What is the best thing to do with gluten free miso? On today's show, I will be sharing what I did with gluten free meso, and was absolutely amazed. I would just like to say absolutely amazed at the results. I'm Angela from gluten free, Angela, and over the next 20 minutes or, so be sharing some little stories, possibly the odd recipe and some of the ingredients that I use in my very own kitchen. That's a gluten free kitchen. So I started off the show by saying Gluten free miso. it's one of those unusual products that has, has happened to go somewhere in our cupboards. We talk about meso a little bit, don't we? People know it's really healthy. It's really good for us, and it's not gluten free. So a lot of people think that's it. We can't have miso, but we can, because there are gluten free equivalents and they're very good ones as well. and it is quite interesting. I had a recipe that was wanting to try, wanting to convert, and I thought I'd have a go. And when I looked into my cupboard, I was so, so happy that I had some miso packets, like there were. It was a box of four or six little, are they 15 gram sachets? And, so, well the first thing to know about, miso is most of them have got gluten in them. Even if you look on the ingredients, be really, really careful with this stuff as. The barrels that they ferment things in. Miso traditionally is around wheat, it's around barley, all of those things. So it, it is got to be produced in gluten free, tubs. An environment, that is not historically the best. Yeah, it's all about tradition. It's all about reusing some of these barrels or containers that been using for a long, long, long, long time. And that's something that we can't do. We have to move it into a different environment. But there is a company out there, and I've used their gluten free miso and it's great. And the company's called Clear Spring. And it appears that most of it is produced in Japan, so we know it's. Authentic stuff and, and the best thing is that most of them have got a taste award, a great taste award. So we know it's really good stuff. It's not an impersonation of what meso should taste like. Do you know what? This is a company that's been producing miso for years and years and years, so they know how to make the damn stuff. However, the first thing to really know about it is there are different types of miso. So there's white, there's red, and there's brown. Now white miso is very subtle, whereas you get to brown and that's quite intense and salty. And these little packets that I had were the brown miso, gluten-free, brown miso and it's fabulous stuff. However am I glad that they were in small sachets because had I gone and adapted the recipe I was using. It asked me to use 30 grams of the miso in the cake. See, I've told you what I made with it, and then another 20 grams on the topping and I in the cake itself. I used. For one sachet, which was 15 grams. On the topping I used about seven grams. And it was fine. That was enough. And of course, did you know that you can make a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful cake with miso? And that's what I did. And I'd looked at this recipe and I thought that's really quite interesting. miso is, traditionally, it's a broth. It's, it's like people in the UK use. Bovril or an Oxo cube. It's exactly the same methodology. Stick some hot water in it, drink it. It's a beautiful flavor taste. It's salty. It warms you up in the winter and you know it's good for you. But all of these things aren't great if you gluten free. So miso, these gluten free miso saches are brilliant. And I made a cake. Yes I did. I. A cake with some miso in it, with some walnuts in it, and with a miso and walnut topping as well. And I have to say, it's one of the most interesting cakes I think I've had in a long, long, long, long time. And the, the flavors are incredible. I'm not a great lover. And maybe you like this type of cake, but I'm not a great lover of coffee cake and coffee and walnut cake because, all, I taste when I, I taste them. Certainly the shop built ones are this hint of coffee and sugar because you have quite a sweet, traditional like sponge. Then you have some very sweet layering in the middle. And then on top there's this thick, sugary pillow of sugar and a couple of nuts on top. And I just find that all I can taste is sugar, sugar, sugar. I, I, like, I eat sugar. I love things like meringues, but I need something to compliment it, a different depth of flavor. So this cake was just right up my street. It really was. And it is a simple, simple cake recipe. So you can use one of my normal cake recipes if you've been on my course or booked on my course. You're gonna get to know what the traditional recipe is and what you want to do is mix, I would say a sachet, because in gluten free world, we, I think most people are gonna get hold of the, the brown miso. So we're looking at 15 grams. One little sachet in the cake itself. And the best way to do that is to to blend it. To mix it with, if you are having an oil based cake, put it in the oil, mix it up, whip it up. So there's just tiny little droplets. Within that oil. If you are adding some milk, add it to the milk. You need to add it to the the liquid, and whisk it up. I, I only mean whisking by hand can use a fork. You can use a little whisk, but you just need to distribute that meso into tiny, tiny little droplets so it gets into the cake. Cause it's quite a. thick thick consistency. So you do need to mix it to whisk it to distribute properly. And once you've done that, you just mix your cake. You just put your wet ingredients into your dry and for voila, you have this cake with an unusual depth of flavor. Throw in a few walnuts. If it's in the cake, I suggest you put them, put making them quarter sized walnuts and not whole ones because some people can find it a little bit strange when they tried to crunch on a whole walnut. And then you just bake it and the skill is the topping because you are gonna notice there's, you know, like you have salted caramel. Now, years and years ago, if anyone had just said about putting salt with caramel, people would've thought, Oh, but now we understand. That blend of flavors and just how well it works. And it doesn't matter what you look at. Let's have some great examples. You can have a great, lovely, rich, salty cheese and fruit cake that's traditionally a northern recipe. People do apple pie with cheese in it. People, honestly, there are so sweet and sour. All of these different flavors really compliment the themselves. And when we're talking about a cake, you've got this beautiful, beautiful cake and this saltiness, this earthiness this, this sea like taste because miso will often evoke I memories of being at the sea. And that's what miso does it is just this incredible. Flavor. So you have that subtly through your plain ish cake with a little bit of walnut, but then on top, and this is the real skill, okay? And I don't care you could have any recipe out there. You could have bought a plain cake from a shop. Try this on top. Probably won't work with lemon cake, but you know, if it's plain cake, you just try it. Just put it on. So in a little pan, you are going to measure. 50 ml of water and 50 grams of sugar, That's all. And you are just gonna bring that, heat it up until your sugar has dissolved and until it is hot. And at that point you take it so you, you know, let boil for, for a couple of minutes, not a raging boil, just so it's hot. Then what I want you to do is take it off the heat. Open the sachet of miso and you will notice, put a quarter of it in, first of all and just mix it around with a little whisk and you will find that it starts to distribute all through that liquid and have a taste. And honestly, that taste of saltiness, you will not believe. And you'll think I can add a little bit more. I added half a sachet, but I do like very intense flavors, so you may want to just put in a quarter and taste it and, and honestly, after you've put in a quarter of a little 15 gram sachet, it's a drop at a time, or rather a little dollop of this stuff at a time. Keep mixing and keep tasting and then you will just hit. The flavor that you love, and at that point, what you're gonna do is pour in about 60 grams of walnuts. Now it's down to you. You can either believe them whole, you can put them in halves, you can put them in quarters. It's up to you. And what you're gonna do is just mix that and, and I put my back on the heat just for a couple of minutes, so it started to warm up. Those nuts. We're not trying to caramelize them. They're not, we're not trying to burn them, brown them or anything. It's just getting the flavors wrapped around those beautiful walnuts. So I did that. And then you've got all of these nuts that, that are now really well coated in this liquid. And you also have this liquid and you think, What am I gonna do How am I gonna get this on top of the cake? So what I did was I, I took out all of the nuts, first of all, and just not place them with your fingers, coz you, you're dealing them. Hot, sugary liquid but with a little spoon, just place them all over the top of the cake. And then with a tiny spoon, you are going to allow that to drizzle over the top of your cake, and you're gonna have to keep drizzling it in tiny little teaspoons, because it'll just go down the side of the cake. Or you'll lose it and you want to keep it on the top if you know, you could try and brush it on top of the cake. I didn't do that. I, I, I really like it because in some pa places we had more miso glaze than in others. And it is just really nice that you're actually dripping this all over the walnuts. So some of the walnuts have got layers and layers and the layers of the miso flavor. And just take your time so that that cake absorbs it as you put it on there. Just slowly take your time, whether it's five minutes, whether it's 10 minutes, just love every moment as you drizzle that on the top. And that just left it Now with yourselves, it's always best a cake that comes straight out the oven. But if you bought one, honestly, you can do it with that well you know, it's fine. And this miso. Was just incredible. Like the flavor of the cake is beautiful. And I gave a piece to my mom who's 75 this year, and we tend to think that flavors like miso or wasabi, are all new flavours. And to be honest, We have things like that in the uk it's a slightly different taste, but those salty flavors have been part of our diet for a long, long time. It's just they're different over there. As I said, we do have products that people love that are very salty here. She thought it was fantastic. She absolutely loved it. So when you think we've got a cake, We've got beautiful big walnuts in there that are really incredible tasty. We've then got all of this miso on top as well. It starts to pack vitamins and minerals into cake. And let's face it, most people could really, really do with a few extra vitamins and minerals. So I see this as giving cake a healthy twist. Isn't it? So if you wanted to make a lovely cake, as I said, get on one of my courses, you can pick any any traditional cake, like a vanilla cake, You name it. What you're looking for is a nice cake. Remember, you've always got to have something to bind it together in our cakes, and you've always, always, always to make sure that you add something else. Now, whatever that is, whether using milk whether using cream, you need something else to give extra moisture into that cake. So just use the, the cake recipe that you like, or as I said, get on one of my courses and, and you can adapt it from there. And I'll, I'll adapt to recipe on there as well. But I realized that I could do this with a vanilla cake. I could do it with a chocolate cake miso chocolate. Why not? We have chocolate with salted caramel in it. Like amazing. Could you put this on a brownie? Of course you could, if you wanted to. I'd, I'd limit the amount. Just think about how you like your brownies. Do you like that crusty to top? And if so, Just put some of the beautiful walnuts on there and a little bit of a drizzle. Could you put it on a lemon cake? I wouldn't mix the two. I really wouldn't. But vanilla cakes, coffee cakes a caramel cake, a chocolate cake. You've got all of those flavors. It can absolutely add miso. And you know, you don't taste it and think, Oh, that's miso, you just don't, And, and in my whole repertoire, you know, I know I love Tonka beans. I try and tonka absolutely everything. So Tonka beans going so much that I, I create. miso is gonna be one of those other ones as well. Because it is such an intense and subtle flavor at the same time, when you taste the meso glaze, you realize, Whoa, that is really intense. But once you put it with other flavors, It really mellows it down and, and it just compliments the cake. You can put this on so many different things, but you know, miso, what do we think of doing with miso? Well put it in a bowl or in a, in a mug, we've put some boiling water in it. You might put a few vegetables in it. You might put some noodles with it. That's what we tend to do, but this whole experience of miso cake. Just absolutely blew my mind. So I absolutely, absolutely love it. There is nothing like it. I've not come across another cake like that ever. And, and it's really, really amazing. Something I'm gonna do is I am going to do a little taste testing. And I think I'm gonna take some one of these cakes or maybe like, make little muffins and put two or two o if you put some little fairy cake type muffins, smaller ones, you can actually put three whole walnuts on the top, couldn't you? Put the glaze on and then put a little bit of glitter on. And how incredible would that look? So I got the idea. Because we're always inspired by people, aren't we? We, you know, sometimes we just think I'll try and use a few things up, and sometimes I will look at a cake that somebody else has done and, and there's a, she's done amazing chef Olia, Hercules. This is home food and it's recipes, comfort and recipes to comfort and connect. And in here, this is where I got the inspiration from. It's Hedvigs, Brown Brown, Butter Miso Walnut Cake. And this is a cake that she used to eat in this lady called Hedvigs Cafe, somewhere in London. I don't believe it's there anymore, however, I thought, right OK, brown butter. Yeah, love the brown butter. But can I just do the miso? Can I just do a standard easy one of my gluten free recipes and, hey Presto, it was born. Now what I would say is yes, I've had to adapt because the Miso that we will use. In our gluten free world. It's not the same as people in everyday world use, but it's absolutely amazing. So what I would say is get her book, Buy her book. It's the home food book. When I, when I got this book, I'll do a whole podcast on, on her book cuz it's amazing. But I cannot believe as a, an as a non gluten eating person, How many of her recipes I've made, and if there's gluten in them, I've just converted them really quickly because once you've tasted one of her recipes, you realize how how much of an incredible chef she actually is. So yeah, that's one book that I will absolutely recommend for you. Okay. In these books, we can't do the pasta, we can't do the bread. But if you listen out for my podcast, you can do any pies because I've told you which pastry I use, which is amazing. I've got two options for you. If you do use your own, if you do want to make your own, again, do listen to that podcast cuz I'll say what the little hack is to make sure that your own is, is good too. I just can't be bothered. To make my own pastry a lot of the time. Because when I get the, when I feel like baking just like tomorrow night, I'm going to be making our coconut tarts, our rich coconut tarts. And for me it's so much easier to take out a pack of this frozen pastry, get up at around six in the morning. Cut that out, put it into the, the pies, the, the Tart tens, mix the topping, put the jam, put the coconut topping on as well, and just put them in the oven. Whereas I'd have to make my own pastry, put it in the put it in the fridge for an hour at least to chill. And I just find it a little bit of a faf. So I do make my own pastry, but I have to say, it's not just me. I will take Angela Hartnetts words that we've just got to stop being snobby about bought pastry. I will say, and the first one to say that most gluten free pastry out there in the shelves is awful. It is. But I've got a couple of options for you that are brilliant, but getting back to books, so. There are pasta recipes in here. Well, you can certainly get some pasta, can't you? Buy some in and use her. Let's have a quick look. There's one here that says Bisque style red mullet pasta. Blake, buy some gluten free pasta, can't you? And make that that sounds amazing. There are bread things in here, but do you know what? We just get to the point where we realize that, Most Bread is absolutely appalling, but she just has the most incredible recipes. One of the best recipes in her book are now talking all about her book. I'm gonna do a separate one one day about her book. What I want to say to you is there is one recipe in there. If you don't buy this book for any other reason, it is for this one reason. She's got a recipe in there, sausages with calvados cream, apples and potatoes, and you will not believe how this tastes. I did adapt it slightly as I always do. I always adapt recipes because you need to use Calvados, brandy Cider or apple juice. And when I look in my cupboard, the sort of cider that was there was mango cider. So I was mango cider, and now I've realized I really like it with mango cider in it. So every time I want to make this I have to buy mango cider, which isn't a problem because then we can treat ourselves to the rest of the bottle. But this is a recipe that you will not believe. Honestly, I, I've made this so many times now, sometimes with normal. Normal cider, I always say, Oh, next time I must make sure I've got some mango cider in the cupboard. But it's just incredible. And we can get, we can get really, really good gluten-free sausages now, can't we? Not everywhere, but even really good butchers if you go in there, they may have one day of the week if you ask. If not, that's fine. We walk. But if you ask them, do you do gluten-free sausages? like those,. And they may say, Well, if you want some, I can, I can make them like our local butcher, make some. We have, we have to understand how the whole system works, but they clean the whole machine down and then they will put the gluten free ones through on the first run of the week. So if somebody is, has a certain level of intolerance, then they can risk that some people won't. But a lot of people are more than happy to do that. And are absolutely fine. Or we can go to places where they make beautiful and I mean beautiful, really hearty sausages. And this recipe, you know, if you, you can do it. If you don't eat meat as well, it's absolutely fine. They do have creme fraiche, or double cream in there. But again, you can change that, can't you? And it really is this incredible dish in one pan. But let's go back, let's go back to what I said at the top of the. well,. Half hour, which was about the brown rice miso. I absolutely love it. So have a look in your in, in your pantry, in your cupboard. See if you've got any in there. Have a look when you go out shopping, because you'll be amazed how many times you go out and you want some miso and you will look at one of the shelves and it's all going for an absolute song because no one's bought it. And it's getting towards the end of the shelf life or however the much shelf life they're supposed to have on it and just go and buy some or something that I do is every so often I will take a little trippette to one of the Oriental supermarkets and oh my words, I can always get my miso in there, me teriyaki, all of those things that aren't in every supermarket. But yes, this cake has absolutely blown my mind. It's so simple and so creative at the same time. There's no need for cream with it. No need for anything. Just a beautiful cup of tea or coffee or whatever your tipple is, and just sit back and relax and taste a very, very, very unusual cake. So this is Angela from Gluten Free Angela. And for the last half hour I've been talking about miso, and I'm sure that when you saw this podcast, what to do with miso you expected me to do another savory thing, not to do cake, but try it and I will post a recipe for you. So you know how to do, but I've explained it. So let's just get used to adapting. And to incorporating, and I'm sure in your kitchen you have a go to vanilla cake or a chocolate cake. Just try it, have a go. Even if you just want to make some little cupcakes and put a little bit of this miso on top and a little bit of miso inside and I'm sure you will love it just as much as me and my mama love it too. Okay, I will see you next week. Hopefully you enjoyed this week's show and I will be coming to you with more gluten free tips, tricks and possible recipes next week. You take care. Have a wonderful gluten free week, and I will see you very soon. Take care. Bye.