So we did wind up going to that class on Miso this past Saturday, and wanted to share with you how much we learned! Well, we won’t explain everything because it would take a few hours. But we’ll try. More cooking classes should be on the way from these gals. Dawn Reid and Megan Haupt are stirring up more ideas for teaching more cooking classes on Skillshare. They’re thinking Kimchi next.

In this most recent Miso class, we learned how to make both a sweet miso and a salty miso. Before this class, we didn’t realize that storebought miso is all pasteurized, so you’re not getting the wonderful health benefits that the fermentation process brings. Also, when cooking with miso, once you boil it (miso soup, or miso sauce, or miso anything), you kill all of all of its good bacteria, which also defeats the whole purpose of bringing balanced PH levels to your body. We were completely stumped and completely captivated within the first 10 minutes of this class, realizing we had a long way to go.

So here are the basics. When making miso you need 3 things, a protein a grain and a liquid. Those ratios are different depending what kind of miso you’re making. In this salty miso we were making, we used chickpeas mainly for the protein, but you could use any kind of bean, barley or even fun things like mung beans, nettles or burdock. The grain we used was Koji, brown rice that is coated with the magical bacteria that makes fermentation happen. This bacteria is essentially the same stuff that is underground on the roots of mushrooms, mycelium. You can buy Koji at places like Essene but it’s around $50 for a 5lb bag. That’s a ton! But you will have miso for years, and you can give it as gifts to all of your friends.

Here is a good recipe for miso, but once you find the correct ratio for the miso you want to make, here’s the quick and easy: You boil the beans and mash them (almost completely) up. Save that bean water you cook them in. Take a small amount of the bean water and heat it up to dissolve a bit of salt in. You can also add a teaspoon of already made miso too, which will jump-start the fermentation process. Add that water back to the rest of the bean water. Add the Koji to the bean mixture and mix it up. Then, add all of the bean water back to the bean & Koji mixutre. Coat the inside of a jar with salt, place the mixture inside, and coat the top with salt. Then you can place a piece of wood on top of the mixture, weigh that piece of wood down with a rock and enclose the jar.

The exact reasoning for this last step is a little mysterious. The purpose of weighting it down could be to cause friction, which causes heat, which causes quickened fermentation, or it could just be to help get the air bubbles up and out of the miso as it’s fermenting. Either way, we totally dig this fermentation stuff, and we’re going to give it a shot… as long as our housemates are okay with having a vat of moldy miso hanging out for 3 years!

During the class, Meghan and Dawn shared with us some great books, The Book Of Miso, and Wild Fermentation. Wild Fermentation is written by Sandor Ellix Katz, who is essentially the god of fermentation. He just so happens to be coming to Philly in June to speak at the Free Library. We want to throw him a party and ask him all of our burning questions! Give us a shout if you want to be kept in the loop, or keep up with the Permaculture Society’s Facebook Page.

Philly’s DIY food movement is gaining ground. Never has it been more hip to grow your own veggies, cook and can your own food. The Philadelphia Permaculture Society is one of the most active groups furthering these ideas.

It all started when a group of people got together after a 2009 potluck brunch and lecture by Nance Klehm. PPS formed and started chatting about the lack of resources and info on DIY food culture and what they’d like to see happen in Philly. They started hosting workshops on cooking techniques and discussions, and PPS now offers seasonal community food prep events, including canning, preserving and fermenting.

This Saturday, SkillShare will host PPS’s Miso: Fermented Goodness That’s Good For You, a class which teaches how to cook with miso and even how to make your own. Taught by Dawn Reid and Megan Haupt, the class will demonstrate how to make the miso magic without sacrificing flavor. Come ready for hands-on training and with an appetite for healthful inventive cooking.

We just bought our tickets. Won’t you come join us?

DWTY is an in-home cooking lessons service. Lyons will come to your home, in your kitchen, and teach you how to cook on your own equipment (she even helps set up before and clean up afterwards). She can help you find your way around your local grocery store, put together a three course meal for guests, tackle some homemade soup, or more in the classes posted weekly.

Sure, you could just wing it, or watch some YouTube videos or the Food Network, but nothing beats one-on-one instruction.

Run by Audrey Claire Taichman (owner of Audrey Claire and Twenty Manning Grill) and sponsored by Philadelphia Magazine, COOK is a, “state-of-the-art, fully-equipped, sixteen-seat kitchen-classroom to discover, prepare and enjoy meals made from local and seasonal ingredients.”

And while this would be great anytime of the year, COOK just recently announced its November schedule, and it looks spectacular. Some of the one that stand out include: Gone Fishin’ with Terence Feury of Fork, Chocolate 101 with Christopher Curtin of Éclat Chocolate, and Artisan Cheese Making with Patrick Feury of Nectar. Most classes cost from $65 to $135 and a full schedule can be seen here.

Okay, we admit there are too many cupcake shops in Philly, but there could never be enough cupcake WORKshops! The Saturday before Valentine’s Day at Greensgrow’s Kensington Kitchen Space, Mona Wilson, of It’s a Cupcake, will be baking a batch of her signature savory cupcakes to taste. She’ll also send you home with a recipe and some sweet cupcakes to share with your Valentine… or not to share at all. The event takes place on Saturday, February 12th, from 12-2pm, and is $20 per person. There are a limited 15 spots available, so RSVP quick to kitchen@greensgrow.org with the number of participants, name(s), contact email and phone number. They’ll send you an email with an invoice. You can make payments with Paypal or by check.

Kensington Community Kitchen – 2139 E. Cumberland (blue door on Trenton)

Hitting a wall with gift giving ideas? Everyone loves delicious homemade goodies! Marisa McClellan’s canning classes welcome you to the wonderful world of preserving. She’s the brainchild behind Fork You, which used to host those free cooking shows at Foster’s. Since then, Marisa’s been whipping up some awesome recipes, that she shares with us through her website, Food In Jars, and I hear she’s also writing a book soon! So stay tuned. In the meantime, check out this great recipe for Apple Cranberry Jam, and keep an eye for upcoming classes in 2011. If you act quickly, you might be able to get in on one this Saturday, December 4th, featuring Apple-Pear Chutney. Now, we know all know this method of preserving scares some of you to death. Maybe it’s something your grandma used to do, but you’d rather leave it to her. Either that, or you’re just afraid you might kill someone if your product isn’t cooked or sealed properly. However, one class with Marisa will leave you feeling like a pro, with the right set of knowledge and tools. We assure you, it really is no sweat… except for the slaving over the stove part.

There’s a few tricks we learned that, if you’re a beginner, will probably be helpful to know.

Tip #1 You can buy canning supplies at a bunch of different places, like 20th Street Hardware and Target, but what seems the most affordable to us is to order them from Ace Hardware (they’ll ship it to a store near you for free) and pick it up a few days later.
Tip#2 Set your glass jars (with no lids) on the tray inside your pot of boiling water. You can leave them in there for the entire time your boiling down your product. You’ll want to put your warm fruits or veggies into warm jars, so the glass doesn’t shatter. Also, be careful if you have a stone or granite counter top (put a towel down, if you do).
Tip #3 You’ll want to dip the lids (the piece with the colored rim) into the boiling water for a few seconds/minutes to allow the rim to become gummy. This will help form a proper seal.
Tip #4 If your vaccum seal doesn’t work the first time you can try a second time with the same lid, but it’s not recommended after that.
Tip #5 Most of the time you don’t need to worry about having extremely high temperatures, nor having a pressure canner. Acidic fruits become sterile around 212 degrees Fahrenheit (typical boiling temperature). Less acidic produce, like plums or pumpkins, which have a pH from about 4.5 – 5.5, will be guaranteed sterile at 240 degrees, which you can do easily in a pressure canner. Apples have a pH of about 3.5 and cranberries have a PH of about 2.5, which means higher acidity. Remember, the lower the pH, the higher the acidity. Anything with a PH less than 4.6 is considered safe for canning. If your unsure of the acidity of the product you’re trying to can, just look up the PH of your fruits or vegetables before you start! Also, adding lemon juice helps to add acidity to your concoctions as well.
Tip #6 In some cases when making jellies & jams, you don’t need to introduce any additional pectin into your mix, because certain fruits and veggies are already naturally high in pectin. These cranberries and apples for instance, only need to be heated to 200 degrees, and they’ll set up naturally.
Tip#7 If your going to make a big batch of jarred goodness, pick up entire crates of fruit from farmers markets to get real bang for your buck!
Tip#8 You can keep most of your food in jars and cans for up to a year!

Godspeed domestic adventurers!

Last week, Greensgrow Farms hosted a Fermentation Workshop in a newly certified commercial kitchen. The kitchen, located inside St. Michael’s Church on East Cumberland Street, was completed for Greensgrow workshops, culinary classes for teenagers and to support local business owners looking for kitchen space! Go Greensgrow Go! The space is already very popular. Three business work there, which also help the revenue stream of St. Michael’s Church. One woman quit her day job to start a vegan business full time! Keep your eyes out for more workshops sponsored by Greensgrow – they’re thinking of hosting a baking one for the holidays!

Update:Bridget Foy’s has just announced they will also be holding a kids cooking class on Saturday, October 16th at 10:00 AM. This added class will be geared towards creating healthy Halloween foods. Sounds frighteningly tasty.