Dried Shiitake Mushrooms -- RECIPES!

Shiitake mushrooms have a very definite flavor -- you'll find button or cup mushrooms difficult to go back to once you've become used to the strong and exotic taste of dried shiitake mushrooms! While they are lighter in weight than the fresh variety, the flavor is also greatly intensified, so you don't need as much dried mushroom for a recipe as you would fresh. Today we are looking at how to incorporate these little flavor- and health-bombs into your everyday cooking, with some top shiitake mushroom recipes!

1. Mushroom Tart and Gravy

You can actually modify this recipe to include mushroom powder in the pastry, and put whatever meats and vegetables you like in the tart instead of just filling with mushrooms. The flavor permeates -- especially if you use the shiitake mushrooms stalks in the gravy as suggested.

2. Chow Mein

There are a hundred chow mein recipes available online, and this is a very simple one. If you really appreciate the flavor of your dried shiitake mushrooms, though, you'll love how they aren't drowned out by the other ingredients in this dish.

3. Mushroom and Bacon Curls with Creamed Eggs

This recipe is a Saturday breakfast favorite, and a great way to help you use up any excess mushrooms if you've been growing your own! The recipe says that you can use macaroni or asparagus in place of the mushrooms, but for us that simply isn’t an option!

4. Scrambled Eggs with Shiitake Mushrooms

Everybody has their own favorite scrambled egg recipe, and you can quite easily substitute the egg portion of this guide for your own, if you prefer. The real value of this dried shiitake mushrooms recipe is the guide for incorporating mushrooms into the scrambled eggs - issues regarding precooking and when to add the shrooms often catch people out. They can ruin a good shiitake!

5. Pasta with Dried Shiitake Mushrooms and Tomato Sauce

What an awesome substitute for meat Bolognese … what a healthy substitute for meat Bolognese! Dried shiitake mushrooms or dried porcini mushrooms can be used in this recipe, and they really fill out the dish. Mushrooms are one of the superstars of Italian cooking, for certain!

Fresh and Dried Shiitake Mushrooms -- Top 4 Cooking Hints

Shiitake mushrooms have gotten a lot of press lately, as the generall good health of Japanese people is increasingly studied by scientists, and more dietary hints about the origins of their good health emerge. Dried shitake mushrooms have plenty of health benefits, and are almost as potent as the fresh version. If you’re doing any cooking with dried shiitakes, we are today exploring some general hints for using them in your dishes.

1. Storage

Creating dishes with maximum flavor and health actually begins as soon as you bring your ingredients home from the store. Shiitake mushrooms should be stored slightly differently to other fresh produce:

• Always store in the fridge
• A paper bag will stop them sweating and going slimy, but will allow them to dry out more quickly
• Plastic bags should only be used for a very short time -- everywhere the bag touches the mushroom it will develop a layer of slime on top
• Plastic punnets with the mushrooms loosely packed inside, and a cling film covering that doesn’t touch the mushrooms, seems to be ideal for keeping mushrooms fresh longer.

2. To wash, or not to wash?

Most shiitake mushrooms do not need to be washed. Even commercially grown ones rarely need to be sprayed with pesticides or have any herbicide drift -- they grow so quickly and are almost never grown alongside other crops. You might just want to brush any dirt off with a pastry brush.

Washing dried shiitake mushrooms will cause them to absorb the liquid, creating a less potent taste. It would be rare that this was necessary.

3. Prepping your dried shiitake mushrooms

The basic rule for mushrooms is to trim, but not peel. You'll find peeling your dried shiitake mushrooms inordinately difficult, and it will do nothing to improve the flavour while stripping the fungi or valuable healthy compounds! Shiitakes often have a long dry stem portion which needs to be trimmed, but if you buy dried this may have been done for you.

4. Precooking in the microwave

Did you know you can precook your dried shiitake mushrooms in the microwave? Mushrooms tolerate microwave cooking extremely well, and contrary to popular belief scientific studies have shown that substantially more vitamins are preserved using this method.