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As many of you know, king cakes are as intertwined in the local tradition of Mardi Gras as parades and beads. In recent years, king cake creativity has been in full bloom - which we think is really fabulous! In our opinion, anything that helps nudge king cakes back away from being big cinnamon rolls dressed in purple green and gold is a win!!
For those unfamiliar with Mardi Gras, in the New Orleans & Gulf Coast area, we eat king cakes from twelfth night through fat Tuesday - and it is a travesty to eat king cake after fat Tuesday. The original king cake is sweet French brioche bread topped with colored sugar.
So, last year, Chef Ernie and Adrienne were relaxing on ash Wednesday (ie: the day after fat Tuesday) with a half left over king cake. Faced with the dilemma of what to do with a beautiful half Don Phoung coconut king cake - Chef Ernie decided to turn it into a miso! After all, we pretty much turn everything into misos or other interesting and unusual ferments.
How to Make King Cake Miso:
Ingredients:
One part king cake, cut into small pieces;
One part cooked soy beans (here we used black soy beans - they should be tender but not mushy);
One part koji;
.75 part spring water;
Weigh the above ingredients and add 8% good quality salt (and never iodized salt) (here we used French Grey sea salt).
Pulse the whole mixture in a food processor to blend;
Place into fermentation jar and pack down to minimize air pockets;
Place a "raft" on the surface. A raft is something that keeps oxygen from interacting with the surface. We like to use plastic wrap, which we press on the surface and up to the edges of the container. You can also sprinkle a little extra salt around the edges of the miso before you place your raft down.
Covering - You can either screw a lid on the jar or use a rubber band to affix cheesecloth or similar fabric to keep bugs out. There are advantages to both solid lid or fabric - but if you use a solid lid, you need to "burp" it periodically to release gas.
Mix - you should mix your meso about once per month during fermentation.
Fermentation Period - Misos can ferment almost indefinitely. Since king cake iso has yeast, you want to ferment at lest 6 months, and ideally for a year, which will make it ready next Mardi Gras!
What To Do With King Cake Miso:
For the first few months, the king cake miso was strange. It put off a lot of gas and we were unsure if it would work. However, we have never had a miso go bad - so we figured over time koji would do its magic! Fortunately, we were right - and the miso became umami-rich, delicious, with a hint of sweetness.
As Mardi Gras 2024 approached, we started thinking about what to do with this beautiful King Cake Miso, and the answer seemed obvious - we needed to make king cake miso stuffed king cake. The irony is beautiful - using last years king cake to stuff this years king cake (plus it is sorta cannibalistic in a funny kind of way). This idea also fits beautifully into our Zero Waste Model!
The results were spectacular. In fact, in our opinion, this was the best king cake we ever had. Chef Luke Johnson, one of our former sous chefs used sweet potato brioche as the base for this stupendous and unusual king cake. Thanks Luke for collaborating on this project!
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