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Koji is a culture prepared by growing either Aspergillus oryzae or Monascus purpureus mold on cooked grains and/or soybeans in a warm, humid place. Koji serves as a source of enzymes that break down (or hydrolyze / digest / split) natural plant constituents into simpler compounds when making miso, soy sauce, sake, amazake, and other fermented foods. Its fragrant white (or red) mycelium, which looks somewhat like the surface of a tennis ball, has a delightful aroma resembling that of mushrooms.

When you work with fresh koji, it's easy to understand how one can fall under its spell. Molds responsible for making foods like blue cheese and charcuterie smell either sour or of ammonia, or they reek like a damp cellar or wet dog. Koji smells like a sweet fra-grant combination of apples, fresh yeast, champagne, and honey-suckle. When you smell it for the first time, you see why people decided to use it as a food more than 9,000 years ago. It's irre-sistible. Foods made with koji contain such depth of complex and nuanced tastes and flavors that they are unrivaled.

After 9,000 years of dominance in Asia, koji is finally embarking on a much-welcomed global conquest, making an appearance in restaurant kitchens from Copenhagen to St. Petersburg, Mexico City, and even Cleveland. You don't have relegate koji to Asian-style foods. It's just as much at home with a burger and fries as it is with miso soup and sushi. And in recent times, koji in some shape or form, is getting to be a go-to ingredient in your kitchen.

In this book, you will get:

• What is Koji
• Origin of the Aspergillus oryzae
• The Koji Culture
• How to make Shio Koji
• Delicious Koji recipes you can prepare at home
• And many more