Field beans (Åkerbönor). Local too.
A double batch, quick and easy to cook and grind.
Archives for posts with tag: Fava beans
Vicia faba or field beans (åkerbönor in swedish) make an excelent miso. I made a test batch 2 years ago which we opened recently. The flavor is great, as well as the color, but the consistancy is a bit runny, making it more like a soy sauce.
Fava beans are rich in protien almost comparable to soy, but that’s not important, it’s the umame flavor mix that is the most important thing with miso and soy sauce, and fava miso does it.
Over the coming years I’ll be making a lot more, adjusting the recipe to make it more like a proper miso – things like cooking time, grinding and the mix of ingredients.
I made a new fava miso yesterday using rye koji. I cooked the beans only 45 minutes which is quite an improvement over the 4 hours for soybeans. This time I’m using rye koji making this more of a local product. I also tried to grind it more in order to break the rye koji into smaller pieces. Further it seems like the cooking liquid may have been too much, but after the rye soaked in, it appears the consistancy might be alright.
Now to wait 2 years to see how it turns out.
I got some broad beans from a fermentation friend last fall to try out for making miso, so for the first miso of this year I’ll make some.
They came peeled and dryed.
The cooking time is much shorter than for soybeans, and I cooked them a little too long and managed to turn it into a slurry.
No problem! I mix in the standard amount of rice koji and salt…
grind it a bit, put it into jars, let it ferment 2 years, and hope the flavors develop satisfactorily.
The broad bean (or fava bean, or åkerböna) has a high protein content, almost as good as in soybean. The most important factor is that it is very easy to grow in this northern climate, while the soybean is almost imposible. Now if the flavor is good that’s great, but I will undoubtedly continue to make traditional soybean miso.
Many years ago I successfully made pea miso using local peas, but the flavor was not good enough, so I don’t make it any more. I still make good chickpea miso, but the chickpeas are imported, and I would like to make a miso with local ingredients as far as possible.
timogarden 