Let's make miso!

I've finally decided that it is about time that I contribute to the blog, so that said, here's a post about a Sunday, a couple of weeks ago when Dave and I rolled up our sleeves to make miso; a fermented soy bean paste used to flavour soups and stews in Japanese cooking. Our friends (with the impressive collection of Japanese dolls below) have a family tradition of preparing homemade miso once a year at the end of February, and this year we were lucky enough to be invited to join them. So, after a timely but fun process of mixing, mincing and molding a thick paste of soybeans, rice-yeast, salt and vinegar, the mixture was then put to bed to ferment for 6-12months. By that time, it should have darkened somewhat and developed an alcoholic aroma (nice!).
Hopefully, a year from now we'll be able to sample our miso, and of course (with our humble inexperienced taste buds) give it the thumbs up/down.