Japanese cuisine · Desserts & Sweets

Amazake

A warm, naturally sweet rice drink made from koji rice, fermented overnight and seasoned with ginger.

Ingredients · for 4 servings

• 150 g short-grain rice
• 200 g rice koji (dried)
• 700 ml water
• 1 piece ginger (about 3 cm)
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 tbsp sugar (to taste)

Instructions

1. Rinse the short-grain rice until clear, set it to cook with 500 ml water covered for 25 min. into a soft, porridge-like rice; it should be noticeably wetter than normal side-dish rice.
2. Stir the hot rice with the remaining 200 ml water and let it cool to exactly 60 °C — if processed hotter, the koji enzymes die.
3. Crumble the rice koji apart with your fingers, stir it in and pour the mixture into a clean jar or thermos.
4. Let the mixture sit for 8–10 hrs., ideally overnight, at a constant 55–60 °C, stirring twice, until it smells sweet and has become noticeably more liquid.
5. Finely grate the ginger, stir in half of it and thin the mixture to drinking consistency with hot water to taste; round it out with the sugar and a pinch of salt.
6. Briefly warm the amazake to 65 °C without boiling it, pour into pre-warmed cups and serve hot sprinkled with the remaining grated ginger.