Miso - How would you know...

Soybeans and a Solage

April 22, 2024April 22, 2024humanist55

The dual theme of my A to Z Challenge this year is the world of Commodities and Poetry Forms so the juxtaposition of these two themes may throw up some strange poems – could be a Heroic Ode to Heating Oil or will it merit a Haiku or a Haibun – whichever, I will be endeavouring to bring you interesting facts about commodities that may change the way you think about the stuff we variously depend on…

By commodity I mean certain items that are of both sufficient value/volume to be traded in special markets and are generally volatile enough to attract traders in “Futures” which are a way of hedging bets in the trading world of stocks, shares and commodities.

The A to Z Challenge runs throughout April and will consist of 26 posts – there are only a couple of letters for which I couldn’t find commodities but plenty of poetry forms to carry the day!

Worldwide Trade in Soybeans in 2022 whether or not broken” exceeded $93 billion

If you have any doubt that Soya Beans (Soybeans) ar the most important of all the beans – just take a look at the table below – note how many bolded figures (Top value of the comparisons) fall to Soy Beans! Just on this nutritional guide alone (Courtesy of Wikipedia) you would know that this bean was important before even considering it’s history, it’s culinary story and the confirmation of it’s value as revealed in the International Trade Figures… However, there is a dark side to the Soya story and one which commands our attention – more of that later.

Staple	Maize (corn)^[A]	Rice, white^[B]	Wheat^[C]	Potatoes^[D]	Cassava^[E]	Soybeans, green^[F]	Sweet potatoes^[G]	Yams^[Y]	Sorghum^[H]	Plantain^[Z]	RDA
Water content (%)	10	12	13	79	60	68	77	70	9	65
Raw grams per 100 g dry weight	111	114	115	476	250	313	435	333	110	286
Nutrient
Energy (kJ)	1698	1736	1574	1533	1675	1922	1565	1647	1559	1460	8,368–10,460
Protein (g)	10.4	8.1	14.5	9.5	3.5	40.6	7.0	5.0	12.4	3.7	50
Fat (g)	5.3	0.8	1.8	0.4	0.7	21.6	0.2	0.6	3.6	1.1	44–77
Carbohydrates (g)	82	91	82	81	95	34	87	93	82	91	130
Fiber (g)	8.1	1.5	14.0	10.5	4.5	13.1	13.0	13.7	6.9	6.6	30
Sugar (g)	0.7	0.1	0.5	3.7	4.3	0.0	18.2	1.7	0.0	42.9	minimal
Minerals	^[A]	^[B]	^[C]	^[D]	^[E]	^[F]	^[G]	^[Y]	^[H]	^[Z]	RDA
Calcium (mg)	8	32	33	57	40	616	130	57	31	9	1,000
Iron (mg)	3.01	0.91	3.67	3.71	0.68	11.09	2.65	1.80	4.84	1.71	8
Magnesium (mg)	141	28	145	110	53	203	109	70	0	106	400
Phosphorus (mg)	233	131	331	271	68	606	204	183	315	97	700
Potassium (mg)	319	131	417	2005	678	1938	1465	2720	385	1426	4700
Sodium (mg)	39	6	2	29	35	47	239	30	7	11	1,500
Zinc (mg)	2.46	1.24	3.05	1.38	0.85	3.09	1.30	0.80	0.00	0.40	11
Copper (mg)	0.34	0.25	0.49	0.52	0.25	0.41	0.65	0.60	–	0.23	0.9
Manganese (mg)	0.54	1.24	4.59	0.71	0.95	1.72	1.13	1.33	–	–	2.3
Selenium (μg)	17.2	17.2	81.3	1.4	1.8	4.7	2.6	2.3	0.0	4.3	55
Vitamins	^[A]	^[B]	^[C]	^[D]	^[E]	^[F]	^[G]	^[Y]	^[H]	^[Z]	RDA
Vitamin C (mg)	0.0	0.0	0.0	93.8	51.5	90.6	10.4	57.0	0.0	52.6	90
Thiamin (B1) (mg)	0.43	0.08	0.34	0.38	0.23	1.38	0.35	0.37	0.26	0.14	1.2
Riboflavin (B2) (mg)	0.22	0.06	0.14	0.14	0.13	0.56	0.26	0.10	0.15	0.14	1.3
Niacin (B3) (mg)	4.03	1.82	6.28	5.00	2.13	5.16	2.43	1.83	3.22	1.97	16
Pantothenic acid (B5) (mg)	0.47	1.15	1.09	1.43	0.28	0.47	3.48	1.03	–	0.74	5
Vitamin B6 (mg)	0.69	0.18	0.34	1.43	0.23	0.22	0.91	0.97	–	0.86	1.3
Folate Total (B9) (μg)	21	9	44	76	68	516	48	77	0	63	400
Vitamin A (IU)	238	0	10	10	33	563	4178	460	0	3220	5000
Vitamin E, alpha-tocopherol (mg)	0.54	0.13	1.16	0.05	0.48	0.00	1.13	1.30	0.00	0.40	15
Vitamin K1 (μg)	0.3	0.1	2.2	9.0	4.8	0.0	7.8	8.7	0.0	2.0	120
Beta-carotene (μg)	108	0	6	5	20	0	36996	277	0	1306	10500
Lutein+zeaxanthin (μg)	1506	0	253	38	0	0	0	0	0	86	6000
Fats	^[A]	^[B]	^[C]	^[D]	^[E]	^[F]	^[G]	^[Y]	^[H]	^[Z]	RDA
Saturated fatty acids (g)	0.74	0.20	0.30	0.14	0.18	2.47	0.09	0.13	0.51	0.40	minimal
Monounsaturated fatty acids (g)	1.39	0.24	0.23	0.00	0.20	4.00	0.00	0.03	1.09	0.09	22–55
Polyunsaturated fatty acids (g)	2.40	0.20	0.72	0.19	0.13	10.00	0.04	0.27	1.51	0.20	13–19
	^[A]	^[B]	^[C]	^[D]	^[E]	^[F]	^[G]	^[Y]	^[H]	^[Z]	RDA

^A raw yellow dent corn
^B raw unenriched long-grain white rice
^C raw hard red winter wheat
^D raw potato with flesh and skin
^E raw cassava
^F raw green soybeans
^G raw sweet potato
^H raw sorghum
^Y raw yam
^Z raw plantains
^/* unofficial

Evidence for the domestication of Soya Beans predates writing but has been found in China from between 7-6,500 years ago. Because, like many legumes, they fix nitrogen from the air and send it to the soil, the plant was quickly recognised as helpful in crop rotation and yet even as recently as World War 2, that benefit was being “rediscovered” in America when fertiliser supplies were compromised. If Soya Beans were discovered today they would be touted as a Superfood if not a “Miracle” food

Prior to fermented products such as fermented black soybeans (douchi), jiang (Chinese miso), soy sauce, tempeh, nattō, and miso, soy was considered sacred for its beneficial effects in crop rotation, and it was eaten by itself, and as bean curd and soy milk.
Wikipedia

One of the interesting aspects of Soya is just how many ways it is processed into other products beyond just eating the beans direct – they are the world’s largest source of animal feed (creating protein which humans then eat), the second largest source of vegetable oil and these two uses consume 85% of the soya crop leaving just 15% to be sold as whole beans. Out of that we then get soya milk, from which is made bean curd and tempeh (from the leftover of soy milk production), then Soy Sauce and various forms of Miso – these latter being fermented soya products without which both Chinese and Japanese cuisine would be unimaginable. I have to declare an interest here since among the many jobs I have done, I worked briefly for one of England’s leading Tofu (bean curd) producers creating and making new products out of tofu – previously he made only a plain and a peanut burger and I added two flavours of pastie, tofu quiches and a tofu “eggless” custard to his range. So this feels like a good place to offer two tips that I picked up in that job. Many Western people never take to tofu because they find it tasteless and unfortunately we don’t have access to some of the specialist variations available in the East such as deep-fryable pouching tofu whose crisped casing can be stuffed with tasty things – but there are a couple of ways to make tofu tasty… First you can buy (hard) tofu in a tub of it’s own whey and carefully peel back the lid, spread a layer of Miso (another soya product) on the top surface of the Tofu, cover and leave it floating in the whey in the fridge for a few days. The Miso is a live culture, fermented product so the quite strong taste will not simply permeate the Tofu, but will interact biologically to create a new flavour. Secondly, take an unopened packet of Tofu and freeze it – upon defrosting, the frozen crystals of whey which will have formed – compressing the Tofu – will melt and leave a network of holes in the now tougher, compressed Tofu so that it will hold together better when added to say, a stew and each chunk will act like a little sponge holding the gravy so that you can even use the mixture as a pie filling! If you have only encountered one or two kinds of Miso, the map below shows some of the many regional variations in Miso.

Types of Miso from around Japan

*Various Regional Varieties of Miso and their Respective Grain Base*

Where does it all come from – this vital, amazing Soya Bean crop – well for something that originated in China – these babies have roamed far from home as the diagram below shows – 34% from America and add in Brazil 29% and Argentina 18%, that’s 81% of the world production comes from the Americas and China’s demand for Soya has increased beyond their capacity to grow it – not least because with growing affluence – the Chinese demand for pork grew and soya beans were needed to feed pigs – anybody see a problem…? Actually there are several problems – during the Trump administration – that genius of Foreign Policy decided to play to his base by launching a Trade War on China – the US already had a 25% tariff on $250 billion of Beijing goods and Trump threatened a further 10% tariff on $300 billion of Chinese imports. Naturally, China responded by slashing its U.S. farm purchases by 53% to $9.2 billion from 2017. Soybeans (American name) purchases took a huge hit, falling nearly 75% to $3.1 billion. Trump had to pay out a lot of money to support the farmers and the stockpile of Soybeans mounted… This in turn put pressure on other areas like South America (mainly Southern Brasil and Argentina) to increase their growing of Soya and this led to increased deforestation – agriculture drove up to 88% of forest loss in Latin America and up to 81% in Southeast Asia between 2000-2015. So once again we see how geopolitical issues can have a huge impact on the commodities market not to mention the environment…

Proportion of global production exported

Just a couple of other fun facts about Soya beans – Soya is one of the fourteen notifiable allergens – that is it must be highlighted in bold in any ingredient list and as we have seen, soya can turn up in many guises – about 0.3% of the general population of adults and children are allergic to Soya. Another factor requiring labelling of Soya is that Soya was one of the first crops to “suffer” from Genetic Modification (GM) and the backlash against such “Frankenstein” food has been damaging in addition to the highly industrialised style of farming and the ecological effects of the crop worldwide. The expression “Full of Beans!” refers to horses who behaved with varying energy depending on which fuel they were fed – Grass – Ordinary – Oats – Friskier – Beans – Full of It and I wonder if it was Soya Beans that they used…? And lastly a film quote – Rick saying to Ilsa at the end of Casablanca, “It doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.” A rare example of an anti-romance ending – the plight of the world is more important than a soppy ending…

That is my quite cursory glance at Soya (considering the importance of this crop) – other commodities I might have considered for “S” include Sugar and gold’s poor relation – Silver. And so to today’s poem which is a Solage:

Solage is a specific form of humorous verse with the following properties:

It has three lines (called the hook, the line and the sinker) of irregular length.
The rhyming structure is AAB.
The third line is a pun based on the previous two lines.

The form was invented by the Sydney-based performance poet Cameron M. Semmens.

Soybeans

To know where the wind is seen
Be sure to eat more beans
Windy bottom…

On a more serious note, today is

Earth Day

and you can read an account of how Earth Day came into being by the excellent Heather Cox Richardson here.

Tofu, Tomatoes and Type 2 Diabetes…

April 23, 2022April 23, 2022humanist55

If you have seen my Theme Reveal for the A2Z Challenge 2022, then you will know that I am writing about becoming Vegetarian gradually as a response to the crisis in food supply chains sparked by the pandemic and made worse by the WAR in Ukraine. As well, I am keeping to the theme I originally planned of food which can be eaten in its own right as well as becoming an ingredient in other dishes…

https://www.wearesovegan.com/how-to-make-homemade-tofu/

I have touched on Tofu before in the M post Mangos, Miso and Mirowaves… where I described how to use Miso to add flavour to Tofu – because here’s the thing – many people consider Tofu to be a tasteless waste of time. Tofu is what we in Britain, call a Marmite substance – (Marmite or yeast extract is something that divides people completely – you either love or hate it – I am a Marmite lover…) but since Tofu is a source of protein and vegetarians and vegans need as many sources of protein as possible, then Tofu cannot be ignored. Both Tofu and Miso are Japanese inventions along with Tempeh, a block of the leftover pulp from making Soya Milk (the source of Tofu) which has been welded together by a cultured fungus and in case you think that sounds icky, it does have a slight resemblance to chicken, so another good vegetarian source of protein – and let’s not forget that mushrooms are fungi too!

I’m sorry if I have not made Tofu sound attractive so far so let’s start again, Tofu is cheese made from Soya Milk, it has a delicate taste but which can be enhanced in a number of ways, infusing with miso, serving in strongly flavoured dishes where it’s blandness is a nice contrast and the following freezing technique. Like dairy cheese when it is first turned into curd, tofu is full of whey to a greater or lesser extent depending on how much it has been pressed. If you freeze Tofu, the whey will turn into ice crystals that compress the curd surrounding them so that when you defrost the tofu, even more whey will drain out to it and the Tofu will be like a sponge and tougher – less prone to disintegrate when stirred into a sauce, plus the sponge soaks up the sauce so that each mouthful is tastier.

I have not made Tofu myself, though I once worked for a man who did make it commercially and who gave me that last tip – my job was to come up with dishes made from tofu since he was only making a burger and a peanut burger. I added custard tarts, quiches and pasties (all vegan) to his range – the pasties used the freezing technique. However, I wondered how easy it is to make Tofu at home and found this article which seems to be pretty simple to follow. Since Tempeh is a much more complicated thing to do – Roxy and Ben freeze their leftover soya pulp, which is known as Okara, and use it as a supplement to flour in baking. The photo at the top is from their site. They point out that you can press the Tofu to different degrees according to your taste or intended use and when you buy it from a shop, you can either buy Silken or soft Tofu in little cartons, or Hard Tofu – swimming in it’s own whey. Silken tofu is good for making say, a custard tart whilst hard tofu goes into stirfry and other savoury dishes. In Japan, there are several other types of Tofu – for example one that can be deep-fried and then slit open to form a pocket which can be stuffed with other things – pretty neat!

Tomatoes

Tomatoes, like potatoes, which are part of the same family of plants, were brought back to Europe by the Spanish where they had been refined from their wild cousins (and who doesn’t like a wild cousin) by the Aztecs. Both plants suffered some resistance towards eating, partly because they belong to a family of poisonous plants that include Deadly Nightshade and Mandrake, and certainly, in the case of the potato, they were regarded as the food of the conquered – the Spanish didn’t even bother to bring potaoes back for twenty years having failed to notice that the whole Aztec economy was based on controlling the staple crop of dried potato pucks. The people grated the potatoes, squeezed out as much juice as possible, placed them outside to freeze at night (they lived in the mountains so frost every night), squeezes out more liquid the next day and after repeating the process several times, they had freeze-dried potato!

As you can see above, there are many varieties of tomato (as with potatoes) and although they are in fact fruit (Love Apples is one popular name) they are regarded as vegetables because their sugar level is quite low and they have more umami than sweetness. The Wikpedia article on tomatoes is scathing about the way modern tomatoes have lost much of their sweetness by breeding for uniform ripening and longer shelflife – no surprises there then…

Where would we be without tomatoes in our culinary lives – they are the basis of so many sauces from classic Italian pasta dishes to Heinz baked beans – although the latter have only traces of tomatoes which are amplified with sugar, salt and acidity. There are so many that I will give you just two examples.

Oven-Dried Cherry Tomatoes
1. In a roasting tin, roll cherry tomatoes in a dessert spoon of olive oil and distribute them evenly. Sprinkle with slat and pepper
2. Bake in the bottom of a very low oven – less than 100°C for four or five hours or until shrunken and wrinkled
3. Eat hot or cold

Cauliflower Romagna
1. Break cauliflower florets into tiny pieces and fry in oil with as much garlic as you like until they are browning – don’t worry about burning – cauliflower is very strong and the taste benefits from caramelisation
2. Add tinned tomatoes and a little stock to cover the cauliflower, also herbs, fresh or dry, of your choice – thyme, basil, marjoram etc.
3. Cook until the cauliflower is soft, although a little al dente is good, and the sauce will have reduced somewhat – serve!
This is a dish which, if you are on a gradual journey towards more vegetarian eating, you can add small amounts of
chopped up chorizo or prawns to…

Type 2 Diabetes and Vegetarianism

Type 2 diabetes runs in families and if you have the genes for it, you have it all your life – even if it only manifests later in life, so don’t feel guilty as people used to be made to feel, because the onset, whilst caused by too much sugar in the diet, is inevitable if you have those genes even though those without won’t develop it from eating too much sugar – they may also get overweight but not get diabetes.

The good news is that Type 2 is reversible – eating a less sugary diet and eating foods that release their carbohydrates slowly, can prevent or even reverse the onset of Type 2 Diabetes. Eating a vegetarian diet of low-glycemic foods that keep blood sugar levels steady, such as whole grains, legumes, and nuts is the way to go. So, on top of ethical, environmental and financial reasons to eat a more vegetarian diet – you can add health grounds. If you go completely vegetarian, and even more so – vegan, then there is the risk of deficiency of vitamin B12 and Omega fatty acids but there are foods (such as Marmite) which can help as well as supplements but it is for this reason that some people prefer to be Flexitarian or Pescatarian rather than go the “whole hog” if you will pardon the expression…

Special Shout Out!

Yesterday was Earth Day, but because I am now pantsing my A2Z posts, I didn’t read until this morning, the S post from one of my favourite bloggers ever since I started with the Challenge in 2020. This year on Part-Time Working Hockey Mom Tara,who used to work for Starbucks, has been guiding us through the finer points of coffee in which Starbucks train all their management. Yesterday, for S, Tara told us about Sun V’s Shade Grown Coffee – something I and I think, most people, have no idea about. I will let you read Tara’s words to learn why this was an especially pertinent subject for Earth Day. Tara is a prolific blogger all year round, unlike me who grinds into gear for April and collapses in exhaustion in May – please check her blog out! Despite the title of her blog containing the word “Mom”, and her having worked for Starbucks, Tara is Swiss, though she is an Americanophile!

Mangos, Miso and Mirowaves…

April 15, 2022April 15, 2022humanist55

Mangos are a delicious fruit with many varieties from many parts of the tropical world – and being from the tropics, they are always available, but they do have some seasonality and nothing creates greater excitement in the shops in Bradford, UK, where I work – than the advent of the Pakistan Mango season… They arrive in the boxes pictured above, and are taken home to be distributed to eager families. Here’s how to eat them. Roll the small, yellow, ripe mangos between your hands until you have squidged all the flesh inside (they are a very soft variety). Bite on end off the mango and then suck out the delicious flesh! Messy but worth it!

Mangos as an ingredient range from Mango Chutney, sweet though to especially sour mangos), Ice cream, Gelato and Kulfi, I put them in crumble, fruit salad and a favourite – Mango Lassi. Simply peel and de-stone mangos – puree them and blend with plain yoghurt or you can use tinned mango puree… In a future post I will deal with Persimmon cake which is made from a fruit puree batter and can also be done using mangos.

I know I promised to get all the weird stuff out of the way under K, but Miso didn’t fit in so hard cheese! Actually, it’s not so weird when you consider how ubiquitous Soy sauce is, and miso can e thought of as a kind of solid paste version of soy sauce. Both are made from soybeans and fermented (see the K post) and come in a variety of flavours – more so in the case of Miso which ranges from so-called White Miso (light brown and almost sweet) to a dark miso which has been aged longer to develop the flavours. Miso is salty but rich in flavour, about the strength of Marmite (yeast extract) and if you are vegetarian, I strongly recommend keeping some in your fridge as a stock source. Vegetarian stock cubes, are for some reason, often more expensive than meat ones?? here is a very simple recipe using Miso:-

Miso Soup
1. Chop an Onion into small pieces and do the same with a carrot.
2. Cover with water and boil/simmer till tender.
3. Pour a little boiling water from the pan into a bowl and mash a spoonful of miso into it.
4. Allow the soup to come off the boil before adding the miso since it is a “live” product
The natural sweetness of the carrots and onions are balanced by the saltiness of the Miso.

Another thing which Miso is handy for, is to bring flavour to Tofu, which is also made from soya beans in the form of soya milk – Tofu is effectively a soya cheese but it doesn’t have a lot of flavour. (We are talking “hard” Tofu rather than soft or Silken). Carefully peel back the container lid to reveal the tofu floating in its own whey. Spread a thin layer of miso on the top surface of the Tofu and cover and replace it in the fridge for a few days. You will find that the miso flavour has permeated down into the Tofu because the Miso is a live product and so interacts with the Tofu in a unique way. Afterwards, you can use the tofu as you would normally.

Microwaves! Spreading radiation in the form of invisible rays! Shock! Horror! Poppycock! Open a conventional oven and you will get a blast of infra-red radiation! Microwaves heat things up in the same way as any other oven except that they work at higher frequency energy waves that penetrate right through the food, cooking the inside and outside simultaneously which makes it much more energy-efficient and faster too. Infra-red ovens can burn the outside whilst leaving the inside cold as anyone who has misjudged cooking a large turkey will know! But with a microwave, because of the laws of physics, this does lead to one problem – the hotter something is, the easier it is to heat it, so if one part of the food starts to heat up ahead of the rest, it might get hotter and hotter and also burn. This is why the food is rotated in a microwave to make sure that there are no extra-hot-spots and why some instructions tell you to pause and stir the food. However, if you are reheating lasagne, say, and this is a very typical use of a microwave, you can’t stir it and hence you may very well get the odd burnt corner.
Although I do use the microwave to reheat food, I like to use it to do real cooking too, for though you will never see one in the Master Chef kitchen, it is an excellent tool for real cooking. Read any recipe that begins with the instruction to “Gently sautee Onions until transparent”. What it won’t tell you is that you will need to stand over the onions for a good fifteen minutes, regularly stirring them else they too will crisp and burn and go bitter. If recipes said this, would you think”Nahhh – too much faff!” Instead, put your copped or sliced onions into a microwaveable container (I use old take-away containers), add a dessert spoon of oil and a couple of tablespoons of water. cook with the lid on until the onions are indeed translucent and then put them in the pan to continue with the recipe. This might take 5 minutes depending on your microwave and it might work better slightly longer at below the maximum setting – try it out with your machine. At least you don’t have to stand there stirring for fifteen minutes and you can get on with other preparations… Furthermore – cooking vegetables like frozen peas, they will be far fresher coming out of the microwave having been steamed with just a drop of water than boiled in a saucepan. And its better for the environment… Lastly, microwaves were made for cooking steamed puddings – supremely – Christmas puddings. My mother made Christmas puddings in the Autumn and after their initial cooking some hours of steaming, she put them in the Pressure Cooker to re-cook on Christmas Day – another 45 minutes at least. With a microwave, you can reheat even a large Christmas Pudding in about 5 minutes. Anything with water in cooks well in a microwave but something rich in fat like Christmas Pudding – the microwave excels! The recipe below could have come under L for Lemons but I saved it for here.

Sussex Pond Pudding
1. Make a suet pastry with self-raising flour and either real or vegetarian suet – more here.
2. Roughly p+roll out the pastry and line a plastic microwave bowl with the- one saved from a bought Christmas Pudding is ideal.
3. Chop a whole lemon into centimetre cubes and add to the lined bowl.
4. Chop a block of butter equal in weight to the lemon into pieces and put on top of the lemon pieces
5. Add an equal weight of dark Muscovado sugar and put on top of the butter – your pastry lining should now be full.
Add a circle of pastry to seal the top of the pudding and cover with microwaveable cling film (unless your Christmas pudding bowl came with a lid)
6. Cook at full power in the microwave for 4 minutes
7. After a minute or two, turn the pudding out upside down onto a deep plate, because when you cut into the pudding, the “pondwater” of melted butter, brown sugar and lemon juice will flood out. Serve with custard or ice cream or just cream. In Victorian times, they left the lemon whole, merely piercing it to let out the juice and discarding it after cooking, but I like to eat the zesty pieces which cuts the sweetness and the unctuous suet pastry…
Enjoy!