Brad Makes Garlic Miso

The saddest movie?

Well, I mean, I don't know the saddest movie,

but the first thing that came to

my mind was that damn Notebook, man.

(beep)

All right, Vinny, today on It's Alive,

we're gonna be doing a little fermented garlic in miso,

a Japanese preparation called misozuke.

Super easy, super flavorful,

and the end result is just unbelievable.

We're gonna take some garlic, and some miso.

We're gonna put 'em in jars, and we're gonna ferment it.

(chime)

Man, guess we didn't get the memo, Vinny.

Gabby showed up, though.

Oh, jeez.

(rock and roll music)

(beep)

The ingredients for this, we're gonna make two different

types, but you can just use one if you want to.

We have some white miso, and a red miso,

and then some garlic.

Good, you want to get as highest quality

gar garlic as possible.

You don't want any soft spots, you don't really want

any of that green germination coming out of the tips.

You know, where it starts to sprout?

You don't want that.

I'm a big garlic guy, I don't know if you guys picked it up.

These I picked up at a nice farmer's market

up in Hudson, New York.

I forget the farmer, but they were real nice.

Nice and firm.

There's a place in Union City,

if you guys happen to be in the New York area.

The Union Square Farmer's Market,

this guy Keith Smart, Keith there, Keets Farmers?

Keets Farm?

I think it's just Keith's Farm.

Yeah, that's the good stuff.

Medicinal grade.

(taps cutting board)

We made an episode about miso,

if you wanted to make your own.

It takes a little bit of time,

but it's actually relatively simple.

But what it is is, beans,

traditionally soy beans, and a barley or rice grain

that is inoculated with a bacteria and mold.

This is a store bought brand.

I like these guys, they're out of Nashville, South Carolina?

Nashville, North Carolina.

Miso Masters, you can get 'em

in Whole Foods or any big store.

And that's what we're gonna use today.

So I'm gonna get opening up some garlic, yeah Vinny?

So I'm gonna two heads in each, and that's more than enough.

You could really probably use one.

The more garlic, the more garlicky flavor, obviously.

It's gonna take a minute, Vinny, so get comfortable.

Oh yeah, this is good stuff.

You can tell, my fingers getting real sticky.

Oh, I love garlic.

Maybe one day Vinny, we'll have a nice plot of land,

and I'll just grow garlic.

You know, farmers, I mean, I know they get,

yeah, I mean, people love their farmers and stuff,

but they don't get enough credit, man.

I forget the farmer.

And farming is so hard.

You know, everyone just takes for granite,

oh, just go to the store and get your garlic.

Oh, go get your carrot.

You know how hard it is to grow that stuff?

I don't hear anyone complaining about

how expensive good ingredients are.

I mean, I have a garden, and this year I got, you know,

I had the beautifoo zucchinis,

and squash, and who'd a known?

This little moth came flying through,

laid his eggs in the stems of 'em, and they go in there

and just, you know, chew away and destroyed my entire crop.

Yeah, I got some skunks that go back there rooting around.

I had a groundhog, but I evicted him.

I just, you know, told him he had to move out.

Sorry pal, it's not you, it's me.

Well no, it's definitely you, but you gotta go.

I get it, my backyard's amazing.

There's lots of food, but it's very inconsiderate.

And we do a crush on that one.

Ugh, it's so much easier.

Boop, pops right out.

That's how I like to peel garlic.

But in this application, we need some whole cloves, so.

Don't act like you don't know.

When you crush the garlic--

Why you make me do this?

When you crush the garlic--

No, we don't have to do that.

When you crush the garlic, to best of my knowledge,

it thinks something's eating it, you know,

and it's it's defense, and it creates

a new chemical compound called allicin,

and that's what is very burny,

big antibacterial, just super good for you.

If you're ever feeling a little froggy,

(frog croaks)

which means sick, you go ahead, you crush up a little

garlic, let it sit for about 10 minutes, get that

two part going, and then just eat that stuff up raw.

Cha, cha, cha, chew it into a paste.

(breathes deeply) Breathe in the vapors.

I'll give you a demo in a minute.

But hold on, perfect example.

Little blemish, you see?

Blemish removed.

All right, we made it Vinny, we're done.

Let me do a little clean, clean.

So we have our two piles of garlic,

and here's our little crushed pile, Vinny.

Let's take our little daily dose of garlic.

There you go, that's for you.

Raw, crushed, oh yeah, pop it right in.

Mm-hmm.

Chew it up, got a little paste going.

And what I like to do, (exhales)

(harp music)

this might, I don't know if it does anything,

but in my head--

ooh, it's spicy, Vincent!

Get some of them garlic vapors into your lungs.

(relaxing music)

Woo!

Burning my whole entire mouth.

That's how you know it's good.

You feeling a little cold coming?

Oh, yeah.

Bam, bam!

Feel like I took a--

it gives me, like, superpowers, right?

All of a sudden, you feel like you could do any,

I'm gonna jump down and do pushups, Vinny.

Me-ow! All right, let me get a splash of water.

I got a little garlic thing going on.

Oh yeah, that's the stuff.

Now let's get serious.

We're gonna start off with the red miso.

I like to pack a little bit of the miso into the jar.

Nice little miso foundation.

Now that we have our nice little miso pad,

I like to just drop a couple in there, like so.

One of the crushed ones, one of the full ones, okay.

And then we're gonna do another

layer of the miso, all right?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, isn't that nice?

I like to get as much air out as possible.

Okay, I want that garlic to be covered in beautiful miso.

Oh, I almost just wanna eat that.

How good does that look?

All right, last two, big boys.

Yeah, these are big boys.

Big bad boys.

Oh, that's the stuff.

I give it a quick little bang down like that, too.

And there you have it.

Let's do the white real quick, yeah?

Same thing, same exact thing.

(light music)

And this is really exciting, because as it starts to

ferment, Vinny, all the gases come out and

make all these little crazy, natural, like, pockets.

Like, fissures would be the word.

It's really quite the spectacle.

And that really lets you know that it's working,

so looking forward to seeing that.

Okay.

Give it a little wipe wipe.

Mmm.

So miso just has that nice, salty, sweet, umamimess,

and when you add garlic that ferments to it,

all that nice garlic flavor just kinda leaches

into that already flavor bomb of miso.

And it really just does magical things.

I got these here lids, and we're just gonna

go ahead and throw 'em right on, Vince.

Okay?

(sighs) These gaskets.

(beep)

I put my little date right on the top, nice, nice.

I check it everyday, but Vinny,

you're gonna come back, say, Thursday?

All right.

Today's Monday, so that's like three and a half days, right?

And we'll see what happens, huh?

It's gonna be great.

And look at these jars, they give us nice visuals here.

Here, don't look at this, top secret.

So we'll circle back then, and see what happens.

(light music)

All right. (laughs)

(dramatic music)

You said you loved me.

So, we left off with miso.

Okay, we started on Monday, it's now Thursday.

Lots of activity here, Vince.

C'mon, c'mon.

Look, you got little gas pockets around the garlic.

All the liquid stained from the miso.

Pretty cool stuff.

Exhibit B, looks like a morel mushroom.

Lots of expansion, lots, and lots, and lots of trapped gas.

Vinny, let's bring these over to the cutting board,

'cause I got a little theory about this.

This is a mellow, sweet, white miso.

And this one, I don't know if this one fermented more,

or if this one is just trapped in

a denser suspension in the older miso.

But this one has clearly got way more gas.

And also, look, there's so much more displacement.

There's no more head space.

We used the same amount of miso.

This lifted up a little bit, but this one

blew the clip, and it's got miso.

Oh, that's looks kinda good, let's taste that.

It's got like, miso goodness popping out.

Ooh, this stuff is firmed up from the oxygen.

This is still nice.

Look at that, look how fluffy and pillowy

it is from all that trapped gas in there.

Look at that, Vinny.

And let's open up the red one.

That don't look too much different than when we started.

Ugh, the smell, I wish you guys could smell this,

but you know, you'll have to do it yourself.

I mean, miso by itself is a fermented product,

as we know, and it gives off it's own umami kind of

big smell, and then when you ferment the garlic in it,

it just becomes this, it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.

So now you have some liquid around the garlic, there.

This could probably even go a little longer.

Here's another red miso, that I packed

crushed garlic in weeks ago, and look how much darker.

Just with a little time, look how much darker it gets.

Oh wow, look at that.

Came flying out, like a big, pillowy--

Now, the garlic didn't seem to change too much.

It's a little softer.

So let's cut these open.

And this is the old, old one.

We'll leave that one for last.

This is the one that's packed in the red.

I'm just gonna cut it open.

Oh wow, the whole texture--

it almost reminds me a little bit

like black garlic that's not black.

It has the texture almost of like a jelly.

Wow, that looks good.

Whoa, I'd put that on anything, Vince.

Well today, we're gonna put it in miso soup,

but you could pop this stuff in a braise,

you could literally put it in almost anything.

Yeah, some stir fry, I mean, whatever you're cooking

I think, or a vinaigrette, I think you could mask,

you know, it depends how much funk in garlic

you're into, but I really care for it.

What's up?

You seem very sad.

All right, so we're gonna slice open the old red too,

'cause I just wanna see what that looks like

with a little more time in there.

Oh wow, texture.

It actually seems like it firmed up a little.

Ooh, that color.

That's the most beautiful thing I've seen in a while.

You drape that over a little fish, ooh.

I'm gonna try it real quick, okay?

Big salty, big miso, the garlic is definitely there,

but it kinda like, kinda mellows.

Oh, it's delicious.

And then let's cut open the white one real quick.

Oh wow, very soft, look at that.

You put that on a little pizza.

Oh, gonna eat that.

(clears throat) Woo-hoo.

That still has a little bit of pepper to it.

Oh, yeah.

Oh Vinny, this, I get like

superhuman strength when I eat garlic.

Here, you try, Vince.

Don't cut yourself.

All right, let me just see your reaction.

Yeah, breathe it in.

(claps)

That's why we roll, Vinny.

All right, where were we?

Let's make a little miso soup out of this, all right?

So, real quick, I made some dashi, which is water,

some kombu, which is in this case

a North Atlantic kelp, okay, dried.

Some bonito flakes, which is a

smoked bonito fish loin that's fermented.

That's a whole thing, Vinny, we should really do that.

And then some wakame seaweed.

That's dried, we'll rehydrate it,

but to make the dashi, well, look it up on Google.

Maybe we'll do that another time.

I'm gonna put just a dollop of the miso in.

Yeah, let's stir that around.

Maybe we'll float a little garlic

right on top of it, too, huh?

And then we'll put maybe a little

shiitake mushroom in it, too.

And then we'll cut up a couple scallions.

And then, oh, I'm just gonna drop

a little tofu in, just cubed up.

Let's go, let's plate this up.

Look, I found this cute little bowl, got me excited.

Oh, it smells so good.

Vinny, we nailed it.

I could drink gallons of this stuff.

Well look, we'll drop a couple more scallions on it.

Pop, pop, pop.

All right, and then our specimens,

this is the few weeks, this is like five weeks.

Let's just drop a few of those in there,

'cause man, I just really like garlic.

So that's it.

Fermented garlic miso soup.

Oh, you know what?

I would add a little bit more miso, but it is quite nice.

It's got a nice little subtlety of garlic,

little smokiness from the bonito.

Oh, Vinny, I gotta make you a bowl.

I feel a little weird.

I feel a little weird eating soup

standing up by myself in an empty kitchen.

Hey, you guys want some miso soup?

Line up folks.

And if you want, you can drop some garlic in there, too.

(laughs) You say that about everything.

It's like, your kid's first birthday,

you're making cake, you're like--

Oh, they've had raw garlic.

Put some garlic on there, if you want.

Hey, you know, it keeps vampires away.

I got a theory about that.

[Gabby] Wow Brad, it is so good.

Look at that, look how freakin' beautiful that is, Vinny.

One more.

Look at that, though.

I mean, come on.

Yeah. (laughs)

I get so excited, Amiel.

I know you do.

I know.

I know you do, I like that about you.

I've been waiting all my life for this.

All right, well, I'm glad you made it.

♪ People wait a (bleep) ♪

Ooh, yeah.

Well there you have it.

[Gabby] Thank you.

Fermented miso garlic soup.

Thank you for joining, my friends.

And bon appetit. (claps)

Let's eat more garlic.

(faucet pouring) I don't know why, but we have like,

hot water problems within this building.

Like, it's still not warm.

Like, is there a little man underneath the counter

with a blowtorch heating the pipe?

Like, what's going on?

It's 2025.

(beep)

Now there's a lot of people making it here.

Huh, a lot of people making it here, and, puberty.

(beep)

Language, please.

No respect for the kids.

Yeah, you.

Well, I'm trying to do an educational program here.

People back there cussing.

(beep)

See if you're getting hot water.

Back there.

Water, wa-ter.

Check the wa-ter.

Who talks like that?

[Woman] Literally everyone but you.

[Brad] Boy, I love wa-ter.

No, I'm not throwing garlic around, Delany.

It's all about fun, man.

Fun and knowledge.

(scoffs)

(sighs)

(light music)

(beep)