Dining with the Chef

We're visiting the far northern prefecture of Akita and learning about Akita's cooking over two episodes. In this second episode, we'll learn about koji, used to make indispensable Japanese ingredients like miso, soy sauce, sake, or mirin. The town of Yokote, Akita is famous nationwide for its rice, and the town's food culture features many fermented items based on the use of this exceptional rice has been used to make koji since long ago. By mixing koji and salt, we can make the all-purpose condiment shio-koji that has been sweeping Japan in the past few years. We'll learn a simple recipe to make shio-koji, and see ways to use it to make Japanese dishes even more delicious. This week, we hope to introduce the world to the mysterious and wonderful powers of koji!