Tag Archives: Beans

Belize, Farming, Fermentation, Food

Full of Beans!

TogetherGnome was full of beans this morning and brimming with energy right from the get go.  He was out of the house by 5.30am with the brush-mower clearing the back of the farm.  I started cleaning buckets and basins, started a big pot of beans on the stove and washed sheets for koji making.  It was bean mania and the various bean preparations continued to exude beaniness into every square inch of the house.

When we finally met up again, Gnome had grated coconuts and I proceeded to squeeze the cream out of them.  I then laid out the coconut meal in the sun for the making of flour.

After this, it was back to the beans.  The night before we had decided upon making a “meatier” hatcho miso and so today we made Beef Jerky Hatcho Miso or as Gnome has coined it “Meat Lover’s Hatcho Miso.”  This involved putting 20 cups of fresh black bean koji and 2 lbs (1kg) of beef jerky through a meat grinder.

Beef Jerky Hatcho Miso.
Beef Jerky Hatcho Miso.

There was a few cups of black bean koji left over so we decided to make a small batch of Taosi which is a Filipino fermented black bean preparation, made by soaking the koji in brine.

Taosi Fermenting Black Beans.
Taosi Fermenting Black Beans.

Next we took the freshly cooked beans from this morning and added more Aspergillus spores to start a continuous batch of black bean koji.  Our goal is to fill a 55 gallon drum with hatcho miso…more about that in a later post!

Making More Black Bean Koji.
Making More Black Bean Koji.

We then had a brief intermission for food and refreshments.  For those interested, we still think that it is important to sit down and eat two proper meals a day, despite all the frenzy and excitement.  We had Chinese roast pork, pumpkins and shiitake mushrooms cooked in mead and sweet potato cakes.

Anyway, the next task was making Shinshu miso with the mountain of bungle beans from the freezer.  This was Gnome’s idea since I had been giving him such a hard time about the bungle.  Yes, we used up all the beans so problem has been solved.  We made 2 and 1/2 gallons of this…ready in one year!

Shinshu Miso.
Shinshu Miso.

Phew, it has been a bean marathon.  We were done by 2pm.

Munchkin and Gnome: Mad About the Beans!
Munchkin and Gnome: Mad About the Beans!
Amusing, Belize, Food

Bean Bungle Burger!

Munchkin.UpsetJust the other day, Gnome had mentioned that we seemed to be  eating beans everyday.  Like a good Chinese woman, I blinked once and then placidly ignored his comment.  I am sure that all of you out there will understand that once in a while, especially during wild intense times of fermentation madness, one can get rather tired and have little energy left to cook fanciful foods daily.  Hence the reason why I haven’t been posting up recipes lately.

However, Gnome added insult to injury and did a big whopper of a bungle.  During Hatcho Miso preparation, he over-cooked a tonne of black beans which could not be used for miso making.  He left me with 40 cups (22 lbs or 10 kgs) of mushy black beans and urged me to “make them go away, please.”

Over-cooked Black Beans.
Over-cooked Black Beans.

And so with a teeny little ounce of creativity which I squeezed out by sheer willpower, I managed to create a recipe with the excess black beans.  They are bean burgers made with home-made coconut flour and rice flour; they are especially spicy with whole black peppers and chilli peppers.  I have called them Bean Bungle Burgers.

Bean Bungle Burgers.
Bean Bungle Burgers.

When we sat down to eat last night, Gnome rather sheepishly said, “the beans are good.”  I smiled and gave him a Chinese woman approving nod.

Another.Smiling.Gnome

 

Belize, Fermentation, Food, Saving Money

Miso Madness V…The Next Generation.

Gnome.Looking.Serious

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.
Starting to mash the beans.
The Never-Ending 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.
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.
Adding the Rice Koji to the Mashed Beans.
My hands convulse with excitement as I mix everything together!
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.
Bucket-Full-of-Miso Ready for Sealing.
Sealed Bucket...only have to wait 12-18 months now.
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…Munchkin.Upsidown.Upset

…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.
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.
Bean Juice Added to the Miso.

Here it is packed into a gallon jar:

Coconut Shiro Miso.
Coconut Shiro Miso.

You would think that this was enough…hee…hee…hee…but I got another look shot my way…

Munchkin.Fury…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!!

Belize, Fermentation, Food, Saving Money

(Summer!) Miso Madness III.

Gnome.Self.SatisfiedIt 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 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.
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.
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.
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.

Black beans for making miso.
Black beans for making miso.

More tomorrow…