Vegetable Charcuterie with Koji

This is my recipe for savoury, smokey, delicious umami rich vegetable charcuterie made using koji.
This has an incredible flavour, it really is something special, simultaneously very meaty but still with the beautiful flavour of the vegetables too. I'll also show you how I use the vegetable charcuterie in a dish off my tasting menu at the end of the video.
Full recipe bellow.

More from me -

Vegetable Charcuterie Recipe / Technique

Cook the vegetables - you can do this with other methods but for consistency of doneness and moisture content I cook the vegetables sous vide at 85C for three hours (this might seem like a long time but it gives consistently great results).

Smoke the vegetables - You can use whatever smoking method you prefer. I tend to use a small handheld smoking gun as I work on a relatively small scale and like the ability it gives you to use interesting unusual smoke flavours.

The Botanical Cure (use at 2.85% weight of cooked veg)

70g Salt
20g Black Pepper
9g Juniper

Mix the ingredients and blend to a fine powder. Add 2.85% weight of cooked vegetables at the curing stage and allow to cure in the fridge for 2-5 days.

Remove the cured vegetables from the fridge and pat dry.

Innoculate with koji spores -
Mix 2g koji spores in 30g rice flour and sprinkle this over the cured vegetables.

Incubate the vegetable charcuterie at 90% Relative humidity at 30C for 36 hours.

Once the vegetables have a fine layer of koji weigh the veg and log its weight, then gently dry it either in a dehydrator or by ear dating until it has lost at least half its weight - even more for a more intense product.

Finally optionally marinade the vegetable charcuterie in oil if desired to round out its flavour and add richness.

Video Timestamps -

00:00 Intro
00:47 Koji
01:49 The Technique
4:10 Finished Vegetable Charcuterie
4:52 Using it in a dish

[lefthandright]

I am also a chef and photographer. I have looked at the top level and shot for publishing. For those reasons, I appreciate the amount of work that is displayed here. It's been a pleasure viewing your content. I wish your channel all the best.

[Cloudipy]

For those who want to enjoy a drink with their charcuterie board but can't drink alcohol for some reason, I advise you to try smoked tea. I'm not vegan but I found smoked tea like Lapsang Souchong to go perfectly with dry meat sausages and cheese, so I imagine it will also go well with vegan options like this vegetable charcuterie and some cashew cheese 👌

[michelebenigna]

You deserve a much bigger audience! Beautiful content every time!

[peterheinzo]

as a biochemistry student turned chef i gotta say i love love love your style of preparing vegetables.

[dingleford]

I've been lucky enough to spend a fantastic evening at the Walled Gardens Underground Restaurant, and am loving how these video gems show the technique, talent and inspiration that goes into developing such wonderful culinary treats. Thank you!

[someguy]

Wow! I am blown away with the science and the artistry shown in this video! I am so glad I discovered this channel. I doubt that I would ever try to reproduce what was done in this video, but I hope to get some ideas for my own much less ambitious culinary efforts for my fully plant based diet.

[chrismaslin]

Great vid, love the balance of information, instruction and your own insight. Beautifully filmed as always 🙏🏻

[knb]

Wowsers! So glad I ran across this... I'm just starting to play around with koji, and this is awesome. Thank you!

[heidecker]

Hey Eddie, I can only second many of my fore-writers, I am a photog myself (non food though), but I love cooking and Japanese cuisine, the country and its culture - dropping by your channel haphazardly this is such a great video, great content - and wonderful photography. Amazing! Thanks for sharing.

[Audrygutierrez]

Amazing you al ready inspire me a lot! 🤯 thank you so so much for sharing 🥰🤗

[Pvpsox]

Awesome man thanks for the info! gonna start our koji project at work soon!

[vishalkatariya]

This is a really cool idea--I made my first koji today and I'll try this out!

[naanamora]

Stunning dish. Thanks for sharing. Wish I could do it at home.

[Harusaba]

Hi Eddie

Thanks for your wonderful videos! The production and content is just amazing.

I've been following your recipe and I'm drying now my products. I tried quite a few different veggies and asking myself now: How long (and how) can you store the veggie charcuterie?

Can I vaccum seal it and freeze some? And if I use your oil method...what oil did you use and do you use spice/herbs in the oil?

Thank you a lot!

[thebigfatmonkey]

Awesome video, thanks a lot!
I now have an appliance that can smoke as well as dehydrate, so I'm really looking forward to finally giving this a go!

Do you happen to have any simpler recipe ideas? I feel like after cooking, smoking, curing, fermenting and dehydrating those beets, I deserve a quick win 😂 (and I know you can eat them on their own, but still I'm curious whether they might do well in, say, a mock pasta carbonara?)

[torsten]

Wonderful video! Thanks a lot for sharing

[frederikbechmannfaarup]

Such a cool dish utilizing just a few ingredients to the max! I unfortunately don't have the humidity box, else I'd love to experiement with koji

[oscarpineda]

Make a video about making vegan butter that would be great!

[vascoguerreiro]

Great content! Thank you for sharing this 👌

[ShawnGreyling]

my kingdom for some koji spores in South Africa. just can't find it anywhere.