Amazake is a sweet fermented rice product that makes a balanced, health-supportive dessert option. First we inoculate rice kernels with the koji aspergillus spore. Next, we make three gallons of soft rice, bring the pot to 140 degrees fahrenheit with a cooking thermometer, insulate an insulated tub, and ferment for 8-12 hours in a sterile jar. It's so simple!
Just like making a TB vaccine!
My friend Sue from the Kushi Institute rolled her eyes and laughed when I told her I couldn't make it.
"It's not rocket science," she said as she gave the boiling rice a stir with an enormous bamboo paddle.
Isn't it? I decided to give this spore-inoculating, twelve-hour incubating rice byproduct a try. Koji has been sold out in a bizarre nationwide dearth. I tried all the normal culprits... the Kushi Store, South River Miso... everybody was sold out. Then me and May were walking by this busted up Japanese grocery store in Brookline trying to score cheap seaweed, and BAM. A fridge FULL of koji! Who would have thought that this store, which had the nutritional depth and range of a 7-11, would have three giant tubs of koji spore for sale? It was a birthday miracle.
So we cradled our tub of fungus-spiked rice fragments like a baby and took it home. It was a sign.
Amazake was our destiny.
making amazake
It's not actually that hard.
I could probably make it after having a drink.
I'm not going to try to prove that, though.
::INGREDIENTS::.: 3 cups koji-inoculated rice fragments. Brown or White Rice is ok.
.: 3 cups short-grain brown rice.: 9 cups water
::PARFAIT TOPPINGS::
.: vanilla extract
.: cinnamon
.: nutmeg
.: almond extract
.: apples
.: toasted almonds/pecans
The day before ( afternoon or evening for an overnight fermentation, 8 AM or earlier for a day fermentation), make your rice. Soak and rinse your brown rice, then bring rice and 9 cups of water to boil. Cover and simmer 40-50 minutes, until rice has a soft, porridge-like consistency.
When the kids are tucked into bed and Nancy Grace is over, bring your cool rice back up to temperature. It should be warm and steaming, but not hot. You should be able to put your finger in it for a few seconds and not get scalded. If you have a food thermometer, this is 140 degrees.
Pour your koji rice in the big pot of warm rice, and stir stir stir. Stir until it's well-mixed. At this point, the books all say to put your pot of rice/koji in a warm lunchbox surrounded by jars of hot water. I put the pot in the oven set to 150 degrees because I knew the oven was old and leaked heat, so it'd be between 130 and 140.
May stuck signs on the oven that said "WILD FERMENTATION IN PROCESS, DO NOT DISTURB," and we left it in for 12 hours.
I know I just threw a ton of numbers at y'all, but it breaks down like this:
Make watery rice. Make it warm, not hot. Mix in fungus. Stick in oven. Check on it in 12 hours.
I checked up on it about every 2-4 hours just to make sure the oven wasn't acting up or catching on fire. Safety first, guys.
When we opened the oven, it was kind of like having a baby. The rice was sweet like candy and SO delicious! I knew right away I had to make it into parfaits. I mixed in vanilla extract, nutmeg, and cinnamon to a small bowl of amazake. We roasted walnuts and layered the parfait, amazake, nuts, amazake, nuts. Next time, I'm going to do mixed berry and almond parfaits with cashew cream on top!
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