How to Make Shiokoji

Ta dah! It's finally time to share this here! So excuse my late entry. I know, quite a few people have been waiting for it. Haha, just joking! I don't know how many of you are interested in making shiokoji, but now that I've been on a shiokoji spree on my bento, I think I have to share the how-to-make. As I wrote earlier, shiokoji is a very versatile seasoning (or condiment) that has become more and more popular lately. In Japan, it is said that fermented foods, such as yogurt, miso, natto, pickled veggie, are help improve gut health and build up immune system. Shiokoji is one of those fermented foods. Not only does it give extra flavor to food, but also it is said to be so good for health and beauty, and even for skin and diet... Heh wow. Not that I totally believe those kinds of things, but think there is SOMETHING to it. Above all, what I like best about shiokoji is the fact that it makes food taste better. I especially liked the use for my soup, curry (made from scratch), tamagoyaki, fried rice, bread baking. You can use shiokoji for pretty much any cooking as an alternative to salt, or monosodium glutamate if you are a MSG user. Plus it's so simple and easy to make it that anybody can make it themselves. So I'd really like everybody else to try it out! If you live outside of Japan, maybe the hardest part of making shiokoji is to first get kome-koji (rice grains molded with koji-bacteria, aka rice malt, which is also used for making miso or sake). Large Japanese groceries have it, I guess. Else you could buy it from Amazon.co.jp. They do have anything.



Shiokoji ingredients
A bag of 200 gram dried kome-koji
1 and 1/2 cup (300ml) water, (1 and 1/4 American cups)
3 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon salt (about 60 grams)



How to make Shiokoji
Have you got kome-koji yet? Then here we go!
1) Mix well all ingredients together in a large clean container.
2) Cover it with plastic wrap, then rest and ferment at room temperature for a week stirring well once a day. If you cover it with the lid, NEVER close it tightly because the kome-koji may give off CO2 gas while fermenting.

Around day 4, the mixture would still be grainy. Around day 8, the entire mixture is supposed to be thick and somewhat smoother. Now it's time to use it for your cooking!! The finished one will keep for half a year in the refrigerator.



Here is the way my first batch turned out to be.



I keep increasing my shiokoji by adding salt and cooked rice to the rest of the first batch. Otherwise I will finish it up soon.