Category: Feel Good Food

Part 1

My second home is Japan. I spent more than 10 years living, studying and working there during my 20’s, almost being drawn into the seedy side of hostessing and making a daring escape, studying at a prestigious university, owning my own food importing business, marrying into a Japanese family and giving birth to a beautiful daughter, the depth of my experience in this amazing country cannot be fully expressed. However, each time I return, there is so much more depth and knowledge to gather, that I am humbled by just how much I don’t know and what there is to learn. Especially about food!.

Becoming a Japanese housewife was not easy for an Aussie girl back in 1994, especially whilst running a business in a male dominated society. All the expectations of what a Japanese housewife should do and behave is pretty much set in stone in a country with such a long history. One thing that I did master was an understanding of how to cook Japanese Homestyle foods and the use miso as one of the main staples of Japanese cooking. A quick delicious dish with miso as the base flavour always saved the day whilst I was on the run in the face paced Tokyo. All these years later, miso is still an integral part of our cooking at home in Australia as well as in our many miso-based items on our Peko Peko menu. On my last trip to the shores of Japan with my husband and business partner Troy, I learnt so much more than I expected and it’s really exciting to return home and ponder all those experiences!

The aim of this trip was to explore the story and the history of miso, to connect with miso artisans and manufacturing businesses and to offer our customers a better understanding of what is miso and how can we offer you a deeper understanding of how miso can improve your health, add umami to your food and bring to life dishes that would otherwise lack a depth of flavour.

Troy and I started the journey in Tokyo and spent a full day at the international food trade fair, Foodex. I felt a strange pang of homesickness, as this is where my career in Japanese food began as an interpreter and importer of Australian fresh produce.

Thirty years later here I was, back at the newer, bigger and impressive Big Site Tokyo on the Tokyo harbour, and it is enormous! There were so many incredible products and stall holders that the experience was somewhat overwhelming and there was so much more here than the miso I came here for! Gathering our thoughts in this enormous food fest we decided that we would concentrate only on the healthiest products for Peko Peko and our customers. Definitely only products that have no artificial ingredients, additives or MSG!

So now we eagerly await our huge box of samples of the new and exciting things we uncovered at Foodex this year. Kombu soy sauce, yuzu powder, yuzu miso, kombu powder, white sweet miso, dark black miso, ginger miso, sesame kombu snacks, wasabi salt ume miso and much more. Our whole team is excited for this unveiling and the endless possibilities that come with the exploration of these artisanal flavours. Our aim is to share knowledge and develop products that will allow the magnificence of umami to shine through whilst understanding the incredible benefits to our health these products bring!

Before we explore what our recent trip uncovered in world of miso in Japan, let’s take a broader look at what Miso is and where it comes from.

For those who are only beginning to discover this amazing product, miso is a full-bodied savory or sweet and salty fermented food, made from combinations of fermented rice, soy beans or barley, which adds deep umami flavour notes to both traditional Japanese and Western dishes. Miso also has the most incredible health-promoting properties and one of the reasons why Japanese people live so long!

Let’s first put things into perspective and look at the history of Miso. Miso actually originated in China and found its way to Japan in the seventh century. From the 8th to the 12th centuries miso was a delicacy almost entirely eaten by the nobility and monks, being strictly off limits to the commoner. It was also used as gifts or in some cases wages for the society’s elite. Rather than as a seasoning as it is today, it was used directly as a spread on food or eaten straight.

During the period of the 12th to the 16th centuries, miso made from mashed soybeans became a staple for the Samurai and later found its way to the common people as farmers began to make their own. During the hundred years of civil war in Japan, between the 15th and 16th century, rice and the nutrients in Miso played an important part in the securing of victory on the battlefield. As a result, the benefits of miso came to be held in high esteem and great efforts began to be made in the improving of fermentation methods. During the Edo period of 17 th to the 19 th century, Miso became even more important as the Shogunate (the military leadership) issued a “thrift ordinance” to urge Samurai and the commoner to embrace a frugal lifestyle.

At the same time a wealthy merchant class began to emerge and so also came the development of high-grade miso’s and increasingly sophisticated recipes.

Today in Japan there are hundreds and hundreds of Miso producers all over the country.
From small family run operations of hundreds of years and tens of generations, to large industrial operations. Depending on the area, the producers either produce Kome Miso (ricemiso) Mugi Miso (barley miso) or Mame Miso (soy bean) miso or any combination of these processes. From super sweet miso in the Kansai region to dark super salty miso of the Tokai region, there are so many varieties that its going take us a few more years of factory visits to really uncover a full comprehensive understanding of the complexity of Japan’s miso culture!

The health benefits of miso are also enormous and Miso has been credited with numerous extraordinary powers: the ability to ward off cancer, combat radiation sickness, and even negate smoke inhalation or the exposure to pollution. Raw and natural miso is also rich in digestive enzymes and studies have shown that people who eat miso are less susceptible to gastric issues. Miso prevents high blood pressure and strokes, slows down the aging process, reduces toxins, improves brain metabolism. Whether or not these claims are exaggerated, there is clear and irrefutable evidence that a bowl of miso soup a day will
impart beneficial health properties that will lead to long-lasting well-being.

I hope this historical and health perspective gives you the desire to tackle the mystery of miso from a space of respect and wonder!

Welcome to our new and improved Peko Peko blog!

We are so excited to bring you loads of amazing food information, recipes, and sneak previews into the forthcoming release of our exciting new 2023 product range.

From March 3, 2023, we will be travelling to Japan to research and discover new ingredients and recipes that we can share with all our loyal customers. We will be visiting the International Foodex Trade fair in Tokyo, Miso factories nationwide as well as lots and discussions with chefs and restaurant owners to uncover loads secret ingredients as well as cutting edge cooking methods.

Part of our mission is to bring more Umami to the table and into our products! As Peko Peko does not use ANY artificial flavours or instant sauces, using Umami is how we create our dishes with so it’s imperative that we keep moving forward against the tide of commercial and often unhealthy products and keep on creating Umami for the love of health and wellbeing!

So, what is Umami you may ask? We all know the basic tastes of sweet, sour, salty, and savoury but back in the early 1900s, a Japanese scientist by the name of Kikunae Ikeda started to consider the possibility of a fifth basic taste. Ikeda discovered the fifth flavour after evaluating numerous items that didn’t quite fit into the previous four categories. He called it Umami うま味 .

It’s a little hard to describe, but when you taste it, you know how distinct it is. Umami is the kind of flavour that’s found in foods like meats, cheeses, mushrooms and tomatoes. It means the “essence of deliciousness” in Japanese, and its taste is often described as the meaty, savoury deliciousness that deepens flavour.

The Umami flavour has been commercialised and many companies use this in the form of MSG. You may notice that many sauces, sushi vinegar and basically anything with strong flavours contains MSG otherwise known as flavour enhancer 621. Peko Peko’s commitment for the last 20 years is to avoid any MSG or artificial flavours in our products so it’s our commitment make sure our food is super tasty and healthy using only naturally occurring Umami flavours.

At home one of our main staples in creating a fabulous Umami packed meal is by our basic Umami chicken stock. From this we can create Umami packed curries, soups, risotto and basically anything that requires a stock. In this first blog I would love to share our delicious Umami packed miso soup made from our homemade Umami packed chicken stock. Many Japanese instant miso soup stocks are filled with MSG and is what we want to avoid!

Umami packed Chicken Stock and Miso Soup

Ingredients
1 x whole organic chicken
2 cups water
2 – 3 whole dried shiitake mushrooms (optional but adds more Umami)
1 x 10 cm piece kombu seaweed (optional but adds more Umami) and is also extremely high in iodine.
2 cups cut vegetables including carrot potato broccoli beans kale spinach or anything you have left over or anything in your garden.
2-3 tbs medium miso paste (preferably organic but at least with no added MSG)
1. In a pressure cooker place the chicken in 2 cups of water, shiitake mushrooms and kombu. Pressure cook for 30 minutes turning down to low after reaching the initial high steam
2. Remove chicken from the pressure cooker and once cool enough remove as much meat as possible. Also remove the shiitake and the Kombu. Set aside to slice later.
3. Place bones back into the pressure cooker and cook the bones on low for another 3-4 hours until the bones can crumble in your hands. You may have to add a bit more water at this point.
4. Remove the bones and you will be left with an incredibly delicious chicken stock filled with a depth of Umami like no other! You can store in the fridge for a up to a week or freeze.
Miso soup
1. Using 2 cups of stock add another 2 cups of water and bring to the boil.
2. Add hard vegetables and simmer until tender. Add other vegetables or greens that require less cooking and cook for a minute or 2.
3. Turn off the heat and add back some of your cooked chicken, sliced and add the sliced shiitake mushrooms and thinly sliced kombu. Dissolve miso in a ladle and add to the miso soup, tasting as you go along. If you feel like a stronger flavour add more!
4. Reheat again gently without boiling then serve into a big bowl!

This meal is packed with not only Umami but an incredible amount of nutrients, vitamins and minerals, collagen, and good probiotics for healthy gut health! Enjoy and stay tuned for our Japan adventures with pictures recipes and loads of fun information! Stay safe and healthy! Sam