Hi everyone,

it's the second spring for my shiitake log and it is starting to ramp
up its shiitake production. I'm looking for your suggestions for
outstanding fresh-shiitake-centric recipes, from any cuisine, that
will help me to weather the coming storm. :-)

I may resort to adding shiitake in place of the fresh mushroom of
record in any or every mushroom dish, but would prefer to find
combinations that work especially well with shiitake in particular.
Surprises - Thai, for example - would be very welcome.

Thanks!
KR / krnntp (ducks runaway log)

(KR) wrote in message om...
Hi everyone,

it's the second spring for my shiitake log and it is starting to ramp
up its shiitake production. I'm looking for your suggestions for
outstanding fresh-shiitake-centric recipes, from any cuisine, that
will help me to weather the coming storm. :-)

I may resort to adding shiitake in place of the fresh mushroom of
record in any or every mushroom dish, but would prefer to find
combinations that work especially well with shiitake in particular.
Surprises - Thai, for example - would be very welcome.

Thanks!
KR / krnntp (ducks runaway log)

try removing the stem & broiling them with a dab of butter as an
appetizer.

mushroom & chicken seem to work well in generally, but shitakes
especially so. a saute in chicken fat (& a little oyster sauce) is
great over rice. but my favorite chicken & shitake mushroom recipe is
a braise with thigh meat. (yeah this works with dried mushrooms too,
but the texture of the fresh mushrooms is better). served over rice,
this is one of my favorite comfort meals.

ideally, the thighs will be deboned & cut into bite size pieces, but
when i get lazy i just de-skin the thighs, make an incision to expose
the bone to help them cook evenly, & cook them whole.

- marinate meat in mixture of rice wine, cornstarch, salt & sesame oil
(call it 1/2 hour min.);
- remove stems from mushrooms & clean (i like to have about 3
mushrooms per whole chicken thigh);
- brown chicken in oil in a heavy pan (or wok). if you have fresh
ginger & green onion, slice ginger thinly (about 3 pieces) and cut
green onion into 1" lengths and stir fry them first to flavor the oil;
- remove excess fat from pan (if any), add mushrooms, & (in roughly
equal volumes) rice wine, sugar, oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil &
1/2 water or chicken stock;
- cover and cook over medium heat about 15 minutes (if cooking with
whole thighs, check to ensure that they're cooked through - that's
where making the cut to expose the bone helps);

let me know if you have any questions.

barry

I don't often have fresh shitake, preferring the dried ones as they're
stronger in taste/flavour as do many dried mushroms but maybe something
simple & not too dependent on strong sauces so you can enjoy the full
flavour of a fresh shitake mushroom. Maybe adapt a Italian mushroom risotto
recipe. If you want to keep it Asian/Chinese there's a old classic using
larger shitakes. There's many versions of this dish but simply make up a
marinated mince pork mixture & fill the underside cap & braise in a pot. You
can use the rest of the marinating ingredients to make up a sauce for it
after & thicken the sauce to pour over it.

If i had an abundance of fresh shitake mushrooms, i'd eat the smaller &
darker ones & dry the larger & whiter ones for later. The general rule for
choosing quality Chinese shitake is as follows. The smaller, darker caps
with pale brown/baige coloured gills are the lowest in quality because they
are young & not matured shitakes, OK for eating fresh but when dried, do not
yield too much flavour. The larger ones are better & have more flavour. The
most expensive ones are the ones with it's cap looking a little like
tortoise shell, i.e. with broken white streaks across it & the bottom/gills
are also white in colour. They are not as dark as the smaller & younger ones
but instead pale brown in colour. These are also chunky & thick. When using
dried, a few pieces of these rehydrated will go a long way in providing
flavour esp. when you slice them up into smaller pieces. A Chinese New Year
extravagance would be to rehydrate 8 or more pieces(depending on how many
are eating, 8 being a lucky number) & braising it with oyster sauce or with
abalones or with black moss or a combination of all of them. The texture is
silky smooth & supple enough to bite through & tasting slightly of the 'sea'
with the premium oyster sauce & abalones.

I've seen these shitake logs for sale but never bought one, can you advise
on the quality of the mushroom crop & more importantly, have you tried
drying them & do they taste anything like the premium dried ones from China?
Thanks.

DC.




"KR" wrote in message
m...
Hi everyone,

it's the second spring for my shiitake log and it is starting to ramp
up its shiitake production. I'm looking for your suggestions for
outstanding fresh-shiitake-centric recipes, from any cuisine, that
will help me to weather the coming storm. :-)

I may resort to adding shiitake in place of the fresh mushroom of
record in any or every mushroom dish, but would prefer to find
combinations that work especially well with shiitake in particular.
Surprises - Thai, for example - would be very welcome.

Thanks!
KR / krnntp (ducks runaway log)

On 18 May 2004 11:21:07 -0700, (KR) wrote:

Hi everyone,

it's the second spring for my shiitake log and it is starting to ramp
up its shiitake production. I'm looking for your suggestions for
outstanding fresh-shiitake-centric recipes, from any cuisine, that
will help me to weather the coming storm. :-)

I may resort to adding shiitake in place of the fresh mushroom of
record in any or every mushroom dish, but would prefer to find
combinations that work especially well with shiitake in particular.
Surprises - Thai, for example - would be very welcome.

I like em just strifried with a little, not much, oyster sauce
(good oyster sauce, not the fake watered-down stuff that's mostly
soy/salt - LKK Premium or Amoy w/dried scallop).

-sw

Hi DC,

I started with one of the dowel kits, this is where instead of buying
a small innoculated log you instead start with a bag of dowel plugs
that have been innoculated with shiitake spawn... then you drill holes
in a fresh oak log of your own and pound the plugs in. I started it
roughly two years ago this spring. The log is approx. 3 feet long and
8-10 inches in diameter, some kind of red oak from a large tree that
blew over in a woody area near my parents' house... the kit provided
many more plugs than I needed for a personal log, so I/we (I enlisted
the parents) drove a lot of them into the original tree and left it
where it lay. I hear that it has been mushrooming somewhat but
no-one's really monitoring it. This is all taking place in zone 5,
shiitake definitely proving to be more cold hardy than I had hoped.

None of the mushrooms so far have had the cracked caps you mention,
which I've seen on dried Chinese shiitake. I don't know if this is due
to climactic conditions, growing conditions or whether it is a
different strain of mushroom. So far the mushrooms I've picked have
been very mild, even at their bloated peak of maximum development (5-6
inches diameter). I haven't tried drying any. Someone else I know has
had a fantastic experience with one of the sawdust-block ready-to-go
kits, lots of productivity and easy to take care of, but again, mild
flavour.

Best - krnntp

"DC." wrote in message ...
I don't often have fresh shitake, preferring the dried ones as they're
stronger in taste/flavour as do many dried mushroms but maybe something
simple & not too dependent on strong sauces so you can enjoy the full
flavour of a fresh shitake mushroom. Maybe adapt a Italian mushroom risotto
recipe. If you want to keep it Asian/Chinese there's a old classic using
larger shitakes. There's many versions of this dish but simply make up a
marinated mince pork mixture & fill the underside cap & braise in a pot. You
can use the rest of the marinating ingredients to make up a sauce for it
after & thicken the sauce to pour over it.

If i had an abundance of fresh shitake mushrooms, i'd eat the smaller &
darker ones & dry the larger & whiter ones for later. The general rule for
choosing quality Chinese shitake is as follows. The smaller, darker caps
with pale brown/baige coloured gills are the lowest in quality because they
are young & not matured shitakes, OK for eating fresh but when dried, do not
yield too much flavour. The larger ones are better & have more flavour. The
most expensive ones are the ones with it's cap looking a little like
tortoise shell, i.e. with broken white streaks across it & the bottom/gills
are also white in colour. They are not as dark as the smaller & younger ones
but instead pale brown in colour. These are also chunky & thick. When using
dried, a few pieces of these rehydrated will go a long way in providing
flavour esp. when you slice them up into smaller pieces. A Chinese New Year
extravagance would be to rehydrate 8 or more pieces(depending on how many
are eating, 8 being a lucky number) & braising it with oyster sauce or with
abalones or with black moss or a combination of all of them. The texture is
silky smooth & supple enough to bite through & tasting slightly of the 'sea'
with the premium oyster sauce & abalones.

I've seen these shitake logs for sale but never bought one, can you advise
on the quality of the mushroom crop & more importantly, have you tried
drying them & do they taste anything like the premium dried ones from China?
Thanks.

DC.




"KR" wrote in message
m...
Hi everyone,

it's the second spring for my shiitake log and it is starting to ramp
up its shiitake production. I'm looking for your suggestions for
outstanding fresh-shiitake-centric recipes, from any cuisine, that
will help me to weather the coming storm. :-)

I may resort to adding shiitake in place of the fresh mushroom of
record in any or every mushroom dish, but would prefer to find
combinations that work especially well with shiitake in particular.
Surprises - Thai, for example - would be very welcome.

Thanks!
KR / krnntp (ducks runaway log)

In om,
KR typed:

I started with one of the dowel kits, this is where instead of
buying
a small innoculated log you instead start with a bag of dowel
plugs
that have been innoculated with shiitake spawn... then you
drill holes
in a fresh oak log of your own and pound the plugs in. I
started it
roughly two years ago this spring. The log is approx. 3 feet
long and
8-10 inches in diameter, some kind of red oak from a large tree
that
blew over in a woody area near my parents' house... the kit
provided
many more plugs than I needed for a personal log, so I/we (I
enlisted
the parents) drove a lot of them into the original tree and
left it
where it lay. I hear that it has been mushrooming somewhat but
no-one's really monitoring it. This is all taking place in zone
5,
shiitake definitely proving to be more cold hardy than I had
hoped.


Where did you get the kit? Do you have an online source?

Do you grow these indoors or out?


--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup

snip

Where did you get the kit? Do you have an online source?

Do you grow these indoors or out?


--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup


Hi Ken,

don't know where you live but in the UK you can sometimes find them in large
organic supermarkets.

DC.

None of the mushrooms so far have had the cracked caps you mention,
which I've seen on dried Chinese shiitake. I don't know if this is due
to climactic conditions, growing conditions or whether it is a
different strain of mushroom.

Maybe they're a different strain, i wonder if what you've got & the logs
i've seen for sale here are all from Japanese shitake mushrooms. I think the
Japanese & Chinese shitakes are different.

So far the mushrooms I've picked have
been very mild, even at their bloated peak of maximum development (5-6
inches diameter). I haven't tried drying any. Someone else I know has
had a fantastic experience with one of the sawdust-block ready-to-go
kits, lots of productivity and easy to take care of, but again, mild
flavour.

WHAT ! 5-6 inches in diameter? that's massive. If they're mild in flavour
when fresh then maybe you should try drying some of them. Like most dried
veg. it should preserve & perhaps have a more concentrated flavour when
dried. It's a shame that they're that big & lack flavour. If you want
something Thai in flavour, you could make an infusion of lemon grass,
galangal or young ginger, light soy & a drop of sugar to flavour it i guess,
nothing too strong or spicy to make the most of the shitakes you have.

Thanks for all the info.

DC.

"DC." wrote in message ...

WHAT ! 5-6 inches in diameter? that's massive.

That's if you let them go too long- it seems like the mushroom will
just keep expanding. I'm not necessarily endorsing this, of course.

Best, krnntp

KR wrote:

"DC." wrote in message ...

WHAT ! 5-6 inches in diameter? that's massive.

That's if you let them go too long- it seems like the mushroom will
just keep expanding. I'm not necessarily endorsing this, of course.

But then you could substitute it for a portobello in a grilled mushroom
burger.

--
Aloha,

Nathan Lau
San Jose, CA

#include std.disclaimer

"Ken Blake" wrote in message ...

Where did you get the kit? Do you have an online source?

Do you grow these indoors or out?

At the risk of endorsing a business - which would make me spam - I got
the kit at Fungi Perfecti, I think they're in Oregon. They sell (I
just checked) plug spawn for shiitake, maitake and oyster mushrooms,
and ready-to-go kits for those as well as some others like nameko and
some novelties. Personally I'm considering going back for maitake.

Outdoors so far. In a shady corner of the yard

Best - krnntp

In ,
DC. typed:
snip

Where did you get the kit? Do you have an online source?

Do you grow these indoors or out?


--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup


Hi Ken,

don't know where you live but in the UK you can sometimes find
them
in large organic supermarkets.


I'm in the US. I've never seen them, but then, I've never looked.
I'll check it out, thanks.

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup

In om,
KR typed:

"Ken Blake" wrote in message
...

Where did you get the kit? Do you have an online source?

Do you grow these indoors or out?

At the risk of endorsing a business - which would make me
spam -


Not spam if it's not your business. There's nothing wrong with
recommending a company or product that you don't have a financial
interest in; in fact, it's appreciated.


I got
the kit at Fungi Perfecti, I think they're in Oregon. They sell
(I
just checked) plug spawn for shiitake, maitake and oyster
mushrooms,
and ready-to-go kits for those as well as some others like
nameko and
some novelties. Personally I'm considering going back for
maitake.

Outdoors so far. In a shady corner of the yard


Thanks very much.

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup