[Book] Flavor Profile # 10: Dried Shiitake Mushroom

Dried shiitake mushroom, a.k.a. fragrant mushroom as suggest by its Chinese name, for a reason (香菇)

Introduction

With our recent video on how to use dried shiitake mushroom, we want to cover a bit more on this awesome ingredient, which can also be thought of as a flavor profile with its unique and distinctly powerful umami taste, and always ended up being a highlighted flavor in the final dish. Interestingly, the name of dried shiitake in Chinese is “香菇”, literally meaning fragrant mushrooms. While in Cantonese is called “冬菇”, meaning winter mushrooms and indicating its harvest time.

Traditionally shiitake can be roughly categorized into three levels according to its harvest time (at least in south China/Guangdong area) when modern mushroom farming was not realized. Every year around winter solstice, mushroom growers will go deep into the mountain and harvest the mushroom from logs that they planted earlier that year, those are consider general shiitake (香菇/冬菇, xianggu/donggu). Later when frost or snow hits, the pileus would crack and then heal up, forming those beautiful white patterns and those are called “花菇/huagu” (flowered mushroom). Then the ones that’re picked towards the end of winter are generally smaller with a weaker taste, those are called “香蕈/xiangxun” and being considered lesser quality.

Shiitake is such an ubiquitous ingredients that one of the most iconic Chinese instant noodles is “香菇炖鸡面”, chicken and shiitake mushroom soup noodle. So here I want to share with you four recipes that uses dried shiitake as a highlight, namely a Yunnan rice noodle topping, a Nanjing style chicken and dumplings, a mixed noodle from an old cookbook from Southern Song Dynasty (about nine centuries ago), and my dad’s recipe on double boil mushroom with goose fat. (#3 and #4 will be posted in a seperate post as I want to try something new with old/random/family recipes.)

Recipe #1 Shiitake and pork rice noodle “hat” 香菇猪肉米线帽子

A “hat” is what people in Yunnan referred to rice noodle toppings. There’re numerous toppings in all the pockets in Yunnan. And we’ll get to many of them in the future because rice noodles in the southwest is one of my (Steph’s) all-time-favorite food in human history.

So the one here is a combination on two pork “hats” from Yunnan local brands that I get all the time, one being pork dice and the other being mushroom with minced pork.

This “hat” is mildly spicy and sweet, perfect to make a big batch and freeze, then top it on your rice noodles soup or even use it in mixed noodles as you like.

Ingredients:

• Pork loin, (瘦肉), cut into 1 cm dice, 200g,
• Shiitake mushroom, reconstituted and reserve the soaking liquid, cut into half cm or even smaller bits, 6-8 pcs;

For aromatics:

• Garlic (蒜头), 2 big cloves, minced
• Ginger, (姜), half-inch piece, minced

For the seasoning:

• Sichuan chili bean paste aka Pixian doubanjiang, (郫县红油豆瓣酱), 1 tbsp
• Cantonese minsi bean paste (面豉) or Japanese red miso (赤味增), 1 tbsp
• Light soy sauce, (生抽), 1/2 tbsp
• Dark soy sauce, (老抽), 1/2 tsp
• Liaojiu aka Shaoxing wine, (料酒), 1/2 tbsp
• Brown sugar, (红糖), 10g
• Salt, 1/4 tsp
• Chicken bouillon powder, 1/4 tsp

For the spices:

• Star anise, (八角), 1/2 pcs, toasted and ground into powder
• Tsao ko, black cardamon, (草果), 1 pcs, deseeded, toasted and ground into powder
• Huajiao Sichuan peppercorn, (花椒), 1/4 tsp, toast and ground into powder or see note
• White pepper powder, (白胡椒粉), 1/4 tsp

Process:

To a wok, long yau, add in about 1/4 cup caiziyou extra virgin rapeseed oil/lard/peanut oil. Heat on medium, add in the pork, patiently fry them till the oil is clear again.

Heat off, scooch the pork to the side, add in the chili bean paste, quick mix, heat back on the lowest, fry till the oil stains red. Then add in the other bean paste, quick mix till fragrant.

Heat back on medium, add in the aromatics, fry for about 30 sec or till fragrant, then add in the spices except the white pepper powder, fry for another 30s. Mushroom in, quick mix, swirl in the liaojiu aka Shaoxing wine, another quick mix. Then swirl in the light and dark soy, mix.

Add in 1 cup of mushroom soaking liquid (I’m using our stock on hand this time), add in the salt, brown sugar, and chicken bouillon powder.

Bring it to a simmer, let it cook together till the water has mostly evaporated and the oil renders clear again, then add in the white pepper powder.

Heat off and store your rice noodle hat in an air-tight container right away.

Keeps good in the fridge for 3-4 days, freezes well for 2 months (after 2 months it may start to taste less good somehow).

To serve:

Soak and boil or directly cook your rice noodle of choice according to the package, 100g dry noodles per serving.

To a bowl, add in 1 tsp soy sauce, 1/8 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp MSG, a touch white pepper powder, and 1.5 cup unseasoned very hot stock.

Put the cooked rice noodle into the bowl, top it with 2-4 tbsp of the fresh or reheated rice noodle hat and 1 tbsp each of minced scallion and cilantro. And this is the most basic way of serving it.

Other optional common toppings: garlic oil together with the crispy garlic inside, crushed roasted peanuts, toasted sesame seeds, more chilies (both fresh or dried), fruity vinegar, crunchy pickles, Suancai fermented mustard greens, bean sprouts, blanched and minced Chinese chives, etc. The rice noodle shops in Yunnan often has a “noodle bar-esque” seasoning stand for people to build their own flavors. The bowl in the picture at the beginning of the post got culantro, garlic oil, roasted peanuts, and roasted sesame seeds on top of the basic version.

Note:

The rice noodle hat in Yunnan uses a special local fermented bean sauce called Zhaotong sauce (昭通酱), which is from the city Zhaotong and contains chili and spices. Here we’re using the Cantonese minsi bean paste or red miso as the base, then combining Sichuan chili bean paste and spices to get to a similar flavor.

You can use whatever stock, a classic Chinese pork stock being the most common around central Yunnan. There’s also chicken stock, chicken + pork, beef, or even goat depending on where you’re.

You can use supermarket powder directly for huajiao Sichuan peppercorn as we're not going for its numbingness, but a relatively fresh powder would be preferred if using supermarket stuff.

Recipe #2 Nanjing style chicken and dumplings 鸡汤疙瘩

This is a very comforting home style soup that I learned from friend’s family in Nanjing. They have a tradition of enjoy chicken soup that’s made with old hen, especially in winter. Besides drinking and eating it directly, serving it in the style of “chicken and dumplings” is another very homie and satisfying way to have that rich chicken soup.

The “dumplings” here are called “疙瘩” (geda, clumps), same as in the famous northern “疙瘩汤” (gedatang, some call it dough drop soup). The “clumps” in this soup are usually bigger than the northern style soup and it’s closer to the American style of chicken and dumplings, except it doesn’t use milk or baking powder.

And in this one, we’ll be using the chicken stock from the video directly and start with assembling the final soup.

Ingredients:

• Shiitake chicken stock (香菇鸡汤), 2 cups
• Chicken meat from the stock, shredded, 60g
• AP flour, (中筋面粉), 60g
• Water, depending on flour absorption, 60-80g
• Baby bok choy, (上海青), or other vegetable of choice, 60g
• Salt, 1/4 tsp
• Five spice powder, (五香粉), 1/8 tsp
• Toasted sesame oil, (麻油/香油) 1/2 tsp

Process:

In a wok or a relatively wider pot, start heating up the stock together with the shredded chicken on medium heat.

Put flour in a bowl, mix in the salt and five spice powder, then start drizzling water into the flour and mixing it with the flour. Once you get to a thinnish pancake batter consistency, we can put it in.

Once the soup’s come up to a light simmer, wet your spoon in the soup, then start scooping the batter into the soup, one by one, aiming at spots with a heavier simmer.

Give it a couple gentle stir once all the batter’s in to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom.

Once all the dumplings are floating, toss in the baby bak choy or your vegetable of choice, quickly cook it till it turns darker green, taste the soup to see if it needs additional salt, then drizzle in some toasted sesame oil, heat off, and out.

Note:

This recipe is a serving of one that yields a bowl of soup of about 500 cal. Feel free to just up the quantity or even make a big pot of it.

The consistency of the dumpling batter is totally up to you. Usually the one in north China is quite thick and dense, almost like a little dough ball, while the ones in Nanjing are made with a batter that’s slightly thinner than the American style. But again, feel free to make a thicker batter that’s just like the west Virginia ones, as this is one very homie dish that everybody got their preferred method.

Other add-ins I’ve had include an array of assorted vegetables, but baby bak choy is always the classic.

If you want to really up the vegetable quantity and variety, stir fry the vegetables with garlic and ginger then add in the stock and chicken, basically make a mix veg soup first, then finish it by putting in the dumplings, in which case, fresh shiitake would also be a great addition to the veg combo.

You can also just use pure chicken soup without the shiitake if that’s what you have around of course.