I was sick this past week, so this is my first blog post in over a week. With miso power, I feel much better now.
After over 9 months, our homemade miso is finally fully matured and ready! We took the miso bucket out of the basement to check its condition. The surface had just a small amount of mold (which is very normal during the fermentation process) so I carefully scraped it off.
This batch was made in September 2009, and just like waiting for a baby's birth, we patiently let the miso develop in the bucket past 9+ months. Now, the color is darker, and the texture has become nicely pasty. It's become much smoother and less grainy because the rice koji is soft and integrated in the paste. We tasted the fresh miso as is and couldn't stop tasting more, because the flavor was incredible! Homemade miso is the best, indeed.
With this miso, I marinated the pork butt overnight and grilled on our Santa Maria BBQ Grill.
The aroma of the grilled miso marinate on the pork was really fantastic. The pork had the perfect texture with the big juicy flavor of miso.
The quick side was the grilled shishito peppers and shiitame mushrooms. I love summer grilling.
Here's the recipe for the miso marinade. This is our standard-style, and it tastes even more special with the homemade miso!
Miso Marinade for Pork
(for 3 pounds of pork butt, sliced into 3/4" thickness)
Ingredients
1/2C miso
2 tablespoons grated ginger
3-4 cloves garlic, grated
2 tablespoons sake
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons agave nectar
some green parts from green onions
Procedure
1. Whisk together all the ingredients (except for green onion).
2. Marinade the meat in the mixture with some green parts of green onions for overnight.
3. Grill the marinated meat to your preferred doneness.
