Mat finally found the black fungus mushrooms I’ve been craving and I had to do a post about them. Perhaps it’s my obsession with Japchae, but I have a strong love affair with black fungus mushroom.
Here’s what they look like dry:
Dry Black Fungus
Not very appealing that’s for sure. I soaked them for about 15 minutes, washed them a few times and cut the leafy part throwing out the ‘stem’.
Black Fungus mushroom after soaking
Here’s the brand I used:
Dried Mushroom black fungus bag
Black fungus mushroom has a crazy texture, it’s almost jelly like and crunchy at the same time. You have to try it.
From Wikipedia:
“The fungus grows in frilly masses on dead wood. It is a dark brown color but somewhat translucent. It is usually sold dried and needs to be soaked before use. While almost tasteless, it is prized for its slightly crunchy texture and potential medicinal properties, including its newly discovered anticoagulant properties. Of note, the slight crunchiness persists despite most cooking processes.”
I also like Oyster mushroom, it’s a rather easy going mushroom, not overpowering, but a pleasant soft addition to any dish.
According to Wikipedia:
“The Oyster mushroom, or Pleurotus ostreatus, is a common edible mushroom. It was firstcultivated in Germany as a subsistence measure during World War I[1] and is now grown commercially around the world for food. However, the first documented cultivation was by Kaufert [2] There is some question about the name Pleurotus corticatus, but no question that he cultivated an oyster mushroom. It is related to the similarly cultivated “king oyster mushroom“. Oyster mushrooms can also be used industrially for mycoremediation purposes. The Oyster mushroom may be considered a medicinal mushroom since it contains statins such as lovastatinwhich work to reduce cholesterol.[3] “
Here are the two mushrooms cooking with garlic:
Black Fungus with Oyster Mushroom with garlic
While that was going on, carrots and broccoli was being prepared:
Floating Broccoli and Carrots
Oh – I almost forgot, the lotus root; people on Twitter were somewhat confounded with this pic that @Mathieu_LF tweeted:
Lotus Root in broth and garlic
As lotus root doesn’t really have much of a taste I boiled the root in vegetable broth with ginger to give it a taste. Before boiling it, I let it sit in a bowl with vinegar for about 10 minutes to remove the bitter taste.
Lotus Root
Wikipedia explanation:
“Lotus rootlets are often pickled with rice vinegar, sugar, chili and/or garlic. It has a crunchy texture with sweet-tangy flavours. In Asian cuisine, it is popular with salad, prawns, sesame oil and/or coriander leaves. Lotus roots have been found to be rich in dietary fiber,vitamin C, potassium, thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin B6, phosphorus, copper, and manganese, while very low in saturated fat.”
We also made our own soy sauce as @Mathieu_LF might be allergic to soy.
Non-soy Soy Sauce:
- 4 tablespoons vegetable bouillon broth (non salted)
- 4 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
- 2 teaspoons dark molasses
- 1 teaspoon fresh garlic
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1/2 tablespoon table salt
This is my take on another recipe found here. We actually tripled this recipe as it’s easier to have on hand versus making it each time. It turned out extremely well and I couldn’t believe how easy it was. It took a while to boil down, more so than the recipe suggested, I’d say about 30 minutes, but that might be due to the fact that the recipe wasn’t exact to the stated measurements.
After the vegetables were all stir fried together this is the result:
Lotus Root with Black Fungus and Oyster Mushroom and Rice noodles
I think I’ve found my favourite width of Y&Y noodle; light blue.
Very tasty and easy to make, it took no time to cook, just the prep time with all the cutting and peeling.
What’s your favourite mushroom?
Happy eating!
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