Making miso

Last year I took a miso class where I successfully made miso for the first time in my life.  It was super delicious and my family enjoyed it very much.

I wanted to do it again, but this time using chickpeas instead of soybeans.  Since I'm able to easily get my hands on soybean miso anywhere in Japan, I decided it would be better to make something less traditional.  I've had it before and really enjoyed it.

A friend came over and we got right to work.  I had already cooked the beans.  We just needed to mash them; add aquafava (bean cooking liquid); mix it with the koji and salt; and put it into a fermenting crock.  The whole process took us less than an hour and a half.

The mashed beans mixed with aquafava.

Koji with salt.

Everything mixed together.

Slapping balls together to remove any oxygen.  

We then threw the balls into our containers.

My new fermenting crock, just for making miso!  

The prepped miso sits under some plastic wrap 

and a thick layer of salt to weigh it down.

It was so easy and fun to do with a friend.  We chatted the whole time, which always makes the work go faster.

I really hope it works.  It was much softer than the soybean miso I made last year.  Now I just have to wait 9 months to see if it turned out.