Miso Happy!

The Garden Herb Shop tends to transform from a shop to a school in the blink of an eye. Just today, not too long after I stepped out of the blustering outdoor weather, I was handed a book and recommended (ordered) to write a post on the wonders of miso (mee-so). So how could I say no to that? I mean, it's miso!

Are you saying to yourself, "Miso confused"? Are you insisting, "Permiso, can you tell me more about the miso?" Well fear not. Click any of the misos in this post and you'll find yourself in a swamp of miso-info. I'll just give you a light sampling of the information available out there, most of it taken from the book I was handed: The Way of Chinese Herbs, by Michael Tierra.

Miso is essentially soybeans aged to flavor by being fermented with salt and sometimes other ingredients such as rice. It's beginnings are from China, where its predecessor (chiang) originated sometime during the Chou Dynasty (722-481 B.C.). The use of soybean became more popular during the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.) through the spread of Buddhism and the vegetarianism therein. Today, it is a staple of consumption in Japan.

Learning from my reading, miso is one of the most perfect foods, reason being because the fermented soybeans are rich in easily assimilated high-quality protein. It also aids  the assimilation of other foods and should therefore be eaten with something else (pretty easily understood, seeing how it's a paste. I'm not too  partial to eating straight paste myself). You can make sauces with it (add almond butter, a little bit of water, and ground sesame) as well as salad dressing, or even a base for your soup.

The consensus around here, due to its rich nutritional wonders, is to eat it with everything! Just make sure you look up how to cook or prepare it correctly so that your experience is a positive one in both taste and nourishment (it is not to be boiled, for example).

Because the salt is fermented, it has less of a negative effect on the individual as table salt does. This is peculiar for those of you who've had miso before, because you know that it has a pleasantly salty flavor to it (making it an excellent condiment). But that's one of the insistent beauties of this dish. Its pungency in positive flavor does not come at the loss of healthiness.

Give it a shot and you'll most certainly be squealing "Miso happy!" by the end. Unless you absolutely hate it.

~The Harvest Crier~