Hello THere!
I’m back with another interesting bit. You all remember I grew koji on beetroot not long time ago. I did it again – just using one of my big love as a vegetable – Mr Celeriac.
I wanted to try this anyway – but also as a part of my koji-cooking-off menu for the neverhappenedCollabPopup.
I learnt a few things after my beetroot experiment last time so using that knowledge this is what I ‘ve got.
- Salt roasted the celeriac in one piece. carefully not covered the whole bulb with rock salt – is we know how koji reacts for too much salt. It was just nicely sitting on a small pile – covered with foil. Baked till soft but not mushhhhh.
- Peeled, quatered and dehydrated for 2 hours in a 60-70 degrees oven fan on.
- Inoculated with awamori spores and let them do the job.
- Loved it. Very happy molds.
- Here i took one on the side – i brined the rest with 10% salt for 2 hours. Way more less then the beetroots – again, lesson learnt.
- Dehydrated again for 2 hours in 70 degrees. Mainly to get rid of the brine wettiness :)
- Done.
- Here i choose different methods. 1 baked, 1 deep fried and 1 pan fried. The no-salted one got in the oven as well (its more about the flavour).
Results: all freaking delicious. Loved more the fried ones as the koji layer got very nicely crispy – keeping the inside soft and almost creamy. The biggest discovery this time: basically no need any salting. I m not saying that the brined ones were too salty (maybe only 1 hour less time) I am just saying that the black awamori created a brilliant acidic layer in the celeriac – very well balanced flavours, not needed really more salt. Only for safety reasons, I think I should still brine them but just for a very little time. If I would go for a charcuterie kindof a thing – easily see it happening just need more dehydrator work.
The one I plated up for a final picture got the dandelion glaze and brown butter emulsion – so it was really as juicy as a steak. Delissssssssssssssssssssh.
Keep up the good work. A lot to discover. :)
NakedPea 