip from one plant to the other. No, it is actually a real labour of love where I gather bunches and bunches of each plant in a wheel barrow. I sweat and I use muscle power (Munchkin Power!). You will not believe the amount of fresh stuff that I have had to harvest to get a final dry weight…for every 2oz (60g) of dry weight in material, I have to gather 1.5 lbs (600g) of fresh herbs! And this is dried noni leaf…about 2oz dried.
This was 600g of Fresh Leaf!
So, when you buy any dried tea like chamomile or mint, to give an example, each teabag is actually 1 oz (30g) of fresh herb. It is totally mind-boggling…plus a lot of work if you do it yourself!
Anyway, I am glad I have done it! It is nice to hoard everything in jars to display:
Jars of Herbs.More Jars of Herbs.
Yay!! I managed to get all the herbs gathered and dried in time, despite Gnome’s frenzied time with Miso (!) Everything is All Right and I managed to finish off all the drying process this afternoon despite a surprise early afternoon blustery storm.
On this day the Miso Mission has been accomplished. The rice koji was ready and properly colonised and both of us were in the right frame of mind, with only a mild attack of filibustering on Munchkin’s part (she had very specific plans as to what she expected to do this morning), to tackle the mountain of beans and gallons of purple-black bean juice (from boiling said beans) required for the making of our Belizean-Style Black Bean Shinshu Miso.
The black beans were defrosted, boiled to tenderness (which thankfully doesn’t take too long with black beans), drained and then mashed. The use of words makes things appear so easy but while doing, it certainly seemed that there was a veritable mountain of beans. I left the temperature probe out of the rice koji and room temperature was 36C, so the mashing built up a bit of a sweat.
Starting to mash the beans.The Never-Ending Beans!
In the mean time, Munchkin, while muttering to herself that she needed to do other stuff, mixed the bean juice with sea salt, cooled it and added some commercial miso to the mix (for extra lots of beneficial microorganisms). Thank you, Adriana Guzman for giving us some for this purpose.
Black Bean Juice, Sea Salt and Old Miso to Make the Liquid Portion.
The rice koji had to be added to the beans and mixed well. Using a spoon did not work and I had to resort to using my hands…you can see the excitement that was gripping me at the time!
Adding the Rice Koji to the Mashed Beans.My hands convulse with excitement as I mix everything together!
After adding the liquid portion and mixing again, it was time to fill the prepared 5 gallon pig-tail bucket. This accomplished, a nice layer of salt was added on the top for protection against undesirable microorganisms.
Bucket-Full-of-Miso Ready for Sealing.Sealed Bucket…only have to wait 12-18 months now!!
What happened next was a total, super bonus for me, though it earned me this look from the Munchkin…
…there was still a whole lot of rice koji left and in the back of my mind I couldn’t help but think of the 28-day Miso Countdown before we run out…the solution…shiro miso. This type of miso is made up mostly of rice koji, only half the salt and a little bit of beans (compared to shinshu). The beauty of it and the reason why it is of critical importance right now, is that it only takes four to eight weeks to mature. Bonsa…we have the answer to our miso shortage!
So, I figured we could make a test gallon of this sweet miso but after measuring out the required koji, realised that we used up all the beans in making the monster bucket; we still had bean juice left-over but no beans. Resolution: fortunately I had already grated the day’s quota of coconuts and Munchkin had already squeezed out the cream from them (for selling in town to people that don’t want to buy cans or powdered coconut cream) and we were left with the meal. We decided to experiment and replace the bean portion of the miso with de-creamed coconut meal. Once the cream is removed, what is left is actually quite high in protein and while not a legume, it might make a good replacement for beans (it also makes things Belizean and exotic!). We still used the left over bean juice though.
Mixing the coconut, rice koji and salt.
The bean juice gave everything a slight purple tinge (pretty cool, actually!)…
Bean Juice Added to the Miso.
Here it is packed into a gallon jar:
Coconut Shiro Miso.
You would think that this was enough…hee…hee…hee…but I got another look shot my way…
…there was still another lot of koji left to make another batch…so we did…
Five gallons of shinshu miso and two gallons of shiro miso…not bad for a day’s work!!
Today was hot and dry! A perfect day to do nothing but alas, Munchkin has to keep on going despite the heat! Today, I prepared clay which we had collected from the Bladen area, Toledo a few weeks ago.
The Violet Coloured Clay of Bladen.
First, the bits of clay are washed and laid out in the sun to dry:
Chunks of Clay Washed and Sun-Dried.
The clay is then grated by hand. This grater is actually a traditional grater used for processing cassava but works very well for clay.
Coarse Clay Grater.
The next thing to do is to sift the coarse clay through a system of graded mesh to get fine clay powder.
Finely Sifted Clay.
I am really quite obsessive with this part because I am aiming for a fine, silky powder; I sifted eight times to get to this level of fineness.
And, this is the final result:
Fine and Coarse Clay.
The upper spoon shows the fine clay which I am actually processing for BotanicaBelize as part of a an exclusive line of facial products made from medicinal plants of Belize.
We also use the fine and coarse clay in our Artisan Soaps to provide ex-foliating properties and to give a lovely natural colour:
Clay Swirl Artisan Soap.
It takes a whole day to process the clay but it is definitely worth it to produce hand-made products with heart.
It is hot yet again, slightly more humid though, perhaps. Munchkin is keeping herself busy and has left me to my own devices. I was excited that today was THE day for transformation of the rice koji into miso; afterall, we did soak black beans in preparation and the big pressure cooker was cleaned and readied for action. However, upon close examination of the inoculated rice grains, I made an executive decision and decided to go for another twenty-four hours. The soaked black beans have been transferred into the freezer until the time is right.
While nicely colonised, cracking the rice grain open showed that the mold could still penetrate the grain a bit further. Also, deep inside my gnomish heart, that mad, self-sufficiency streak wants the Aspergillus mold to start fruiting (ie. make spores) so that I can collect the yellow-green spores and replenish my supply for future batches. While not impossible to bring into Belize, the starter cultures are difficult to order and then ship into the country without some hoops having to be jumped through (I’ve got a friend in Japan who feels like he owes me a favour but I don’t want to collect on his good will yet!). Being able to harvest my own spores would free me from this dependency on factors that I don’t have control over. Let’s see if I can pull it off…the plot thickens…
Colonised Rice Grains…not quite ready.
It is hard to assuage Fermentation Frenzy once it grabs hold of you so I had to find something to still my trembling nerves while waiting for the koji to continue its colonisation. I finally decided to rack some mead that has been sitting around settling and aging…I had been dissatisfied with the way this batch has been clearing and decided to do something I usually don’t do: use some gelatin finings to try and clear it a bit more. I was concerned that perhaps it had not cleared well because of contamination and doing this would also afford the opportunity to have a quick taste.
Racked Mead with Finings Added.
This accomplished, the moment of truth arrived: the presentation of a slightly cloudy glass of non-carbonated mead to the tasting expert, Munchkin. Fortunately and happily (for both of us) the sampling test was passed and I received a smile of approval from Missus Munchkin! Yosh!
The Taste Test.
Can’t wait to see what happens tomorrow! Cheers to all!
It continues to be hot, dusty and windy…in Sardinia we would say that we are afflicted with scirocco, that wind that comes from the Sahara and North Africa…it feels very similar and makes one feel terribly miserable. Yes, you guessed it, headache is back today.
However, my life is not only bearable but actually exciting…the Spirit of Aspergillus has taken residence in the carefully prepared rice and the next twenty-four hours will lead to our desired goal…rice koji!
It is always nice to open the bundles and inhale the fruity, mushroomy bouquet of a successful inoculation.
The opened bundles.
The rice grains are covered with a white, cottony growth and you can feel the “live” heat (like having a cat on your lap) emanating from the rice. Everything needs to be transferred into bags as it will overheat and spoil if kept in a bundle.
Rice divided up into six 10 pound bags.
Time to flatten it all up, stick a temperature probe in and wait another twenty-four hours.
Nice neat stacks.
Keep an eye on the temperature…the bags make it easy to spread everything out if cooling is necessary (especially since I’m doing this in “summer” and you’re not supposed to ;-p).
Keeping an eye on the temperature.
This link takes you to the more detailed instructions I’ve written in making rice koji in the Bored-in-Belize Library if you ever want to do this yourself: Making Rice Koji.
Since we already know that we will be making some shinshu miso from this batch of rice koji, we’ve started the preparation of the beans: cleaning, washing and soaking overnight. We use black beans and not soy beans because a) they (soy) are harder to find and b) we are making Belize/Central American shinshu miso and we want to remain culturally appropriate.
It was a really, really hot day today…so hot that it felt like we were walking in painfully slow motion, trying to wade through heat. And so, after miso making duties this morning, I had more munchkin duties to attend with. One of the main things was to process (cut and dip in lime juice solution) a whole bunch of ripe bananas and sun-dry them. Phew…I couldn’t take the thought of cutting about fifty bananas in the baking heat! I bleated in despair through a sweaty head of hair at Gnome and as usual, he managed to turn the situation into a positive one. And, so Gnome declared, “Let the bananas rain down on my piggies!”
Today has been officially named National Piggie Day in Belize. To commemorate this day, a gift of sweet bananas was given to the community of Paradise Pastures.
Yay!! Bananas!! Chomp, Chomp.
In addition, Gnome personally made a Pom Toy (courtesy of Piggieworld) with 5 pieces of coloured yarn and a fork.
Mayor Gnome Loves His Piggies!!Piggie Pom Toy Made By Mayor Gnome.
Official inspection of Pom Toy. Our rural piggies are not sure what to make of it…can you eat it?!
Piggie Inspection.
Remember to mark on your calendar: 24th of March is now officially National Piggie Day in Belize. We might get them to wear national costume next year!!
Cor blimey it’s a scorcher today! I suddenly feel very relieved that I am on restricted duties. The sun is blazing down, the earth is developing big cracks and the ducks, who normally can’t be bothered to walk the two hundred metres to the pond actually went for a dip to cool off and clean up.
Hard core miso purists will probably look at this post and scoff at me for trying to make miso in “summer,” so to speak (dry season here is like summer), since you are supposed to make it in winter because …….. (fill in blank with the usual stuff that poncy, purist, fundamentalists say when they are trying to put you down and show how much smarter they are than you but I digress…). So, anyway, this is day two of Miso Madness (made in the summer, ha, ha, ha!):
Yesterday’s rice was soaked, drained and steamed.
Overnight-soaked rice being drained thoroughly.Loading bamboo steamers with rice.
Then the cooked rice had to be spread out and cooled before inoculating with the right Aspergillus mold.
Cooling cooked rice.Mixing mold spores into cooled rice.
The most pleasurable part of the process is making the final bundle to incubate the rice and get one step closer to rice koji.
The finished bundle.
Tune in tomorrow for the next stage in making rice koji…
Hello Everyone!! I am attempting to manage Gnome in the house since his sinus problem seems to get worse every time he does some heavy work outside. I have ordered him to make Rice Koji which takes 4 days in total; I am hoping to preoccupy him with miso making. After all, he metered out a measly 9oz (270g) of home-made miso which we promptly finished in 48 hours and now, I have made him bring the whole gallon jar to the kitchen so I can feel comforted by the presence of a larger quantity. Anyway, if you have read the previous blog, Gnome will have already explained that he has been bestowed the job of Miso Maker. I just need to be patient and ration out the gallon of precious miso.
We have been eating Miso Soup with Ora-Pro-Nobis.
Ora Pro Nobis Leaves.
About a week ago, I wrote about this plant Pereskia aculeata, also known as Barbados Gooseberry. I thought it very interesting because this is a popular vegetable in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais and outside of this place, it is not known or consumed. Well, the fact that I do not live in that state does not stop me from eating this vegetable!
I cooked it as a kombu (seaweed) substitute in miso soup and it worked a treat. It has a degree of succulence which makes it similar in texture to seaweed.
As a result of this wonderful discovery, we have decided to grow hedges and hedges of Ora-Pro-Nobis:
Pereskia aculeata. Flowers and Fruit.
What a lovely plant…you can eat the gooseberries too!
It was really cold today…30C which is a drop from the usual 40C so we were both seeking some warming, comforting food. So, today I made steamed glutinous rice balls…I have deliberately not called them mochi balls because they are made Chinese-style ie. the way I watched my mum make them and she is Chinese. I note that mochi balls are made from steamed dough which is cut into rounds, filled and then ready to eat. My recipe uses uncooked glutinous rice flour dough, which is filled and then steamed. Instead of the typical red bean paste, I made sweetened black bean paste and because black beans are eaten here in Belize, I have called the recipe Belizean-style!
