I divided the flat iron steak into two equal pieces; one was seasoned with just salt and pepper and the other marinated in shio-koji. This time I marinated the steak for only one hour before cooking since we thought the shio-koji marinated chicken tenderloin was perhaps “over marinated”.
In the picture below, the regular steak is on the left and the shio-koji marinated steak is on the right.
I cooked both pieces of steak in an identical fashion in the same pan (the left is shio-koji marinated and the right just salt and pepper in the picture below). I seared the surface for a few minutes each and finished it in a 400F oven for 5 minutes.
After I let them rest for a few minutes, I sliced both pieces and served side-by-side with my wife’s oven “fried” potatoes (The first picture). I could have improved on the presentation but I was anxious to taste them. As you can see, although both pieces of steak were cooked identically, the shio-koji marinated steak on the right of the first picture), was less pink and looked more done. On tasting, the result was the same as the chicken tenderloin. The consistency of shio-koji marinated steak was a bit weird. Again, the steak developed a doughy consistency. We would not call this more “tender” just doughy. We much preferred the salt and peppered piece which was done perfectly in medium rare.
2 comments:
How was the overall aroma and flavor? And do you suppose it is the action of the koji mold on the meat, breaking it down in some "strange" manner?
Among many things Koji mold breaks down complex carbohydrates into fermentable sugar (which makes it essential for sake production). Beside this type of enzyme, it also produces many other enzymes including possibly some which break down proteins.
So shiokoji imparts sweet and salty basic flavors plus some "je ne sais quoi" flavors to marinated food. Besides having a somewhat doughy texture the flavors of the meat was just fine.
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