Koji Bread #1

Our friend gave us some Koji and it's been languishing in the fridge for years. I finally made Shio Koji with it, then made bread from that -- it wouldn't be a costly if it didn't turn out. But it turned out beautifully, dark color, nice crust, a flavor with a slight sourdough-like edge.

Bread cooling on rack

Koji is rice inoculated with the Aspergillus oryzae (koji kin). It has a transformative power which is used to make Soy, Miso, and is now being used by chefs in some crazy non-traditional preparations.  I made Shio Koji with ours by adding an equal weight of water, and 5% of total weight in Salt; I whizzed it, and let it ride unrefrigerated for 10 days. After a while it developed an acetone smell that dissipated a bit with a daily stir. Disgusting? Dangerous? Lethal? How bad could it be? I tried a taste and the cream-like liquid had a flavor like creamy blue cheese without the blue. I figured if I made bread with it and it turned out badly, it wouldn't be too expensive a mistake. So I made it with my usual long-rise technique, and covered hot bake. 

1000 g All Purpose Flour
 400 g Koji
 450 g Water
  20 g Salt

Combine the ingredients in a stand mixer, then knead 10 minutes.

I started with 350 g Water and kept adding it until the texture seemed right.

Put in a covered 3L Cambro container and let rise in the fridge 3 days; it rose from 1L to 2L.

Take out, let warm up several hours, and rise to 3L.

Shape into a ball and let rise in a parchment lined bowl, covered with cling film.

Shaped and final rise

Preheat oven with a large cast iron pot and cover to 550F convection.

When hot, lift the bread on its parchment and lower into the screaming hot pot.

Cover, cook 20 minutes.

Drop temperature to 450F, cook 15 minutes.

Drop temperature to 350F, uncover, bake 30 more minutes.

Carefully remove from pot by grabbing the parchment, let cool on a rack before cutting.

 =

Stuffed Squid in its own Ink

This is dramatically black, surprisingly rich, and not that difficult to make. Serve it over cooked white rice for good contrast.

Squid with ink sauce served over rice

The recipe is adapted from "¡Delicioso! The Regional Cooking of Spain" by Penelope Casas, "Cipirones Rellenos en su Tinta". I've streamlined it to avoid removing the squid from the sauce and overlap cooking and prep times. The squid we get, by Town Dock, frozen and available at BJs Wholesale, does not need the 2+ hours cooking time hers do; this should take about an hour total.  Makes two servings.

Stuffing

1 pound Squid, about 2-4 inches long, cleaned, defrosted; separate tentacles and tubes

1 Tbs Olive Oil

1 medium Onion, chopped very fine

2 cloves Garlic, minced

1.5 Tbs Parsley, minced

Salt

Pepper

I used a 3 Quart Pot, about 6-inches tall, but narrow enough that the sauce mostly cover the Stuffed Squid when it cooked later.

Finely chop the Squid tentacles and fins, saute in Olive Oil with Onion, Garlic, Parsley, Salt, and Pepper. 

Cook about 10 minutes.

Move it to a bowl and reuse the pot for the Sauce.

Sauce

1 tsp Squid Ink

1/8 C Dry Red Wine

1/8 C Fish stock, clam juice, liquid from defrosting the Squid, or Water

1 Tbs Olive Oil

1 medium Onion, chopped fine

2 clove Garlic, minced

4 ounces Bell Pepper, cored, seeded, finely chopped (we used an orange one)

4 ounces Tomato

Pepper, black

In a bowl, combine Ink, Wine, Fish Stock and set aside to dissolve a bit; the Ink is quite thick and wants to stick to itself and everything else.

Heat the Oil and saute Onions, Garlic, Peppers, Tomatoes, Parsley, Black Pepper for 5 minutes. Cover and cook slow for 15 minutes to break down the vegetables. 

Stir in the Ink/Wine mixture and any liquid from the defrosted Squid.

While the sauce cooks, stuff the squid.

Stuff the Squid

Load a wide-tipped pastry bag with the cooked stuffing; you can use a spoon but it's fidgety.

Stuff each of the Squid tubes, but don't over fill. 

Close each with toothpicks.

Combine, Cook

Whiz the Sauce with an immersion blender and pass through a fine sieve to strain out tomato skins, seeds, and leave a smooth sauce. Return to pan.

Add Stuffed Squid to the Sauce and cook until the squid is tender enough, ours took about 20 minutes.

If the sauce is thin, leave it uncovered or slightly covered; if thick, put a lid on it.

It should be like a thick gravy, not a loose liquid.

Taste the sauce and add Salt if needed, but be careful since the Ink is pretty salty.

While this is cooking, cook some Rice.

Serve

Add cooked Rice to warmed plates.

Remove the Squids one at a time, and remove the toothpicks; arrange squids on the rice.

Cover with the cooked Sauce.

Garnish with some minced Parsley for contrast.