Korean miso?

Question

I want to make Dwoenjang-jjigye (soy bean paste stew??). And I guess I need to buy soy bean paste. But I really don't know which soy bean paste I want to get. Does anybody know which brand or what kind of Korean miso is good?

I found this website that sells Korean miso:http://www.koamart.com/shop/30-hot_peppers_paste.asp

Does this website sell ok miso???

And I want to know if there is a big difference between Korean miso and Japanese miso.

LILMAMI: Thank you very much for your answer. But I want to know the information about "Korean miso," not Japanese sweet stuff and Japanese miso. I'm actually Japanese and I know what you answered but that's not what I asked. But I really appreciate that you tried to answer my question. Thank you :)

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_cuisine

says it's much more pungent than japanese miso

Answer 2

Ok, so Korean "miso" is called Dwenjang. It's actually a bit different from Miso and does not come from the same roots.

Here is a much better explanation about dwenjang:

http://www.trifood.com/dwenjang.html

As for your recipe, here are two great websites with the recipe link (quite authentic, they sound like my mother's recipes)


http://www.trifood.com/dwenjangchigae.html

http://www.xanga.com/item.aspx?user=koreancooking&tab=weblogs&uid=327400579

There are many kinds of dwenjang, but the two main kinds are dwenjang and chung-guke-jang. There is a separate recipe for chung-guke-jang.

I can't really go into specifics, but dwenjang is made from a process involving soy beans. When soy beans are mashed and dried into blocks (about the size of red bricks) they are hung up to dry. Then they are put into jars to ferment with other materials and dwenjang is formed.

The website you have seems to be a general site for Asian groceries. Here are two websites that have specifically Korean groceries that will sell the other stuff you need for the recipes:

http://www.kgrocer.com

http://www.ikoreaplaza.com

Hope that helps, good luck with your cooking!

Answer 3

Tsubushi an - Sweet Bean Paste for Japanese Sweets
This is "mashed" bean paste, which is easier to make than koshi an, or strained bean paste. It is very sweet, and is mainly used as a filling for confections. I think this is more flavorful than the strained kind of bean paste. Use the small red beans called azuki, adzuki, or sometimes, aduki. All of these words are pronounced the same in Japanese, the difference only exists in the spelling. I have made this but it was a while ago. The cooking and preparation times are guesses. Please do not rely on them. I included 8 hours soaking time in the prep time, though, of course, this is not active. 25 servings 800 grams bean paste
½ day ½ day prep
10 5/8 ounces azuki beans
12 1/3-14 7/8 ounces sugar
1/4-1/2 ounce salt

Rinse azuki and soak in plenty of water for 7 to 8 hours.
Discard the soaking water; place the beans in a saucepan with water reaching 3 cm above the surface of the beans.
Bring to a boil, then add about 300 ml water, and bring to a boil again.
Drain beans of all water (discarding water), return beans to saucepan, cover with plenty of water, just bring to a boil, then lower heat, and cook until tender, stirring occasionally.
The beans with burn if the heat is too high, or they are not stirred a little.
It should take between 1 and 2 hours for the beans to become tender.
When the beans are tender enough to mash easily between your fingers, (not all falling apart) turn off the heat; cover, and let stand 20 minutes.
Add enough room temperature water to the beans in the saucepan to cool them.
Wait until the beans have sunk to the bottom of the pan, then pour off the clearer liquid on top without disturbing the darker liquid below.
Add more water, wait for the beans to sink, and remove the water on top again.
After adding and pouring off the top part of the water three times, drain the beans by pouring the contents of the saucepan into a colander or sieve that has been lined with cloth.
Return about one half of the cooked beans to the saucepan; add the smaller amount of sugar, and cook, stirring constantly, over high heat, until the sugar has been incorporated.
This burns easily, so lower the heat if necessary.
Add the remaining cooked beans and continue to cook, while stirring and adding more sugar if necessary, until you have a shiny bean paste.
This will thicken as it cools, so it is not necessary to cook the bean paste for a long time at this stage.
You can mash some of the beans while you are cooking them with the sugar if necessary, but this type of bean paste should have some beans retaining their original shape.
Add the salt at the very last stage of cooking and stirring.
Taste to make sure the flavor is right.
Remove from heat, spread out on a large plate to cool.

Miso Recipe
Once you've had homemade miso, you will not be able to eat the stuff that is sold in the store. 1 batch
365 days 365 days prep
14 1/8 ounces whole soybeans
2 5/8 cups filtered water
5 1/3 ounces sea salt
10 5/8 ounces dried rice koji
2 teaspoons sea salt (for preparation of fermenting vat)

Sterilize all utensils in boiling water before preparing to make miso.
Rinse the soybeans and soak in the water overnight or until the soybeans have approximately doubled in size.
Bring a large pot with the soybeans and soaking water to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and cook, covered, for 3 to 4 hours or until soybeans are soft.
The soybeans can also be cooked in a pressure cooker.
Put the soaked beans with the soaking water in a pressure cooker and cook at max pressure for 40 minutes.
Consult your pressure cooker manual for additional instructions.
Drain the beans into a colander, RESERVING the liquid.
While the beans are still hot, by hand, mash the beans until only about one-third of the soybeans are whole.
Allow the beans to cool down to about 90-95 degrees F.
Use a thermometer!
Koji is like yeast, if the soybeans are too hot, it will kill the cultures.
Take 200 ml of the reserved liquid (adding additional filtered water as needed) and dissolve the salt.
Add this liquid slowly to the soybeans while stirring continuously.
Crumble the koji into the miso mixture and with your clean hands mix until you obtain a smooth mixture.
To ferment the miso, use a heavy, glazed, ceramic, food-safe container.
Rub the inside of the container with 1 teaspoon of salt and add the miso mixture.
Level the miso surface and sprinkle 1 teaspoon of salt across the surface, to prevent unwanted molds and bacteria from spoiling the air-exposed areas.
Cover the miso with piece of parchment paper cut to fit the container exactly.
Press the paper firmly on the miso, smoothing out wrinkles and bubbles.
Top with a round wooden lid that just fits in the container (sitting directly on top of the miso) and about 10 pounds of weights.
My mom uses boiled-clean river rocks.
Cover the top of the container with wax or parchment and tie in place with cotton kitchen string.
If your container is large enough, you can repeat the steps above on subsequent days to make more batches of miso, making sure to leave several inches of headspace to be able to sufficiently cover, weight and wrap the container.
Remember to salt the container and the top of the miso each time you make additions to the container.
Place the miso container in a dark, clean, cool room.
The miso will be ready after 12 months fermentation.
During the fermentation some liquid (tamari) will rise to the surface.
If no liquid tamari is seen on the surface then the pressing weight must be increased.
Don't peek.
Opening the container while it is fermenting causes it to lose quality.
You'll need to check it occasionally to make sure that the tamari is rising to the top, but this should be done infrequently, once every couple of months or so.
This miso can be kept in the container for a few years.