Summer Miso Making Workshop - Kinzanji Miso
Summer Miso Making Workshop - Kinzanji Miso
Your homemade miso is truly unique, with a flavour profile that sets it apart from any other.
Kinzanji Miso, in particular, is an exquisite creation crafted with a medley of seasonal vegetables and a trio of distinct koji varieties—rice, barley, and soybean, each one takes 3 days to prepare and ferment immediately before the class by the chef.
This harmonious blend creates a symphony of umami flavours, showcasing both complexity and depth. Traditionally crafted during the warmer months, Kinzanji Miso reaches maturity within a relatively brief fermentation period of 3 months, although it could improve over the following few months.
This variety of miso, known as 'Namemiso,' is best enjoyed as 'accompaniment to food' rather than a cooking ingredient. Its versatility shines when paired with steamed vegetables, meats, or fish, but it's equally delightful with crisp slices of cucumber and celery or a comforting bowl of rice. Surprisingly, Kinzanji miso also makes a delightful addition to a cheese board.
In our class, you'll embark on a journey to create your own signature Kinzanji miso using a selection of seasonal vegetables and fruits sourced from our kitchen. Expect to work with ingredients such as aubergine, ginger, cucumber, carrot, fennel, apple, pear, and more.
Throughout the session, you'll delve into:
- Understanding the role of koji as the fermentation starter for miso.
- Exploring the intricate fermentation process of miso.
- Hands-on instruction on crafting Kinzanji miso.
- Learning about various types of miso and their culinary applications.
Following a variety of food tasting with the Kinzanji Miso from the previous year, you'll take home a jar of freshly prepared Kinzanji miso, ready to mature and develop its rich flavours in the comfort of your own home.
Instructor
Akemi Yokoyama
Akemi Yokoyama has a background in Japanese food provenance, nurtured from her Father, who along with his family foraged and fished throughout the Island of Hokkaido. She is now a Japanese food specialist, chef, presenter and writer based in London. Her regular Japanese cookery classes at Sozai have received very favourable reviews in the UK’s national media, including Time Out and The Telegraph. She has also appeared on the popular TV programmes, C4’s Sunday Brunch and CBBC's Saturday Mash-Up, teaching the presenters how to make sushi. She is also an in demand private chef. She has cooked for celebrities including Tina Turner and Rina Sawayama.
She demonstrates authentic Japanese cooking in the UK and Europe at many diverse events, and she regularly works with the Japanese government’s related organizations promoting Japanese cuisine and sake to the media and public. Her latest culinary interests include all aspects of fermentation and flavour experimentation across multiple food cultures. .
Akemi is a member of the Japanese Culinary Academy UK, is a certified miso sommelier. She has judged Sake category at International Wine Challenge in 2020/2021/2022/2024.
This was a very informative class, full of detail and yet easy to follow tips and techniques on making rolled sushi. At the end of the class we ate some of the sushi along with a glass of chilled, delicious sake and then took the rest home. The ingredients used were very high end and we left with our own sushi kit and white sesame seeds, which I thought made it excellent value.
I just attended the Sushi Master Class with Akemi. I had learned so much from Akemi and thoroughly enjoyed the day. If you are interested in gaining some skills in a wonderful environment, I would encourage you to join one of these classes. Michael.
A really fun afternoon. We learned how to make everything from scratch - including making the ramen noodles. Akemi explained all the steps for making the broth and the pork char siu. We were given a goodie bag to take home which had all the instructions from the course in case we forgot anything!
Highly recommend this course to everybody.