2024-10-03 Barley koji with LUVI koji spores
Pearl Barley (brand: Heera, bought: IndoPak Malmö July 2024)
- 1225 g pearl barley ⇒ soak for 8h in cold water Barley gets quite soft just by soaking, it seems almost edible (though very starchy). Recipes online and in Shockey book suggest cooking or steaming for 30-90 min, but that seems quite long. Too much volume to cook at once anyway, so split into approx. two batches. Batch 1: Place steaming tray in pot with some water, pile soaked barley onto it. Boil the water and let simmer with the lid closed for 15 min. Taste. Not soft enough, another 15 min ⇒ good! Batch 2: Same as above, steam for 30 min. Good! Grains are rubbery-chewy and half-open, but not mushy.
Pour onto a deep baking tray lined with a tea towel and distribute evenly so the hot grains can steam off.
Preparing LUVI koji spores: Spores from LUVI Fermentationculture.eu: https://www.fermentationculture.eu/shop/barley-koji/ Toast 60 g rice flour in a pan until lightly brown and hot. Let cool down <40C. Pour the whole content of one sachet koji spores onto the rice flour, mix well. Put into a new plastic bag, label, and put into fridge for storage. Of this mix, use 12 g for 1 kg of substrate.
When grains have steamed off and cooled down <40C, sprinkle 20 g of koji spore flour (see above) onto it in several steps, mixing well in between to incorporate the spore flour evenly. (20 g because I don’t know for sure how heavy the cooked barley is, but 1.2 g dry barley probably results in something like 1.8 kg of wet barley).
Steamed and cooled down barley grains with koji spores (mixed with toasted rice flour).
All well mixed and covered with the spore flour. Start of incubation.
Once all grains have been covered by spore flour, fold in the tea towel, cover with another tea towel and loose plastic film and place into the oven onto a heating mat set to 32C.
0h, 2024-10-04, 22:00 - Start 11h, 2024-10-05, 9:00 - 32C, turn heating mat off for the day because we are out hiking 22h 2024-10-05, 20:00 - 26C, turn heating mat back on, 32C 35h 2024-10-06, 9:00 - 32C. Small white fluff on grains visible, and they are caked a bit together. Break up all the clumps and redistribute on the baking sheet. Continue incubation under tea towel and loose plastic film. No wet spots, kernels are mostly just rubbery and fairly dry, but there are some spots where the grains were a bit more mushy.
After the koji is done, keep for:
- immediate refrigeration for use within the next 10 days
- immediate freezing for use within 1-2 months