Nowadays, you can find dried shiitake mushrooms at supermarkets and Asian groceries. I think it adds a nice umami flavour into the dish when cooking soup or stir-fry. I like using them in chicken soup, tofu stir-fry and rice dishes. I was lucky enough to get a bag of whole dried mushrooms from Korea, thanks to my mom:) If you are buying these little beauties at the shops, look for thick mushroom caps with deep white fissures. Thinly sliced mushrooms are quick to soak and cook, but thick whole ones have much more intense flavour.
How to cook them? Soak them in room temperature water for a couple of hours or even overnight so that mushrooms fully plump up and beautiful liquid come out of mushrooms. The soaking liquid adds extra flavour into your dish so don’t throw away. Oh stem is very tough so you can remove before or after soaking.
Ingredients
1 cup of mixed rice (I used white, brown, red and wild rice)
4-5 whole dried shiitake mushrooms
3 cups of water plus mushroom soaking liquid
1/2 tsp of minced garlic
1/2 tsp of minced ginger
1 tsp of soy sauce
cracked pepper