Sake Mushrooms
Do you all keep piles of *very important things* around? Bills, notes, magazine clippings - that sort of thing? I do, but inevitably, the most important documents disappear into the depths of the piles. Sadly, I've taken to taping things to the walls of my house. It's a last ditch effort to keep important things in my line of sight. Any flat surface is fair game - walls, cupboards, doors. I regularly go through the piles, take the most pressing items from said pile, and attach them to the wall. Sometimes I find real gems! For example, I was going through my kitchen stack the other day, and found a note to myself, a recipe to try. The note simply said: big mushrooms, dunk in sake, dredge in rice flour, sauté, salt, dot with miso butter. Bruce Cole via Hank Shaw. I can't remember if I encountered it on Bruce's instagram feed (probably), but it sounded like a great idea.
I used my little note as a jumping off point. The mushrooms came together quickly, and I served them as part of a larger bowl. I tossed some cilantro with a bit of olive oil and shoyu/soy sauce, and then pine nuts as the salad component. Then steamed some tempeh while the mushrooms where cooking. All in all, an incredibly satisfying meal. The mushrooms become golden-crusted, tender fleshed coins of more, please. They're the sort of thing you might use to top a salad, or a tangle of soba noodles, or -- if you want to head out on the decadence spectrum - a dip in a bowl of yuzu aioli would do the job.
