Tasty Pleasures: Omma’s dried mushrooms

My mom has been cooking this side dish a lot over the past couple of years because it’s become one of my favorites! It’s key to use dried mushrooms, not fresh. Once rejuvenated with water, the dried ones have a meaty, chewy texture to them that the fresh ones lack.

My mom usually cooks the mushrooms with hot green peppers, but I didn’t have any so I opted for the carrots I’ve been struggling to finish instead. You can add any fresh vegetable you want. I’d just recommend a vegetable that’s crisp and crunchy to balance out the textures!

This is a super easy recipe with very few ingredients. This isn’t the exact recipe my mom follows (I only saw her briefly this weekend), but for the most part it’s the same! Let me know when you try this one out!

Ingredients:

1 bag of dried shiitaki mushrooms. I like shiitaki for their nutty taste and meaty texture. (This sounds very dirty.)
3-4 tablespoons of soy sauce depending on your preference
1/2 – 1 tablespoon of sesame oil depending on your preference
1/2 -1 tablespoon of crushed red pepper flakes depending on your preference
1/2-1 tablespoon of crushed red pepper powder depending on your preference
1-1.5 tablespoons of sesame seeds depending on your preference

My mom trying to find a product not from China lol. No luck!

Directions:

Submerge mushrooms in lukewarm water for 2-3 hours. The instructions only say 30 minutes, but I’d recommend soaking them for longer to ensure they’re not too chewy. My mom usually soaks them overnight.
- To keep the mushrooms submerged, I placed a wide lid upside down on the bowl.
Once you’re finished soaking them, there should be a lot of mushroom water in the bowl. You can use this water to cook rice, which is what my mom does. Due to timing, I added a small portion of the mushroom water to my rice just as it finished cooking. I deliberately put less water in the rice cooker since I knew I’d compensate with the mushroom water.
Squeeze the water out of each mushroom.
Cut off the stems, then slice mushrooms.
Add mushrooms to pan with some oil
Add an additional vegetables to pan. If you want to keep the extra veggies mostly raw, then add them later in the cooking process.
Add soy sauce, sesame oil, crushed red pepper flakes, and crushed red pepper powder
Thoroughly and continually stir for about 3-4 minutes on high heat
Place lid on top of pan and let it cook on low-medium heat for about 7-8 minutes stirring occasionally.
Add sesame seeds and stir for one more minute
Mushrooms should be soft, looking like a velvety light brown
Store in a glass container and pull out whenever you want a side dish!
This keeps for 1-1.5 weeks.