Miso bun 咸香味僧面包

If you've been following my blog, then you'd have realized that I have not been active lately. In fact, I have not been active on all my social media accounts at all. I have been occupied, with all sorts. I have been seriously busy with the business's accounting stuffs, and then the GST issue, and at the same time, I have been preparing for Josh's tot school. He's now 30month old, he's in the midst of getting potty-trained, nearly there, hip hip hooray (3x)! Praise the Lord. With the implementation of GST, it isn't the best time to use or spend on diapers. Yes, that was supposed to be a sleazy joke. 

Anyways, back to this recipe, this is a fantastic straight dough recipe that I've been baking with a lot lately. It's a small dough which makes about 6-8 buns. Again, I have kneaded this dough using my trusty breadmaker by Donlim, and then baked them in a small toaster oven. 

Despite of the fact that they are from a straight dough recipe that involves no starter dough or whatnot, they still turn out to be soft and fluffy. They still have that fragrant miso flavor in them. I wrote a lengthy post about 'cooking with miso for toddler' some time back, here's the link. 

Here's the recipe for this fabulous miso bun: 

• 30g grapeseed oil 
• 180g water 
• 2tbsp organic miso paste 
• 2tbsp brown sugar 
• pinch of salt 
• 200g Hi Protein flour 
• 100g wholemeal flour 
• 2tsp yeast 

Instructions: 

1. Place all ingredients in the order listed above, into the breadpan. 
2. Insert and lock breadpan into the machine. 
3. Select mode no. 7 (dough). 
4. After 1hour 30min, a beep alert will sound indicating that the dough is ready. 
5. Remove the dough from the breadmaker. 
6. Punch the dough a few times to remove trapped air. Form about 80g portion into ball shape. This recipe makes about 6-8 buns. 
7. Brush top of buns with water and sprinkle generously with black and white sesame seeds. 
8. Cover buns with cling film and proof for about 45min, or until double in size. **Do you know that I have once proved my buns in my car under the hot sun, so they proved really fast and I got the buns ready in shorter time? 
9. Preheat oven to 180deg C and bake the buns for about 18min. 

Oat noodles with tofu and mushroom in miso sauce

This is my lil' fella's lunch. I also prep extra that served as breakfast for me, him and hubby. I talked about miso a couple of months back in this post, when I first introduced miso to my lil' fella, when he had bouts of diarrhea and hasn't got appetite to eat much of his food. Since then I have been cooking with miso a lot, for the baby and for the adults.

Here's the info I copied from my previous post on miso:

Miso paste is an Asian seasoning made by fermenting a mixture of soybeans, barley, brown rice and several other grains with koji or also known as Aspergillus oryzae. The result of this fermentation is a smooth-textured paste with a strong savory flavor. Often used in Japanese cooking, miso is a healthy, probiotic food that helps support digestion by adding beneficial microorganisms to your digestive tract.

 

According to the Harvard School of Public Health, consuming miso rich in probiotics can shorten the duration of infectious diarrhea, especially in infants and children. (Here's the reason why I served him miso when he had his bouts of diarrhea, info from here). Just like the other fermented food eg cheese, yogurt or tempeh, the array of nutrients are very wide in miso. Due to the diarrhea, it would be normal to assume that he has lost a lot of liquid and nutrients from his body, therefore feeding him miso was a good way to replenish back the good nutrients. Nutritionally, miso provides mostly carbohydrate with some protein. It is also rich in several of the B-complex vitamins and contains several minerals, including calcium, iron, zinc, copper and magnesium.

 

Other than its beneficial effects onto our digestive tract, it is also known to protect against radiation exposure. After the atomic bomb in Nagasaki, Japan, Dr. Akizuki fed his patients a diet rich in sea vegetables and miso, limiting their consumption of sweets and sugar. The patients at Dr. Akizuki’s hospital were only one mile from the bombsite, but everyone survived. Many people outside the hospital perished due to radiation exposure. This piece of info was gathered from here.

 

Miso paste can be used to prepare broth for noodles or porridge. It has naturally occurring sodium, so there is no need to add salt into the broth. Miso can be gradually introduced to the little ones after turn. I have started introducing miso to my lil' fella at 16mo. The following recipe has no meat. You may want to add in minced or cubed chicken into the dish while cooking.

 

Ingredients (This recipe makes 2 babies' meal, and 2 adults' breakfast)

• 2 bundle of oat noodle, cooked in boiling water till soft
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Half an onion, minced
• 3-4 fresh brown button mushroom, cleaned and chopped
• 2 soft white tofu, cut into cubes
• 1 small stalk of broccoli, blanched in boiling water for 2min and then chopped
• 1tbsp mugi miso (depending on types of miso, some miso tastes saltier)
• 1/2 tbsp. liquid amino (by Bragg) (that serves as a salt-free alternative to soy sauce)
• 1cup water (a little warm-ish)
• 1/2 tbsp. corn flour with 1/2 cup water (optional)

Instructions

1. In a pot of boiling water, cook the oat noodles till soft. Blanch the broccoli for 2 minutes and chop into little pieces (this is more for the baby. If you're making this for adult, you may opt out the chopping).
2. Dissolve the mugi miso in the water (a little warm-ish) - this is the stock.
3. Heat up a shallow fry pan with 1tbsp grapeseed oil, stir in the minced garlic, onion, followed by chopped mushroom, tofu and broccoli. When they turn slightly brown, pour in the miso stock and the liquid amino, and let the dish stew for about 5 minutes.
4. Dissolve corn flour in water, pour into the stew. Let boil for 1 minute and serve with cooked noodle.

This is Bragg's Liquid Amino I've been using when cooking at home, it's a salt-free alternatives to soy sauce. Despite of the fact that it's salt free, it still tastes good. It contains naturally occurring sodium, so only introduce it to the little ones after they have turned one or 15month old. It's available for sale at Just Health or any organic or health shops.

 

 

Cooking with miso for toddlers

 

 

 

 

Few days ago, the little fella (now 16mth) had a few bouts of diarrhea. He lost his appetite and wasn't willing to eat much other than his milk. I wasn't very willing to give him milk cos his body wouldn't be able to digest lactose well during this time. Instead, I prepared him soft brown rice with miso. He was okay with it and gulped it down. Now that he has fully recovered, he has also regained his appetite and is in fact, eating a lot! He just had about 2 bowls of cornflakes, plus a mug of cocoa-avocado smoothie and a few pieces of crackers for breakfast. >.<

 

Now, let's talk about the reason behind giving him MISO when he had diarrhoea. Most of us have tried miso soup in almost any Japanese restaurant we frequent. Some of us refused to consume it cos it tastes of nothing but just saltiness. Little did we realize that a true, good quality miso is fermented and is very much a live enzyme food product, packed with healthy flora and lots of great nutrients and antioxidants.

 

Miso paste is an Asian seasoning made by fermenting a mixture of soybeans, barley, brown rice and several other grains with koji or also known as Aspergillus oryzae. The result of this fermentation is a smooth-textured paste with a strong savory flavor. Often used in Japanese cooking, miso is a healthy, probiotic food that helps support digestion by adding beneficial microorganisms to your digestive tract.

 

According to the Harvard School of Public Health, consuming miso rich in probiotics can shorten the duration of infectious diarrhea, especially in infants and children. (Here's the reason why I served him miso when he had his bouts of diarrhea, info from here). Just like the other fermented food eg cheese, yogurt or tempeh, the array of nutrients are very wide in miso. Due to the diarrhea, it would be normal to assume that he has lost a lot of liquid and nutrients from his body, therefore feeding him miso was a good way to replenish back the good nutrients. Nutritionally, miso provides mostly carbohydrate with some protein. It is also rich in several of the B-complex vitamins and contains several minerals, including calcium, iron, zinc, copper and magnesium.

 

Other than its beneficial effects onto our digestive tract, it is also known to protect against radiation exposure. After the atomic bomb in Nagasaki, Japan, Dr. Akizuki fed his patients a diet rich in sea vegetables and miso, limiting their consumption of sweets and sugar. The patients at Dr. Akizuki’s hospital were only one mile from the bombsite, but everyone survived. Many people outside the hospital perished due to radiation exposure. This piece of info was gathered from here.

 

From its taste, you would have gathered that miso is indeed a high sodium food. According to an info from here, recent research has shown that in spite of its high-sodium content, miso does not appear to affect our cardiovascular system in the way that other high-sodium foods sometimes can. In recent animal studies, for example, identical concentrations of salt (sodium chloride) obtained from miso versus table salt were discovered to have very different impacts on blood pressure. High-salt diets that derived their high salt level from table salt raised blood pressure in these animal studies, but high-salt diets that derived their high salt from miso did not. Interesting, ay?

 

 

Tips to choose high quality miso:

Commercialized powdered miso seasoning has been stripped of its true nutritional benefits through processing. The trick to choosing high quality miso is to find the tubs that are refrigerated and marked unpasteurized to ensure enzyme activity. Personally, I prefer the ones from Japan, not the ones made in Taiwan or China.

 

To preserve the living microorganisms in miso paste, avoid subjecting it to high heat. Instead, add the paste to dishes that have already been cooked or heated to serving temperature.

 

 

In my case, I have just started cooking with miso for my little toddler recently (ie 16mo). Here are some ideas on cooking with miso:

 

Stewed pumpkin, tofu in miso paste, served with brown rice noodle

Chopped pumpkin and tofu was stir fried with minced garlic, and stewed in miso stock (1/2 tsp fresh miso and 2cups water).

Aubergine and minced meat in miso sauce, served with brown rice

Chopped aubergine was stir fried with minced meat (pork or chicken) and minced garlic, and then simmered with miso stock (1/2tsp fresh miso in 2cups water) for about 20min and then thickened with cornflour. *chopped aubergine was sprinkled with pinch of salt, and sit for about 15min, and then rinsed before cooking.