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While I was in Seoul I had the good fortune to mee

While I was in Seoul I had the good fortune to meet chef Mingoo Kang @mingleseoul. I had just heard of him the night before, in reference to his new English-language book, "Jang: The Soul of Korean Cooking" from @artisan_books. The book is due out in the U.S. mid-March, and I immediately pre-ordered a copy. Only to have Mingoo show up at an event I was part of at another restaurant @restaurantevett, with a copy of his book for me!

I've been reading Jang and highly recommend this book. Until my recent trip to Korea, I barely understood anything about these jangs: doenjang, ganjang, and gochujang. Now I can see and taste the degree to which they constitute foundations of Korean cuisine. This book is a celebration of the funky fermented jangs of Korean cuisine, full of recipes for Korean classics, as well as ideas for incorporating jangs into familiar Western dishes. If you are interested in the flavors of fermentation, check out this great new book.

Another Korean starter I'm excited to be learning

Another Korean starter I'm excited to be learning about here in Korea is nuruk, used primarily to ferment rice alcohol. I've purchased nuruk in the U.S. and on the internet but had no idea how it was made until now, with a visit to Young Suk Han of Han's Fermentation Lab @hanslab_kor in Jeongeup.

Nuruk is typically made from wheat. Mr. Han makes also makes it from barley, rice, mung beans, and combinations of these. As the fungus grows, each different substrate or combination promotes a different balance of enzymes. According to Mr. Han, in addition to its primary application in making rice alcohol such as makgeolli, cheong myeong ju, and soju, nuruk is also used in the fermentation of fish and sometimes in the production of doenjang (in addition to meju, in "a supportive role").

Mr. Han has learned primarily by experimentation. He told us that under Japanese colonization traditional alcohol production was outlawed, and between that and subsequent rice shortages, a gap occurred in the transmission of traditional knowledge of nuruk production.

One aspect of the process stood out to me that makes it radically different from koji production: the substrate for nuruk is not cooked. The grains and/or mung beans are coarsely ground, mixed with cold water into a dough, and pressed into cakes. The amount of water depends on which substrate(s) and the coarseness of the grind.

No starter is added, nor does he backslop from previous nuruk. But he does make nuruk in the same rooms, so probably the fungus has established itself in the space. When he started, he placed lotus leaves in the room, and now, if he has a batch go bad, he sanitizes the room and then places lotus leaves and other water plants in the room with the next batch.

The cakes are placed on slatted shelves to ferment for about 45 days. The fermentation takes place in special rooms where temperature, humidity, and oxygen levels can be monitored and controlled. The early stage of the fermentation generates a lot of heat, so ventilation is important to remove heat, and nuruk cakes cannot be spaced too closely together. Mr. Han aims for a warm temperature no higher than 38°C/100°F.

I'm traveling in Korea, and visited meju, ganjang,

I'm traveling in Korea, and visited meju, ganjang, and doenjang maker Woori Kong ("our bean") in Damyang. Meju is the fungal starter that is the basis of ganjang (soy sauce) and doenjang (soy bean paste), as well as gochujang. Bong Rok Oh, the owner, walked us through their processes.

Meju is made after the autumn soybean harvest. Beans are soaked, boiled until soft (about 7 hours), then mashed and pressed into forms to create big blocks. The blocks are then placed on rice straw in a room heated by a wood stove to partially dry. Over four days of drying the blocks are turned so that all the edges have contact with rice straw. Once they are dry enough to hold their shape and be hung (but the interiors are still wet), the blocks are tied with rice straw and hung in a hoop house structure to keep them dry and a little warm. They are hung for about 3 months for fungi to develop. Woori Kong starts using and selling their meju after the lunar new year.

Ganjang and doenjang start as a single process. At Woori Kong, they mix brine by adding salt until an egg can float in it, about 10% salt. Mr Oh noted with with rising temperatures they are making their brine a little saltier. They wash the mature meju blocks and fill ceramic vessels about two-thirds full with them, then cover with brine so the blocks are floating. The filled vessels are covered with glass tops and left to ferment outdoors.

After about 45 days, the brined meju is strained, separating the liquid from the solids. The liquid and solids are then transfered to separate vessels and covered with ceramic tops to protect them from the sun, and fermented for varying lengths of time, into ganjang (liquids) and doenjang (solids).

Mr. Oh reports that the Korean government has recently started promoting the use of a single strain starter, but he thinks the biodiversity of the traditional wild fermentation method makes for superior flavor and adds that Koreans are comfortable with chaos.

An arts organization I am part of, @chinkapincraft

An arts organization I am part of, @chinkapincraftstead , is hosting its second annual timber-framing workshop in September in Woodbury, TN. Learn from @fancystix and team the art of cutting joinery into timbers using hand tools, and be part of raising the timbers into two small cabins, which will house visiting artists. Details and registration at www.chinkapincrafts.org/2024-timber-frame-workshop, link in linktree in my bio. Please help spread the word to anyone you know who might be interested!

I look forward to once again being part of the onl

I look forward to once again being part of the online international fungal fermentation education event Kojicon. It runs from February 19 to March 3. My presentation is March 2 at 3PM Eastern time, but once you register, you can watch any of the presentations anytime. Link at @koji.con or in my bio.

Greetings from Peru, where I taught last week in U

Greetings from Peru, where I taught last week in Urubamba in the Sacred Valley, organized by @cuatrobacterias, with an amazing group of students including locals and people from around Peru as well as Brazil, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Chile, and Argentina.

High in the mountains where I have been here, traditional local culture, food culture included, is strong, and many people generously shared aspects of it with us, especially ferments and a broad array of preserved foods.

I've been drinking my share of wonderful Chicha de Jora. Jora is malted corn, with the entire process of soaking, sprouting, drying, milling, and brewing taking place in each small chicheria.

Here are some photos of the process.

1. Purificación, a third-generation chicha maker.

2. Martha, showing me and my class her drying jora, and how she germinates corn, dries it, mills it, and makes chicha from it.

3. Uncovering the germinating jora, covered to keep it moist and protected from sun and wind.

4. Jora close-up, in Martha's hands.

To make the jora, Martha soaks a mix of three different varieties of corn overnight, then drains it and keeps it covered 8-10 days until germinated with long tails. Once germinated, jora is dried in the sun for a day, then coarsely milled to make into chicha.

5. Martha at her chicha pot.

6. Martha straining chicha through a grass-lined basket.

Making chicha from the jora takes about three days. Martha says she uses 12 kilos of corn and 36 liters of water to make about 200 glasses of chicha. She boils water, then adds jora and a little whole wheat flour, and lets it all sit warm for a few hours then gradually cool. Once cool, she filters it from the cooking pot into a dedicated ceramic vessel. Then she leaves it to ferment about 24 hours; boils it again; then ferments it one more day, using backslop from the previous day's batch as a starter.

7. The red flag (a plastic bag) that identifies an open chicheria

8. @passifloraveganpr drinking chicha.

9. @thegreenestme drinking chicha.

10. Class pic

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Fermentation Workshop

Tuesday, August 4

Twitter Creek Gardens

For info and registration Carri Thurman at (907)235-2280

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