Great great result i ve got from another random experiment. I made koji ‘kovaszos uborka’ – sourdough cucumber. Its a pretty traditional hungarian ‘pickle’ – its a salted (lacto) fermentation using an old piece of sourdough bread and the heat of the summer’s sun. Usually takes 3-4 days (fermentation happening faster with direct sun and very hot temperature but the result wont be as good and the cucumber can turn to mushy) to make it in a proper way like our grandmas used to do.

This time my sis’ bought some special tiny cucumbers and asked me to make some- and an idea came into my mind straight away.

I launched some classic ‘koviubi’ in a big bottle and placed a couple in a smaller jar filled up with my black shio koji liquid and placed a small piece of sourdough on top. Covered both bottles with a plastic but let it breath.

5 hours in the sun was enough for my koji to go crazy. Bubbles appeared and the whole jar became alive.

Left it out catching nature’s solar’power for only 24 hours before took the first test bite.

Mindblowing. And 100% done. Soft but still crunchy. Salty and complex. Very very very similar to a classic traditional sourdough cucumber – was missing only a touch of dill which i missed out intentionally (wasnt sure if koji will create any specific flavour tone) but can be placed in the jar also with some garlic if needed.

To sum up: my 5% shio koji has the right amount of salt to make this miracle happen. Im not sure if that piece of bread makes any difference (i believe not), this question can be answered with another experiment next time.

Happy. Happy tummy. Enjoyed my japanese style ‘cuji’ for lunch with some classic spicy vegetable stew hungarian style.