Braised Shiitake Mushrooms

This dish is definitely a delicious traditional Chinese dish. Make sure you choose the high quality dried Chinese mushrooms (shiitake or dun-goo in Cantonese), with the very thick, cracked caps. They will give you a robust flavor and a meaty texture.

These braised mushrooms are delicious
 with a steaming bowl of jasmine rice. When braised correctly, they tasted meatier than meat, if that’s possible! The recipe is a definite keeper; however, I’d like to keep the dish for special occasions, due to the price of the ingredients.


BRAISED SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS
Serves 4
Adapted from Lily’s Wai Sek Hong – Braised Dried Shitake Mushrooms

Ingredients
For the marinade
1 T ginger juice*
1 T spring onion juice*
1 T light soy sauce
1 T sesame oil
Pinch of salt

Other
100 g (3 ½ oz) dried shiitake mushrooms
2 garlic cloves, crushed
½ t peanut oil
240 ml (1 c) ready-made chicken/vegetable stock
¾ T oyster sauce
¼ t salt
Pinch of black pepper
1 ¼ cm (½ inch) rock sugar
½ t sesame oil
1 T shaoxing wine
¾ T corn flour^ (cornstarch) OR unmodified potato starch OR tapioca starch in 80 ml (⅓ c) water

* To get the juice out of ginger root and spring onion, simply chop very fine, then squeeze through a tea-towel (kitchen towel).
^ Corn flour (UK) is completely different to corn flour (US). If not in the UK, please use corn starch and NOT corn flour.

Method
1. Soak the mushrooms in boiling water for 30 minutes. Remove the steams (you can save them for stuffed tofu or something else).

2. Meanwhile make the marinade, by mixing everything together in a medium sized bowl. Marinate the mushrooms for at least 10 minutes.

3. Heat the oil in a large frying pan (skillet) with a lid. Sauté the garlic, then add the mushrooms and sauté until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes. Add the stock, oyster sauce, salt, black pepper and rock sugar. Bring to a boil and simmer with the lid on for 30 minutes. After that, uncover and allow the sauce to reduce, about 5-10 minutes.

4. Add the shaoxing wine and bring back to the boil, then add the corn flour/starch slurry, stir and allow to thicken. Before serving sprinkle over the sesame oil and enjoy!