Hiroko’s Kitchen | Blog

Here are the home made amazake stored in a jar and amazake strawberry coctail which I have created for my birthday. You can replace the umeshu (plum wine) with fruity, sweeter tasting sake. For non-alcoholi drink add more strawberries and omit alcohol. 2 servings

100ml amazake
3 tablespoons umeshu (home-made plum wine)
3 ounces strawberry
1/2 teaspoon sugar (adjust the volume depending on the sweetness of the strawberry)
1 tablespoon lime juice

Put all ingredients in a juicer mixer and process until smooth. Pack the ice cubes in two tall glasses and pour the amazake-strawberry cocktail over them.

1 cup (Japanese rice cooker cup) medium- or short-grain brown rice
5 cups (Japanese rice cooker cup) water
7 ounces dry innoculated koji rice*

Cook the brown rice in the rice cooker using porridge function. Cool the cooked rice porridge to 140F. Transfer the cooked rice to the juicer mixer, add the innoculated koji rice and process. When you are using polished white rice, omit this blending process. Transfer the rice and koji mixture to a ceramic bowl, cover the pot with a clean kitchen towel and keep the mixture at 130F for 10 hours. I have used the rice cooker to keep the mixture at constant, right temperature using the rice cooker’s Keep Warm function. After 10 hours transfer the mixture to a clean container and quickly cool it in a ice cold bath. Taste the amazake! It is naturally fragrant sweet. Cover the container with a fitting lid and store in the refrigerator. It will keep fresh for one week in the refrigerator, or freeze for later use. You can make a super drink by diluting the amazake with cold water in 1 : 2 to 1 : 3 ratio. You can squeeze in lemon juice or ginger juice.

*innoculated koji rice: I bought at Sunrise Mart in NYC

I am now researching about koji a lot. Koji is Aspergillus oryzae. It is a fungus and used in Japanese traditional food production such as shoyu, miso, mirin, rice vinegar and sake. The popular drink associated with koji is “amazake”. The direct translation is “sweet” “sake”, but it is not an alcohol drink. I have been always unhappy with store bought amazake at Japanese food store in USA since it was too sweet..could be artificially prepared. Just a couple of days ago I found an easy-to-prepare amazake recipe. The result was delicious drink which I enjoyed enormously. It is said that amazake was once a popular super drink consumed by commoners in the city of Edo (present Tokyo) during Edo period (1600-1868). Amazake is packed with natural sugar, essential amino acids and vitamins.