Cheese, anchovies, preserved lemons, shio koji (salted rice malt). Do you have them at home but always find yourself doing the same old thing with them? Here lifestyle expert Shioyama Nao shares her tips on how to make these and other fermented foods as much a part of your daily meals as miso and soy sauce.
“I’ve really been getting into rice bran again lately,” says Shioyama Nao, the author of books on fermented foods. Besides your basic bed of rice bran for pickling vegetables, she also has separate rice-bran pickling beds for meat and fish. “I know that fermented foods are good for you, but they also make everything taste better by enhancing the umami flavor. That’s what I most love about them!”
At the Shioyama home, shio koji serves as a tastier version of salt — and is put to more uses too. It’s used to dust vegetables, marinate beans, and season meat before cooking. “It goes well with any ingredient, it’s easy to use, and it enhances the flavor. It truly is an all-purpose seasoning.”
Shio koji, preserved lemons, anchovies, and similar foods tend to get used constantly for the same old thing. The fact is, though, that they can as easily be incorporated into your daily cooking as traditional fermented seasonings like miso, soy sauce, and vinegar. We asked Nao for pointers on how.
Little tricks for making fermented foods part of your daily meals
●Store in ready-to-use form.
At the Shioyama home, the granular and smooth varieties of shio koji are stored separately in empty dressing containers, while preserved lemons are puréed. Keeping them immediately available for use ensures that both are used more often.
●Use in place of regular seasonings.
Even if you’re not making something new, try substituting shio koji where you’d usually use salt.
●Try adding something extra.
“Simply adding lemon juice to shio koji enhances the flavor.” Besides using fermented seasonings as they are, you can also have fun combining them. That’s part of their beauty. In this article, we feature ideas for dressings.
Simple ideas for making fermented foods part of your daily meals
●First idea: Use them in dressings.
With a few decent seasonings and fermented foods, you can quickly concoct a variety of homemade dressings rather than relying on the store-bought stuff. Simply altering the type of oil used is enough to give a dressing a Japanese, Western, or Chinese twist. Try tweaking the basic combination of ingredients to suit your taste.
<Recipe 1: Oil-free shio koji and green shiso dressing>
[Ingredients for an easy-to-prepare batch]
50 g (approx. 3 tbsp.) shio koji
(see below for instructions on making it)
10 green shiso leaves
[Instructions]
1.Mince the shiso leaves and mix with the shio koji.
Keeps for a month in the fridge.
Foods this dressing goes well with
Instead of green shiso, this dressing can also be made with aromatic herbs such as basil, Italian parsley, or rosemary. It goes well with meat as well as vegetables.
<Recipe 2: Anchovy dressing>
[Ingredients for an easy-to-prepare batch]
2–3 anchovies (10 g)
Touch of grated garlic
2 tbsp. olive oil
1½ tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 tsp. soy sauce
[Instructions]
1.Mash the anchovies or chop them into a paste with a knife, Mix well with all the other ingredients.
Keeps for a month in the fridge.
Foods this dressing goes well with
This dressing goes particularly well with vegetables like komatsuna (Japanese mustard spinach) that have a distinctive taste. It’s also delicious drizzled on potatoes or green beans. The touch of soy sauce gives it a subtle twist.
●Second idea: Don’t hesitate to use them in your cooking.
Here’s an idea you can put into practice right now — in time for tonight’s dinner, in fact. Simply add fermented foods to your cooking as you would your go-to seasonings. It really boosts the flavor. Here, Nao tells us her favorite ways to use shio koji, anchovies, and shiokara (fermented squid innards).
(1) Shio koji (salted rice malt)
Try using shio koji in your meals. Think of it as an umami-forward version of salt. Start by substituting it for salt in old standards like nikujaga stew and ginger-fried pork. It boosts their umami and produces a mellower flavor, even though you follow the same steps as always.
(2) Anchovies
“Vegetables stir-fried in anchovies taste exquisite!” Nao enthuses. The trick is to mix the vegetables in as soon as the anchovies are put on the stove and start disintegrating. Anchovies burn easily, so it’s a good idea to give the vegetables a quick boil first.
(3) Shiokara (fermented squid innards)
The easiest way to make shiokara part of your meals is by adding it to things like stir-fries. Think of it as the Japanese equivalent of anchovies. It melts into a thin paste when you heat it, so it clings well to other ingredients. Shiokara tastes delicious stir-fried with julienned potatoes or mixed into chijimi (Korean pancake).
●Third idea: Prep make-ahead dishes with fermented foods.
Make-ahead dishes kept in the fridge come in handy when you’re looking for one more thing to round out your meal. Why not try prepping them with fermented foods? It’s a hassle-free way to include something fermented in your meal, no matter how busy you are. Dishes made ahead with fermented foods are bursting with umami. With their well-defined flavor, they’re also great for beer snacks and bento lunches!
<Recipe: Potatoes stir-fried in shiokara>
[Ingredients for an easy-to-prepare batch]
2–3 potatoes (May Queen recommended) (net weight 200 g)
30 g shiokara
Vegetable oil as required
[Instructions]
1.Julienne the potatoes, then soak in water and thoroughly drain in a colander.
2.Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the potatoes. Once they’re coated in oil and turn soft, add the shiokara and heat through until thoroughly blended into the potatoes.
Dishes like these are an easy way to make fermented foods part of your daily meals. Use them as dressings or in place of your regular seasonings. Having dishes prepped with fermented foods in the fridge is handy when planning meals. Fermented foods are good for you, and adding just a small amount to any dish boosts its umami. You don’t have to go overboard. Include a little in your meals each day, and you’ll find yourself getting into a healthy rhythm.
<The Shioyama family recipe for shio koji!>
[Ingredients for an easy-to-prepare batch]
500 g kome koji (rice malt)
150 g salt
500+ ml water
[Instructions]
1.Break up the lumps of kome koji and thoroughly mix all the ingredients. After the koji absorbs the water and the grains appear, add just enough water to cover it. Stir once a day. Your shio koji will be ready in a week to ten days. Once ready, store in the fridge.
Keeps for six months in the fridge.
This article is a re-edited excerpt from Healthy Meals for Better Living (released in September 2015).
