Hey guys, a few notes: 1. Can you do a hot water soak for dried shiitakes, or even just toss them directly into soups without reconstituting? …sure, but you definitely extract more flavor from the mushrooms with that lengthy cold water soak. I remember one time I (Chris) was cooking for Dawei (Steph’s Dad), reconstituted the shiitake with hot, boiled water instead of cool… and he *still* gives me a little grief over it to this day haha. That said, if you’re in a pinch, go for it. 2. Personally though, I find the cool water soak to be the easiest method to reconstitute anyway. Rinse off the schmutz, toss it in a bowl with water… and that’s it. Do in the morning and come back to it for dinner, or even the next day. 3. Dried shiitakes can also be used in the context of western cooking too, I feel. Like, the other day I whipped up a mushroom risotto with dried shiitakes (media.discordapp.net/attachments/696722998581002241/1006076802072060005/IMG_6269.JPG … first time making risotto in many years!), which was pretty awesome in its own right (leaned into a sort of dried shiitake + soy sauce + butter flavor for that one though). 4. Important information for any viewer in Thailand! 0.6% of y’all, but hey. After testing a bunch of times, we found that the pork that you get at the market here appears to be unsuitable for this kind of Chinese meat emulsion. Still sort of working out why that might be - and a lengthy community post is coming up on the topic - but the workaround we found was to (annoyingly) use Kurobuta pork. In Bangkok, you can find it at the bougie supermarkets in Sukhumvit (Villa Market and the Emporium) - it’s pricey but not insane (~500 TBH per kilo). We had good luck with a mix of pork chop and collar steak. Pork in Thailand is fine for pretty much any other usage… it’s just for some reason the texture’s just off in these meat mixes. 5. Oh! Amazon storefront. After a long time of being lazy, we finally decided to hop on the affiliate train: www.amazon.com/shop/chinesecookingdemystified . As always, we implore you guys to NOT buy stuff on Amazon if you can possibly help it, because the price is often two to four times more expensive than it should be. Instead, go to your local Chinese supermarket (best option) or if you’re in the USA you can also check out sayweee.com (second best option). Other online shops like yamibuy and Mala Market can also be great. That said, we selected some products on the Amazon store that we feel could be good additions to a kitchen getting set up to cook Chinese food, so definitely feel free to browse & use the Amazon store as a visual of what to buy at your Chinese grocer. 6. Last bit - thickening the sauces. For both the braised shiitake sauce and the sauce for the stuffed mushrooms, a root vegetable starch like potato starch would be preferable to cornstarch. First, potato starch is a bit more stable, and the sauce can sit at room temperature for longer; second, it thickens faster, which allows you to more easily eyeball the slurry quantity. 7. We’ll be off next week - going to finally be swinging back to America to see family. We’re going to film a video in the USA… that one might be out in two weeks time, might be out in three weeks time. We’ll see how busy we are in the states :)
@@eclecticcode UK here, fresh ones taste very different like Chris said. I get my massive bags of dried ones from the Chinese cash and carry. You can get some great quality ones too.
This is true. They used to do less vegetarian recipes but I think they got enough feedback in polls and comments that lots of us are veg. I remember I actually made a comment to this effect two years ago and they responded that they had really been thinking of Buddhist veg cuisine.
In my opinion, if anyone were wanting to go vegetarian, Chinese/Asian food is always a safe way to get into meatless cuisine without “suffering”. (It’s hardly suffering to go meatless, but standard Americans are so spoiled with meat they think we need it every day). Umami provides that “meaty” flavor, and many asian countries are poverty stricken, giving them the need to get every bit of flavor out of what they’ve got. Like classic French cooking.
China has one of the longest tradition of vegetarianism and has been agriculturally abundant. Just by having tofu, soy sauce, bean paste, tofu skin, fermented tofu, bean sprout, seitan, mushroom and bamboo we have enough to substitute the nutrition, texture and flavor of meat. A problem though is that Chinese Buddhism and Taoism often prefer bland food for religious reasons.
Discovering you guys during lockdowns has been such a life changer for my partner and I. With both of us being vegan, the Chinese cuisine has so much to offer in terms of wholesome, delicious, good quality plant-based food. Thank you for bringing this food into our lives. Lots of love from Australia!
Not related to this recipe exactly but I added shaoxing wine and cornstarch to my sauce arsenal after watching your videos. Didn't realize that's what I was missing to my soy-sauce based sauces and it made a huge difference
Being a 100% hakka-chinese you are absolutely spot on with the stuffed mushroom. In the old days it used to be Chinese New Year dish as poor villagers feat on sumptuous pork meat.
I love your mapo tofu recipe and make it all the time swapping the mince for minced shiitake along with some other wild dehydrated mushrooms (porcini, lobster, leccinum etc) and use the mushroom stock. It’s a great way to make a vegan variation of the classic dish.
not only dried dates, but you also need dried wolfberries... my grandma always said, when using dried dates, always add some wolfberries as well, they go hand in hand, especially in soup.
ב''ה, not sure what region it's originally from, but a handful of those with watercress is about all you need for a delicious light chicken soup. I used to halve a few dried and put them in with coffee grounds before brewing, if you like the flavor and health claims.
Awesome :) I feel like we should really buy a food processor one of these days to see the results going that route too... but I guess I just have ptsd from having to wash the food processor in my youth
What a coincidence, this video coming out before Wednesday, which is my shiitake and tofu dinner night 🙂 My mom sometimes makes the stuffed shiitake mushrooms (my family has Hakka ancestry), but makes the stuffing with both shrimp and pork 😋
I fell into a search bar rabbit hole looking up what kind of mushrooms I buy at the Chinese market. I live in a university town with a strong Chinese population so I get quite a bit of variety, but I never knew which specific type I need. Dried mushrooms are one of these items. They're definitely dried mushrooms but I have no idea what kind since they're all listed as "mushroom" or "fungus" in the ingredients list, and Google translating the package is no help (same with fried chilis!). Through Google, I learned that there are different categories (flower, fragrant, etc) but I'd love to see a product guide video from you guys
Shitake mushrooms have many types. The chinese name of shitake mushrooms are 冬菇/ 冬菇 in traditional chinese/simplified chinese respectively. Flower mushroom is one type: 花菇/花菇 and is the type of top quality. Good for mushroom steak. Fragrant mushroom 香菇/香菇 is the medium to low quality general purpose type.
As mushrooms of any kind belong to my fav foods ever, I will try a veganized version of everything in this video! Thanks! Could you do some more wood ear recipes as well? 🙏
I use dried shiitake all the time. The sliced ones are much cheaper and they reconstitute faster than the whole ones. They are great for so many dishes, even Western food. I always add some to curries and stews for a deeper umami flavor.
I use a monter au beurre technique to make something very similar to the braised shiitake, but using butter instead of the slurry at the end to thicken the sauce. (also I add lots of garlic with the aromatics). Oyster sauce and butter is like luxury in a bowl, seriously addictive. When I make it for a group they just dissapear, over a pound of mushrooms couldn't even make it around the table twice with 6 people and it wasn't even the only dish! Next time I'll have to make a full kilo.
I hated any mushrooms when I was younger but at about the age of 25 I started to love them. Shitaki are my absolute favorite. I can usually buy them fresh but it was cheaper to buy a large bag of dried, so this video helped a lot.
I love that you announced that you're Amazon affiliates while recommending against Amazon 💕 I avoid Amazon when I can but I'll be sure to grab your link next time I buy there
This is my favorite type of mushrooms as I eat any often like soup in cream or wonton ones to adding them to noodles. Another nice video as I look forward to the easy to understand and timely for meals, thanks!
I am a massive food nerd and I had no idea the best Shiitake are used for drying. In retrospect, it makes sense the flavor is amplified massively I just thought it was perhaps inferior mushrooms and they just all taste good. I will even submerge them in vinegar to make "Ine shi" or Rice death, rice that is so tasty that it is good enough to die for.
Couldn't agree more. I keep a couple types of dried shiitake mushrooms (sliced and bite sized whole mushrooms) and I discovered dried shiitake mushroom powder... Amazing ingredient. Talk about an umami bomb. I always use my shitake soaking water as a broth. Just add in some Hondashi and instant yum.
I really adore Shiitake. Love the deep umami flavor in many dishes. Sadly they are very hard to find where I live. Only available for short times or in specialized stores. :(
If you live in the West, dried porcini are excellent and available in many supermarkets in the Italian section. It's also available as stock cubes. The flavour is more umami and a bit more earthy, but it sounds like that is exactly what you're looking for, texture is woodier though and you need to stew them a while.
kind of bugs me since they're available where i live but the dried ones, despite them saying that the dried ones are high quality, have an odd, musty, slightly chemical taste to them, like a faint taste of the floor under your kitchen sink. The fresh ones here are much higher quality but like 4x the price.
I'd like to add one more. I use a microplane on a dry guy in all kinds of dishes. Thin sauce or broth, soup needs something, in breading and batters, etc. The dry, essentially powder, adds umami and thickens. If you don't have a microplane, the fine part of a cheese grater works.
I don’t know if it’s just me, I always find the scent of dried shiitake mushrooms weirdly mesmerising. It’s not a type of fragrant that make you want to bottle it, but it is not a scent that is forgettable. My dad is very finicky with the “dry goods” (dried shiitake mushrooms, dried jujube and dried gojis) there’s always a bag of big dried shiitake mushrooms in our pantry. I admit that a few times I would just for not reason open up that bag of mushrooms just to have a sniff. It is a curious food that when it is fresh, it is basically scentless with no noticeable flavour. But if it is dried and reconstituted, it has a completely different texture and flavour. It is also a type that I would avoid using whenever I am in my “snobbish European recipes tryouts” phase because it will mystically add a tinge of “Chinese-y” to the dish. At least that’s what I tasted. L
Hi, just for the anecdote, some ppl find they actually stink, and they're highly loaded in enzymes and zinc, as well as other health-related components, so much so that they're toxic if you eat them raw when fresh. But as for dried mushrooms in general, without going all the way to morello, which are sooo expensive and also toxic unless cooked, dried porcini AND their soaking water, for flavoring a risotto, or a béchamel sauce, or just with olive oil and garlic, for pasta, are a real bomb too... And they're quite intoxicating as well ! BON appétit ! ❤from Paris
Grest video guys, as always! May I request a video for any old or classic chinese gluten/seitan dishes. I've heard that the first references of gluten as an ingredient dates back a thousand years to China. I'd love to know how it has been eaten over the centuries in China, and wether it is used at all anymore. All "Chinese" recipes I find nowadays are some sloppy general tso replicates that are not that good and they all lack good technique and authenticity. Thanks!
Great video. I love how you precisely measure all the ingredients. 😆 I'm guilty of that style of measuring ingredients as well and it becomes a pain in the butt for me when someone asks me for a recipe. A word about shiitake mushrooms. I avoid buying the prepackaged dried mushrooms because they are treated with sodium metabisulfite. However, since drying the mushrooms intensifies their flavor I dry my own in a food dehydrator set at about 150F (60C). And since I am drying them myself I know they are clean. I am guilty of rehydrating them with hot water since I didn't know any better but after watching your video I shall use your method. Even tho' I'm of Italian descent almost 70% of our diet is based on Asian cuisine (the rest is Mediterranean) and I am lucky to have an Asian market within 10 miles from where we live so I have access to everything except shaoxing wine. I could probably get it in Boston but that's a 90 minute trip and parking is a nightmare. So I substitute Amontillado sherry that I can get locally. Incidentally whenever I need a small batch of ground pork or beef I chop by hand which is more convenient than setting up my meat grinder. Btw, I am reluctant to use sugar in our food; however, I do add a touch of black soy sauce to add a little bit of sweetness. I just discovered your channel and I am looking forward to seeing what else you have to offer. 😺
hello, mushroom farmer here. nobody saves the best shitake for drying. shitake just grows kinda sporadically so its easier to dry out ones that pop out by themselves rather than a cluster. they are the same as the other mushrooms, dried mushrooms just release flavor differently for chemicals/biology reasons.
I so enjoyed this video! Your dialogue is artistic for sure. I only didn't know what the wine you used is in the first part. I'm sure you are an author or writer of sorts because you verbiage is so enjoyable!!
Many thanks for the playlist! I do love your videos, although there are. many items I don't make. I like to get ideas about how to use items in recipes.
There's quite a wide range of prices and looks for dried shitakes in Western-Asian markets. Do you find that the quality varies a lot? Or is it more of a branding thing?
At some point, the very expensive ones become more about presentation. I'm fairly sure the ones in the super fancy boxes are often given as gifts, kind of like the $100 melons you find in Japan. 😀
@@clarenceoveur778 Somewhat true not but entirely. The boxed ones are usually the top quality. They are supposed to be used as main ingredient of the dishes. A popular dish is braised shitake mushrom in oyster sauce. Cheaper ones are good in all other purposes except as the main ingredient.
@@catchnkill I see, thanks for clearing that up. I may have made an incorrect assumption based on dried shiitake I've seen alongside other mushrooms like matsutake in Japan.
I would love it if you guys can do one (or multiple) 烤鱼 recipe(s). I often find myself craving for the very spicy versions but the only good place in Amsterdam that sells 烤鱼 is not exactly cheap. Thanks for the hard work!
So, how does one go about judging the quality of dried shitake mushrooms? I feel like it's kind of a crapshoot whether they're complex tasting and wonderful, or they're like blandly umami cardboard.
If the same brand sells smaller packages, buy one of those first to judge the quality, then buy a bigger package of the brand you like. Might seem like common sense but better to have it said I think.
Whatever broth I make at home ,being chicken ,beef ,or even roasted veal bones for classic demi glaze ,I put dry shitakey ,they just add that umami ,msg goodness
I like to powder dried shiitake in my coffee grinder then use it as a stock powder.🍄 I probably consume a lot of "stray schmutz" this way, but oh well. 😝
ב''ה, if you're in a dry climate or it's winter I'd expect they'll tolerate a quick colander rinse and a day of counter drying, if they seem to need it.
I used to think I didn't like any mushrooms at all until I tried Shiitakes. I mostly only used them in stir fries and to make Dashi, but I have so many more ideas now thanks to this vid! Just wish they weren't so pricey :(
Excellent. Though I am missing how to use the mushrooms in some standard stir fry (think chicken, mushrooms and bamboo shots). Would they be ready after being soaked, with just a brief stir fry along with the bamboo (and after thec chickec) while seasoning and finishing the whole thing in the wok? Thank you! Suscribed.
The old "Amazon is too expensive" wisdom might not be true anymore. Last week I stopped at my local Asian market to pick up some veggies, and I noticed that MSG was significantly more expensive than it used to be. So I checked all the other things I usually buy, and everything but chili crisp has increased in price by a LOT. I compared prices on Amazon, and in many cases Amazon was cheaper. I grabbed the last chili crisp, and it will be interesting to see what the price will be when they restock. Oh, question: What temperature should the pork stuffing reach? USDA calls for 160°F/71°C, which might be overcooked.
I wish there was more info online about the different types of shiitake you can buy at chinese grocers, I always see places with several different buckets of things that all look like shiitakes but have widely varying prices. are the more expensive ones straight up better? what makes them better?
For the stock or soup, wouldn't it also be possible to skip the reconstitution step for the dried shiitake? Since that pot is going to be boiling for hours anyway
I miss chicken and shiitake soup !!!! My family ends dinner with a soup and it is often the soup. And there is always whole chicken and shiitake soup in my Chinese new year meal. reproducing the taste is not as simple as how the soup looks. THX for the recipe
QQ - My local Asian stores, run by Vietnamese, carry dried black mushrooms, which are great. I thought they were shiitake. But I see from your video that shiitakes are brown when dried. So, should I be looking for something different?
A bit off topic, but the wok used in this video has a silverish color that makes me think it's not seasoned at all. Why is that? Is it ok to use unseasoned woks like that?
oyster sauce is, literally, sauce made from oysters. specifically it's the water left over after the oysters have been boiled for a long time, concentrated and thickened coincidentally this channel has a video on how to make it yourself 👍
Haha basically what diamdante said. Basically, traditionally it was a by-product of making sun-dried oysters, as step one of the process is blanching the oysters for about a half hour. Traditional oyster sauce is an intense reduction of that blanching liquid. These days however, it's mostly water, stabilizers, sugar, and oyster extract.
I prefer to use Tapioca Starch for thickening purposes. Works the same as Corn Starch, but tastes different... If you're someone who can taste things to that degree at least. 🤔 It also work really well when you want to roll out dough, and not have it stick to anything. 💁🏼♂️
Had a thought while watching the Stuffed option. If you have extra soaking liquid left over, you could freeze some of it and use that to replace the ice water and ice. 🤔 I actually have done something similar before when making potstickers.... And my version is way too complex to bother writing out here... Even though I started with a good "traditional" filling... I wanted a wider array of flavors. Interestingly, I kind of Forgot I had a burdock root in the freezer, and decided to use that, but found it desiccated... Turns out freezer desiccated burdock makes a good water absorbing agent when finely grated... I will actually be using this strategy with other vegetables when making the filling so I can replace plain water, with flavoring liquids. I actually got really good at making them, but I got tired of being the only one I was cooking for so the ingredients are no longer in stock. 💁🏼♂️ Don't particularly enjoy cooking when I am the only one who will eat it. 🙄
i love it too, but only the fresh kind, i dont really like the dried one bc their rather overwhelming flavour. for the fresh one i love to make pot rice with it, alongside fresh veggies.
Ok I Tried making ramen eggs and I wanted to use these Shitaki Mushrooms we had in the cabinet for YEARS. I didn't know how to prep en beforehand so I kinda just added the dried mushrooms to the broth, I uh didn't think I had to wash em cuz they were dry, I really had no idea but overall its not bad is it?
“The very best ones are saved for drying”? I honestly have not heard that about mushrooms. I knew certain tomato varieties were like that, but that’s interesting about these.
I normally love shiitakes and use them all the time, but last time mine had a bunch of nasty worms in them. And since I’m bug-phobic I’ve been a bit hesitant to tap into more as of recent. I always get mine from my local Asian store not Amazon. Do you have any tips for avoiding the little worms? I know they’re not abnormal I just really hate bugs. Maybe certain characteristics or checking a best before? I’m not sure what to do to avoid it, there were so many worms and it’s the first time that’s ever happened to me.
I would imagine the cause of this is a punctured vacuum package (assuming the mushrooms you bought were vacuum sealed, mine have seemingly always been and I live in Europe), but I'm by no means an expert. Hope you can eventually overcome the aversion!
Hey guys, a few notes:
1. Can you do a hot water soak for dried shiitakes, or even just toss them directly into soups without reconstituting? …sure, but you definitely extract more flavor from the mushrooms with that lengthy cold water soak. I remember one time I (Chris) was cooking for Dawei (Steph’s Dad), reconstituted the shiitake with hot, boiled water instead of cool… and he *still* gives me a little grief over it to this day haha. That said, if you’re in a pinch, go for it.
2. Personally though, I find the cool water soak to be the easiest method to reconstitute anyway. Rinse off the schmutz, toss it in a bowl with water… and that’s it. Do in the morning and come back to it for dinner, or even the next day.
3. Dried shiitakes can also be used in the context of western cooking too, I feel. Like, the other day I whipped up a mushroom risotto with dried shiitakes (media.discordapp.net/attachments/696722998581002241/1006076802072060005/IMG_6269.JPG … first time making risotto in many years!), which was pretty awesome in its own right (leaned into a sort of dried shiitake + soy sauce + butter flavor for that one though).
4. Important information for any viewer in Thailand! 0.6% of y’all, but hey. After testing a bunch of times, we found that the pork that you get at the market here appears to be unsuitable for this kind of Chinese meat emulsion. Still sort of working out why that might be - and a lengthy community post is coming up on the topic - but the workaround we found was to (annoyingly) use Kurobuta pork. In Bangkok, you can find it at the bougie supermarkets in Sukhumvit (Villa Market and the Emporium) - it’s pricey but not insane (~500 TBH per kilo). We had good luck with a mix of pork chop and collar steak. Pork in Thailand is fine for pretty much any other usage… it’s just for some reason the texture’s just off in these meat mixes.
5. Oh! Amazon storefront. After a long time of being lazy, we finally decided to hop on the affiliate train: www.amazon.com/shop/chinesecookingdemystified . As always, we implore you guys to NOT buy stuff on Amazon if you can possibly help it, because the price is often two to four times more expensive than it should be. Instead, go to your local Chinese supermarket (best option) or if you’re in the USA you can also check out sayweee.com (second best option). Other online shops like yamibuy and Mala Market can also be great. That said, we selected some products on the Amazon store that we feel could be good additions to a kitchen getting set up to cook Chinese food, so definitely feel free to browse & use the Amazon store as a visual of what to buy at your Chinese grocer.
6. Last bit - thickening the sauces. For both the braised shiitake sauce and the sauce for the stuffed mushrooms, a root vegetable starch like potato starch would be preferable to cornstarch. First, potato starch is a bit more stable, and the sauce can sit at room temperature for longer; second, it thickens faster, which allows you to more easily eyeball the slurry quantity.
7. We’ll be off next week - going to finally be swinging back to America to see family. We’re going to film a video in the USA… that one might be out in two weeks time, might be out in three weeks time. We’ll see how busy we are in the states :)
dried mushroom and risotto! the adam ragusa grindset
Any chance for a Meet and Greet when you're here?
I can get fresh shiitake more easily than dried shiitake here (UK), can they sub in for soaking?
@@eclecticcode Unfortunately no. Dried shiitake have a much more concentrated flavor than fresh shiitake
@@eclecticcode UK here, fresh ones taste very different like Chris said. I get my massive bags of dried ones from the Chinese cash and carry. You can get some great quality ones too.
I try basically every vegetarian recipe from this channel. I think CCD covers vegetarian recipes better than most yt food channels
This is true. They used to do less vegetarian recipes but I think they got enough feedback in polls and comments that lots of us are veg. I remember I actually made a comment to this effect two years ago and they responded that they had really been thinking of Buddhist veg cuisine.
In my opinion, if anyone were wanting to go vegetarian, Chinese/Asian food is always a safe way to get into meatless cuisine without “suffering”. (It’s hardly suffering to go meatless, but standard Americans are so spoiled with meat they think we need it every day). Umami provides that “meaty” flavor, and many asian countries are poverty stricken, giving them the need to get every bit of flavor out of what they’ve got. Like classic French cooking.
China has one of the longest tradition of vegetarianism and has been agriculturally abundant. Just by having tofu, soy sauce, bean paste, tofu skin, fermented tofu, bean sprout, seitan, mushroom and bamboo we have enough to substitute the nutrition, texture and flavor of meat. A problem though is that Chinese Buddhism and Taoism often prefer bland food for religious reasons.
Discovering you guys during lockdowns has been such a life changer for my partner and I. With both of us being vegan, the Chinese cuisine has so much to offer in terms of wholesome, delicious, good quality plant-based food. Thank you for bringing this food into our lives.
Lots of love from Australia!
Not related to this recipe exactly but I added shaoxing wine and cornstarch to my sauce arsenal after watching your videos. Didn't realize that's what I was missing to my soy-sauce based sauces and it made a huge difference
Being a 100% hakka-chinese you are absolutely spot on with the stuffed mushroom. In the old days it used to be Chinese New Year dish as poor villagers feat on sumptuous pork meat.
I love your mapo tofu recipe and make it all the time swapping the mince for minced shiitake along with some other wild dehydrated mushrooms (porcini, lobster, leccinum etc) and use the mushroom stock. It’s a great way to make a vegan variation of the classic dish.
not only dried dates, but you also need dried wolfberries... my grandma always said, when using dried dates, always add some wolfberries as well, they go hand in hand, especially in soup.
Look 🆙🆙 that handle 👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻for any psychedelic products, DMT,LSD, shrooms,candy bar💊🍫🍄
ב''ה, not sure what region it's originally from, but a handful of those with watercress is about all you need for a delicious light chicken soup.
I used to halve a few dried and put them in with coffee grounds before brewing, if you like the flavor and health claims.
I do the hand mincing! It turns recipes that never really worked for me with supermarket mince into something awesome!
Awesome :) I feel like we should really buy a food processor one of these days to see the results going that route too... but I guess I just have ptsd from having to wash the food processor in my youth
@@ChineseCookingDemystified I much prefer minutes of hand mincing to washing out a food processor, too...
What a coincidence, this video coming out before Wednesday, which is my shiitake and tofu dinner night 🙂
My mom sometimes makes the stuffed shiitake mushrooms (my family has Hakka ancestry), but makes the stuffing with both shrimp and pork 😋
Your Mum's stuffed mushrooms sound delicious.
I will never not love this channel
Love these mushrooms
The stuffed shiitake look amazing, definitely have to give that recipe a try at some point!
I fell into a search bar rabbit hole looking up what kind of mushrooms I buy at the Chinese market. I live in a university town with a strong Chinese population so I get quite a bit of variety, but I never knew which specific type I need. Dried mushrooms are one of these items. They're definitely dried mushrooms but I have no idea what kind since they're all listed as "mushroom" or "fungus" in the ingredients list, and Google translating the package is no help (same with fried chilis!). Through Google, I learned that there are different categories (flower, fragrant, etc) but I'd love to see a product guide video from you guys
Shitake mushrooms have many types. The chinese name of shitake mushrooms are 冬菇/ 冬菇 in traditional chinese/simplified chinese respectively. Flower mushroom is one type: 花菇/花菇 and is the type of top quality. Good for mushroom steak. Fragrant mushroom 香菇/香菇 is the medium to low quality general purpose type.
As mushrooms of any kind belong to my fav foods ever, I will try a veganized version of everything in this video! Thanks!
Could you do some more wood ear recipes as well? 🙏
Definitely here for some black fungus recipes
Look 🆙🆙 that handle 👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻for any psychedelic products, DMT,LSD, shrooms,candy bar💊🍫🍄
I use dried shiitake all the time. The sliced ones are much cheaper and they reconstitute faster than the whole ones.
They are great for so many dishes, even Western food. I always add some to curries and stews for a deeper umami flavor.
I use a monter au beurre technique to make something very similar to the braised shiitake, but using butter instead of the slurry at the end to thicken the sauce. (also I add lots of garlic with the aromatics). Oyster sauce and butter is like luxury in a bowl, seriously addictive. When I make it for a group they just dissapear, over a pound of mushrooms couldn't even make it around the table twice with 6 people and it wasn't even the only dish! Next time I'll have to make a full kilo.
I hated any mushrooms when I was younger but at about the age of 25 I started to love them. Shitaki are my absolute favorite. I can usually buy them fresh but it was cheaper to buy a large bag of dried, so this video helped a lot.
Combining reconstituted dried Shiitake and reconstituted dried Porcini mushrooms, along with the liquid makes a GREAT mushroom risotto!!!!
One of the best channels on youtube. Thank you for all you do
I love that you announced that you're Amazon affiliates while recommending against Amazon 💕 I avoid Amazon when I can but I'll be sure to grab your link next time I buy there
sometimes i powder them in the blender and add a sprinkle of umami to whatever i am making
I love braised shitake mushrooms with bokchoi. Thanks for the recipe. Doing this tonight or tomorrow
This is my favorite type of mushrooms as I eat any often like soup in cream or wonton ones to adding them to noodles. Another nice video as I look forward to the easy to understand and timely for meals, thanks!
Thanks for the Hakka dish! Always good to see representation. We like to stuff everything and this is a great example of it 🙂
I am a massive food nerd and I had no idea the best Shiitake are used for drying. In retrospect, it makes sense the flavor is amplified massively I just thought it was perhaps inferior mushrooms and they just all taste good. I will even submerge them in vinegar to make "Ine shi" or Rice death, rice that is so tasty that it is good enough to die for.
Nothing I like better than a good mushroom recipe!
Couldn't agree more. I keep a couple types of dried shiitake mushrooms (sliced and bite sized whole mushrooms) and I discovered dried shiitake mushroom powder... Amazing ingredient. Talk about an umami bomb.
I always use my shitake soaking water as a broth. Just add in some Hondashi and instant yum.
Dried shiitake is a little expensive here in indonesia, so we only use it on special occasions such as during the CNY.
I'm just hear to comment on how cute the dog is.
Thanks for all these videos guys, I just made another 3 quart batch of your chilli crisp. I'm addicted to that stuff!
I really adore Shiitake. Love the deep umami flavor in many dishes. Sadly they are very hard to find where I live. Only available for short times or in specialized stores. :(
Could you order them online? They're dried, so should be easy to ship.
If you live in the West, dried porcini are excellent and available in many supermarkets in the Italian section. It's also available as stock cubes. The flavour is more umami and a bit more earthy, but it sounds like that is exactly what you're looking for, texture is woodier though and you need to stew them a while.
@@jaspervanheycop9722 I'll take around my local stores. Ty!
kind of bugs me since they're available where i live but the dried ones, despite them saying that the dried ones are high quality, have an odd, musty, slightly chemical taste to them, like a faint taste of the floor under your kitchen sink. The fresh ones here are much higher quality but like 4x the price.
Those noodles look fantastic
Shiitakes duck feet and old chicken was my grandmother thing when I went to Hong Kong back in the days. It was pretty tasty.
I'd like to add one more. I use a microplane on a dry guy in all kinds of dishes.
Thin sauce or broth, soup needs something, in breading and batters, etc. The dry, essentially powder, adds umami and thickens.
If you don't have a microplane, the fine part of a cheese grater works.
I use it for all cuisines.
I don’t know if it’s just me, I always find the scent of dried shiitake mushrooms weirdly mesmerising. It’s not a type of fragrant that make you want to bottle it, but it is not a scent that is forgettable. My dad is very finicky with the “dry goods” (dried shiitake mushrooms, dried jujube and dried gojis) there’s always a bag of big dried shiitake mushrooms in our pantry. I admit that a few times I would just for not reason open up that bag of mushrooms just to have a sniff. It is a curious food that when it is fresh, it is basically scentless with no noticeable flavour. But if it is dried and reconstituted, it has a completely different texture and flavour. It is also a type that I would avoid using whenever I am in my “snobbish European recipes tryouts” phase because it will mystically add a tinge of “Chinese-y” to the dish. At least that’s what I tasted. L
Hi, just for the anecdote, some ppl find they actually stink, and they're highly loaded in enzymes and zinc, as well as other health-related components, so much so that they're toxic if you eat them raw when fresh. But as for dried mushrooms in general, without going all the way to morello, which are sooo expensive and also toxic unless cooked, dried porcini AND their soaking water, for flavoring a risotto, or a béchamel sauce, or just with olive oil and garlic, for pasta, are a real bomb too... And they're quite intoxicating as well ! BON appétit ! ❤from Paris
Grest video guys, as always! May I request a video for any old or classic chinese gluten/seitan dishes. I've heard that the first references of gluten as an ingredient dates back a thousand years to China. I'd love to know how it has been eaten over the centuries in China, and wether it is used at all anymore. All "Chinese" recipes I find nowadays are some sloppy general tso replicates that are not that good and they all lack good technique and authenticity. Thanks!
They will always be in my pantry. So versatile.
I’m from the uk 🇬🇧 this is not in our usual diet 😌 but I went plant based a few months ago shiitake are so tasty I have some re hydrating now
Great video. I love how you precisely measure all the ingredients. 😆 I'm guilty of that style of measuring ingredients as well and it becomes a pain in the butt for me when someone asks me for a recipe. A word about shiitake mushrooms. I avoid buying the prepackaged dried mushrooms because they are treated with sodium metabisulfite. However, since drying the mushrooms intensifies their flavor I dry my own in a food dehydrator set at about 150F (60C). And since I am drying them myself I know they are clean. I am guilty of rehydrating them with hot water since I didn't know any better but after watching your video I shall use your method. Even tho' I'm of Italian descent almost 70% of our diet is based on Asian cuisine (the rest is Mediterranean) and I am lucky to have an Asian market within 10 miles from where we live so I have access to everything except shaoxing wine. I could probably get it in Boston but that's a 90 minute trip and parking is a nightmare. So I substitute Amontillado sherry that I can get locally. Incidentally whenever I need a small batch of ground pork or beef I chop by hand which is more convenient than setting up my meat grinder. Btw, I am reluctant to use sugar in our food; however, I do add a touch of black soy sauce to add a little bit of sweetness. I just discovered your channel and I am looking forward to seeing what else you have to offer. 😺
Fell in love with these fungus 😻😻😻
hello, mushroom farmer here. nobody saves the best shitake for drying. shitake just grows kinda sporadically so its easier to dry out ones that pop out by themselves rather than a cluster. they are the same as the other mushrooms, dried mushrooms just release flavor differently for chemicals/biology reasons.
In Asia, they certainly do use the best ones for drying.
Great approaches...can't wait to try them. I always thoroughly enjoy your videos!
This is a really good guide, thank you.
My girlfriend and I use shiitake and Kombu to make a fish-free japanese dashi. Makes for a great base with gyudon!
I so enjoyed this video! Your dialogue is artistic for sure. I only didn't know what the wine you used is in the first part. I'm sure you are an author or writer of sorts because you verbiage is so enjoyable!!
Many thanks for the playlist! I do love your videos, although there are. many items I don't make. I like to get ideas about how to use items in recipes.
Thanks for more great recipes
There's quite a wide range of prices and looks for dried shitakes in Western-Asian markets. Do you find that the quality varies a lot? Or is it more of a branding thing?
At some point, the very expensive ones become more about presentation. I'm fairly sure the ones in the super fancy boxes are often given as gifts, kind of like the $100 melons you find in Japan. 😀
@@clarenceoveur778 Somewhat true not but entirely. The boxed ones are usually the top quality. They are supposed to be used as main ingredient of the dishes. A popular dish is braised shitake mushrom in oyster sauce. Cheaper ones are good in all other purposes except as the main ingredient.
@@catchnkill I see, thanks for clearing that up. I may have made an incorrect assumption based on dried shiitake I've seen alongside other mushrooms like matsutake in Japan.
I would love it if you guys can do one (or multiple) 烤鱼 recipe(s). I often find myself craving for the very spicy versions but the only good place in Amsterdam that sells 烤鱼 is not exactly cheap. Thanks for the hard work!
So, how does one go about judging the quality of dried shitake mushrooms? I feel like it's kind of a crapshoot whether they're complex tasting and wonderful, or they're like blandly umami cardboard.
i generally buy the most expensive package assuming they’re the best. yes i’m a taurus 🤣
@@Hakdk I do the same thing, but that doesn't always work, which leads me to believe there must be a better way to choose between them. lol.
Choose one’s that have a thicker cap. There might be other clues but this is about the only one I know
Mushrooms are just mushrooms… And to be honest they are disgusting. They taste like dirt
If the same brand sells smaller packages, buy one of those first to judge the quality, then buy a bigger package of the brand you like. Might seem like common sense but better to have it said I think.
OMG i need that mushroom hat! !!!!! !! ! !
any tips for picking quality dried shiitake? brand recs maybe?
It's like sundried tomatoe sauce vs normal tomato sauce. Dried is somehow 1000% more flavorful
How about introducing us to Baijiu? The research could be fun.
Love that you're using lard instead of obesity cancer chemical "veg" oil
@Drewspores on Instagram no
Whatever broth I make at home ,being chicken ,beef ,or even roasted veal bones for classic demi glaze ,I put dry shitakey ,they just add that umami ,msg goodness
I like to powder dried shiitake in my coffee grinder then use it as a stock powder.🍄 I probably consume a lot of "stray schmutz" this way, but oh well. 😝
ב''ה, if you're in a dry climate or it's winter I'd expect they'll tolerate a quick colander rinse and a day of counter drying, if they seem to need it.
@@josephkanowitz6875 😛 I could try that, although the dried mushrooms seem pretty clean already.
Wonderful! A lot of these dishes are not really seen up here in Shanghai, though there are some approximations.
9:37 pup: "FEEEEEED MEEEEEE!!!"
Delicious, i jst dicovered them and im really happy😊
I used to think I didn't like any mushrooms at all until I tried Shiitakes. I mostly only used them in stir fries and to make Dashi, but I have so many more ideas now thanks to this vid! Just wish they weren't so pricey :(
loved that spoon transition at 4:56 haha, that was smart 😉
Look 🆙🆙 that handle 👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻for any psychedelic products, DMT,LSD, shrooms,candy bar💊🍫🍄
please put out a cookbook!
Excellent. Though I am missing how to use the mushrooms in some standard stir fry (think chicken, mushrooms and bamboo shots). Would they be ready after being soaked, with just a brief stir fry along with the bamboo (and after thec chickec) while seasoning and finishing the whole thing in the wok? Thank you! Suscribed.
The old "Amazon is too expensive" wisdom might not be true anymore. Last week I stopped at my local Asian market to pick up some veggies, and I noticed that MSG was significantly more expensive than it used to be. So I checked all the other things I usually buy, and everything but chili crisp has increased in price by a LOT. I compared prices on Amazon, and in many cases Amazon was cheaper. I grabbed the last chili crisp, and it will be interesting to see what the price will be when they restock.
Oh, question: What temperature should the pork stuffing reach? USDA calls for 160°F/71°C, which might be overcooked.
I wish there was more info online about the different types of shiitake you can buy at chinese grocers, I always see places with several different buckets of things that all look like shiitakes but have widely varying prices. are the more expensive ones straight up better? what makes them better?
For the stock or soup, wouldn't it also be possible to skip the reconstitution step for the dried shiitake? Since that pot is going to be boiling for hours anyway
I was literally just searching this word for word yesterday
question, do these mushroom-meatballs also taste well cold?
Is there any non-alcohol substitute for shaoxing wine? I know the alcohol likely cooks off but my mom won’t eat anything with alcohol in it.
Look 🆙🆙 that handle 👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻for any psychedelic products, DMT,LSD, shrooms,candy bar💊🍫🍄
I love shiitake mushrooms, but look up shiitake mushroom dermatitis, it’s extremely rare but worth recognizing if you eat them a lot
Could the pup dog get any more adorable!?
I miss chicken and shiitake soup !!!! My family ends dinner with a soup and it is often the soup. And there is always whole chicken and shiitake soup in my Chinese new year meal. reproducing the taste is not as simple as how the soup looks. THX for the recipe
QQ - My local Asian stores, run by Vietnamese, carry dried black mushrooms, which are great. I thought they were shiitake. But I see from your video that shiitakes are brown when dried. So, should I be looking for something different?
A bit off topic, but the wok used in this video has a silverish color that makes me think it's not seasoned at all. Why is that? Is it ok to use unseasoned woks like that?
Maybe the wok is stainless steel?
Hey man, a question. What exactly is oyster sauce? I was of the thought that it was a kind of fish sauce, but do you have anything definitive to say?
oyster sauce is, literally, sauce made from oysters. specifically it's the water left over after the oysters have been boiled for a long time, concentrated and thickened
coincidentally this channel has a video on how to make it yourself 👍
Haha basically what diamdante said. Basically, traditionally it was a by-product of making sun-dried oysters, as step one of the process is blanching the oysters for about a half hour. Traditional oyster sauce is an intense reduction of that blanching liquid.
These days however, it's mostly water, stabilizers, sugar, and oyster extract.
I prefer to use Tapioca Starch for thickening purposes.
Works the same as Corn Starch, but tastes different... If you're someone who can taste things to that degree at least. 🤔
It also work really well when you want to roll out dough, and not have it stick to anything. 💁🏼♂️
Had a thought while watching the Stuffed option.
If you have extra soaking liquid left over, you could freeze some of it and use that to replace the ice water and ice. 🤔
I actually have done something similar before when making potstickers.... And my version is way too complex to bother writing out here... Even though I started with a good "traditional" filling... I wanted a wider array of flavors.
Interestingly, I kind of Forgot I had a burdock root in the freezer, and decided to use that, but found it desiccated... Turns out freezer desiccated burdock makes a good water absorbing agent when finely grated... I will actually be using this strategy with other vegetables when making the filling so I can replace plain water, with flavoring liquids.
I actually got really good at making them, but I got tired of being the only one I was cooking for so the ingredients are no longer in stock. 💁🏼♂️
Don't particularly enjoy cooking when I am the only one who will eat it. 🙄
I s this chicken shiitake soup usually made with chicken feet? Or is it a complete different Cantonese soup?
Do soaking shiitakes need to refrigeration at all?
Man, none of my shiitake mushrooms I've ever bought are that big!
i love it too, but only the fresh kind, i dont really like the dried one bc their rather overwhelming flavour. for the fresh one i love to make pot rice with it, alongside fresh veggies.
Thank you for sharing this information.🥰🙏🏾
I find that freezing the fresh shittake gives it a depth of flavor that's in between the fresh and dried variants.
@@louniece1650 pleasure
@@Pastadudde yeah, that too, but freezing them changes the texture so the menu option would be limited
What is a good vegetarian substitute for the meat filling?
If i am not mistaken, i think the origin of "schmats" is in Yiddish shmatteh שמאַטע
, meaning rags.
i have an idea, boil pasta or any kind of noodle with the soaked shiitake water, after that use that water for sauce too, crazy ?
一如既往的棒極了。做得很好
Cheers to you.
would love to see you two do a crossover episode with Aaron & Claire
Not sure if you put the shitake mushroom playlist in the description, just a heads up
please add a link to that man in the mushroom costume, i love it
Ok I Tried making ramen eggs and I wanted to use these Shitaki Mushrooms we had in the cabinet for YEARS. I didn't know how to prep en beforehand so I kinda just added the dried mushrooms to the broth, I uh didn't think I had to wash em cuz they were dry, I really had no idea but overall its not bad is it?
Did we see a familiar face in the family photo? So cute!
What is the wok youe using? I want to get one that isnt carbon steel
Any recommendations?
I'm fascinated by mushrooms, but I can't eat them as they make me very, very ill. Is there anything at all that works as a substitute for them?
Why add oil to blanched vegetables? Does anyone know?
What was that you were making at 1:44?
I always just eat my stems on any kind of mushroom.
Am I weird?
“The very best ones are saved for drying”? I honestly have not heard that about mushrooms. I knew certain tomato varieties were like that, but that’s interesting about these.
I normally love shiitakes and use them all the time, but last time mine had a bunch of nasty worms in them. And since I’m bug-phobic I’ve been a bit hesitant to tap into more as of recent.
I always get mine from my local Asian store not Amazon. Do you have any tips for avoiding the little worms? I know they’re not abnormal I just really hate bugs. Maybe certain characteristics or checking a best before? I’m not sure what to do to avoid it, there were so many worms and it’s the first time that’s ever happened to me.
I would imagine the cause of this is a punctured vacuum package (assuming the mushrooms you bought were vacuum sealed, mine have seemingly always been and I live in Europe), but I'm by no means an expert. Hope you can eventually overcome the aversion!
Love the flavor, too bad I'm allergic to them.
I've only ever used these in my water bath canned pickled mushrooms 😅