Homemade Amazaki
Tonight, at 62 years of age, Hiromi has, for the very first time, recreated a special childhood memory and shared it with me. He made amazaki, a fermented rice drink his mother used to serve her family when the weather was chilly and the house was only slightly warmer.
He began by ordering Koji, which he described as yeast made from rice. Then he asked a Japanese co-worker to buy sweet rice (a very short-grained rice also used for making mochi) at the Asian grocery store in Wichita. One evening last week he arrived home with a kitchen appliance--an electric cooker with a thermostat to regulate the temperature. He experimented with it till he figured out exactly where to set the dial to keep the temperature at 60 degrees, the proper incubation temperature.
Last night he measured and soaked the rice in preparation for cooking it this morning.
It looked like a glue-y mass after it was cooked, very different in appearance and texture from the usual Asian rice we eat. He mixed it with Koji in the proper proportions and set it to incubate. He kept checking on it, and reported toward evening that it smelled just right. After supper he took a portion of the finished product and diluted it with water, then heated and served it in a cup.
I could hardly believe there was no added sugar. It was very sweet, and tasted a little like the rice cereal for babies that I remember getting tiny tastes of when my siblings were small, and when my own children ate cereal as infants. It was not completely smooth, but could easily be drunk from a cup.
The remaining portion he plans to heat to boiling and then refrigerate to keep it from turning into sake (sah-kay--rice wine).
So now I know how amazaki tastes. I'm glad Hiromi's experiment was a success. For one so far from his mother (At 92, she still lives in Japan.) and the comfort foods of his growing-up years, this can't be an everyday occurrence, but today the pleasure of a hot, sweet childhood treat warmed the heart of a very special 62-year old Issei American.
He began by ordering Koji, which he described as yeast made from rice. Then he asked a Japanese co-worker to buy sweet rice (a very short-grained rice also used for making mochi) at the Asian grocery store in Wichita. One evening last week he arrived home with a kitchen appliance--an electric cooker with a thermostat to regulate the temperature. He experimented with it till he figured out exactly where to set the dial to keep the temperature at 60 degrees, the proper incubation temperature.
Last night he measured and soaked the rice in preparation for cooking it this morning.
It looked like a glue-y mass after it was cooked, very different in appearance and texture from the usual Asian rice we eat. He mixed it with Koji in the proper proportions and set it to incubate. He kept checking on it, and reported toward evening that it smelled just right. After supper he took a portion of the finished product and diluted it with water, then heated and served it in a cup.
I could hardly believe there was no added sugar. It was very sweet, and tasted a little like the rice cereal for babies that I remember getting tiny tastes of when my siblings were small, and when my own children ate cereal as infants. It was not completely smooth, but could easily be drunk from a cup.
The remaining portion he plans to heat to boiling and then refrigerate to keep it from turning into sake (sah-kay--rice wine).
So now I know how amazaki tastes. I'm glad Hiromi's experiment was a success. For one so far from his mother (At 92, she still lives in Japan.) and the comfort foods of his growing-up years, this can't be an everyday occurrence, but today the pleasure of a hot, sweet childhood treat warmed the heart of a very special 62-year old Issei American.
posted by Mrs. I at
7:20 PM
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