Lasagna with Koji Béchamel and Green Goddess

It’s great to be back. There wasn’t much time to blog over the past couple of months, so forgive me while I shake off the dust. In April, we took a lovely trip to Mexico. We spent the first couple of days in Mexico City, taking in as much as we could. We visited the Frida Kahlo house, just blocks from where we were staying, in the peaceful neighborhood of Coyoacan; in the south of the city we took a gondola boat ride on the Xochimilco canal, listening to Mariachi music and sipping fermented Pulque drinks all the while.
We then made our way to beautiful and sunny Oaxaca, where we took part in a couple of cooking classes. I ate some of the most fantastic food of my life. The ingredients all over the region were so pure and absurdly fresh. I ate my weight in huitlacoche, or corn “smut,” a literal crop blight in The U.S that is a proper delicacy in Mexico. Corn is always freshly milled and the moles are delectable. Stay tuned for a mole recipe coming in the near future.

We finished our trip in Cozumel, an island not far from Cancun, where we enjoyed some really fantastic SCUBA diving. I cannot wait to go back to Mexico; The people we met were so jovial, respectful, generous, and humble! I can’t say enough good things about them and their country.

Two weeks later, we were on the road, with all of our belongings in tow, heading to our new home in Pittsburgh, PA. We bought a house (our first!) in a peaceful neighborhood on a hill overlooking the city. Katie is days away from starting her residency in OBGYN, and I am to start working at Polish plant-based restaurant Apteka come July. Meanwhile, I have been cheffing at another plant-based restaurant in town, making specials and helping out how I can. 

Our new house came equipped with a superb kitchen and I have put myself to work creating all sorts of cooking experiments. It makes me happy to say that many more recipes are to follow this one; my creative motor is revving up!

In order to build a larder quickly, thereby giving myself a maximum assortment of fun and funky ingredients to pull from my pantry, I turned to koji. I am constantly amazed by the sheer versatility of koji and how it can find its way into so many ingredients. That is the reason why I am excited to share this recipe with you, the reader. This recipe is a tale that tells the transformation of an ingredient; from rice, to amazake (sweet sake), to cultured cream, to butter, and finally, to béchamel.

Koji butter is really amazing. It has a clean flavor with a pleasant hint of zing. I like to divide up the batch and make different compound butters. But "plain" is anything but. The same goes for the buttermilk, which goes as well in biscuits as it does salad dressings.

Alas, this recipe is about the koji béchamel more than it is the lasagna. Everyone has their own favorite lasagna recipes anyhow, and mine is surely no better than yours. As a consolation, I am including an additional recipe for a green goddess dressing that utilizes the koji buttermilk that separates from the koji butter. The green goddess is perfect on everything, including lasagna!

For the amazake:

• 200g koji (substitute basmati or jasmine rice in for the buckwheat)
• 200g cooked starch
• 400g water

For the amazake cultured cream and butter:

• 1500g (3 quarts) heavy cream
• 90g amazake

For the koji béchamel (yields 5 cups):

• 112g koji butter
• 112g all-purpose flour
• 960g milk
• Salt, to taste
• A few pinches of nutmeg

For everything else:

• Lasagna noodles, preferably fresh, blanched for 30 seconds in boiling salted water
• Your favorite vegetarian ragù
• Pecorino cheese, to garnish
• Gorgonzola cheese, to garnish

For the green goddess (yields 3 cups):

• 2 avocados, de-stoned
• 255g koji buttermilk
• 40g sherry vinegar
• 40g balsamic vinegar
• Juice of 1 lime
• 30g cilantro leaves and stems
• 30g parsley leaves and stems
• 9g sea salt
• 1/2 heaping teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
• 1 basil leaf
• 1 sage leaf
• Several grinds of freshly ground black pepper

To make the amazake: In a jar, blend koji, cooked starch, and water into a puree. Fasten the jar with a lid and transfer to a water bath with an immersion circulator and hold between 131F and 140F. Leave the amazake to warm for 10 to 14 hours. At that time, taste your amazake. It should be very sweet with a touch of signature koji funk. Amazake can be kept airtight in the fridge for 3 or more weeks. 

To make amazake cultured cream: In a non-reactive bowl, combine the heavy cream and amazake. Cover with a cloth and let sit at room temperature for 24 hours. At that time, take note of your cultured cream: it should have thickened significantly, having mild to moderate zingy flavors. Amazake cultured cream can be kept in the fridge for up to a week or 2.

To make koji butter and buttermilk: In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk your amazake cultured cream on the highest speed for several minutes. Use a splash guard or cover the machine with towels that you wouldn’t mind getting buttermilk all over. It’s messy. Eventually the butter will separate from the buttermilk. Strain the bowl’s contents through a cheese cloth, reserving all of the precious buttermilk. Next, knead your koji butter in a bath of clean cold water until it becomes slightly cloudy. Discard this water. Knead the koji butter in an effort to remove all  excess liquid. Store the butter and buttermilk separately. The buttermilk can be kept in the fridge for up to a week; the butter can be kept for longer. Store both airtight. Feel free to freeze the butter if you know you won't get through it all fast enough, but I highly doubt that would be the case.

To make the koji green goddess: Blend all of the ingredients in a blender. Proceed to put green goddess on everything. Store airtight. The green goddess can be kept in the fridge for a week or so. 

To make the béchamel: While you can make this sauce in advance, it’s best enjoyed fresh. Do what fits your schedule; just keep the timing and execution of the whole lasagna in mind. Gently melt the koji butter in a medium sauce pan until it starts to bubble. Add the flour and use steadily whisk it into the butter. Continue whisking for up to 1 minute. Turn the heat down low. Next, add your milk (I used cold milk as opposed to heated) and continue whisking for another 30 seconds. Bring the heat up to medium high. Use a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon to stir the béchamel, making sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the pot. In a minute and a half’s time, the béchamel ought to have thickened significantly. It should start looking voluptuous. Remove the béchamel from the heat and continue stirring and scraping. Add the salt and nutmeg. Transfer to another container to let cool. It should taste amazing. 

To make the lasagna: If you haven’t already, preheat your oven to 375F. Grease a 9x13 baking pan with butter (use your koji butter, duh). Place 1 cup of veggie ragù on the pan bottom, followed by 1/2 cup béchamel. Make sure everything is spread evenly. Add your first layer of blanched pasta noodles. Repeat these steps, adding in shavings of fresh pecorino, until you simply cannot stack it any higher. Wrap the baking pan in foil and bake for 30 minutes. After thirty minutes, remove the foil. Dollop lots of gorgonzola on top of the lasagna and return it to the oven to bake until the edges crisp. This can take anywhere between 10 to 30 more minutes depending on the strength of your oven. Let cool for 10 minutes to allow the lasagna to firm up. Serve with green goddess on the side.