Easy Crimini Mushroom in Asian Sauce

Mushrooms have been in the spot light especially in health books, magazines and health food store.  It is a fungus that packed with nutrient powerhouses.  It is an excellent source of selenium, a potent antioxidant that fight off damaging free radicals, and thus anticancer.  The dried Shiitake mushroom is said to reduce high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure and protection against breast cancer.

You can easily find the dried Shiitake mushroom at any Asian supermarket.  It is cheaper at Asian market since shiitake mushrooms has been a staple in our Asian cuisines.  Since mushroom is one of the health-boosting and anti-inflammation foods, I would make sure I cook it at least once a week.  The above is fresh crimini mushroom that I bought at Sunflower Market.  I read that when crimini mushroom matures, it becomes portobello mushroom.  Crimini mushroom is sometimes called baby portobello.  I love the texture of this mushroom, it's firmer than the white button mushroom.  I would eat a wide range of different mushrooms and not limiting myself to one or two to fully benefit from it.

Frozen Tofu with Shiitake and Dried Lily Buds

Dried lily buds (金針菜) is also called golden needle vegetable but don't confuse it with dried golden needle mushroom (dried enoki mushroom) as they look almost similar.  Usually found in Asian supermarket where they sell dried woodear and mushroom.  Once open, I would keep it in a Ziploc bag and in the refrigerator.  When you want to use it, you need to soften it in the water first.  I often see dried lily buds in auspicious Chinese dishes because it symbolizes wealth for the Chinese when celebrating Chinese Lunar New Year.  Shiitake mushroom symbolizes longevity + opportunity and yellow color tofu symbolizes wealth and happiness (like dried beancurd stick and fried tofu puff).  Since frozen tofu is yellow in color and yellow means gold in Chinese, it should symbolizes wealth and happiness.  Whereas the fresh white tofu is not included as it is unlucky for new year as the color white means death and misfortune. You can braise your tofu in a sauce to change the color or pan-fried the tofu until golden before stir-frying to change your luck if you are superstitious like me.

This would make a great vegetarian Chinese New Year dish too!   The frozen tofu cubes and mushrooms soaked up all the flavor of the sauce and made this dish such a plus!  Imagine biting into the spongy and juicy cubed tofu and flavorful mushrooms!!

I am sharing this recipe with Aspiring Bakers #15: Auspicious Dishes for CNY hosted by Wen's Delight.  Go check out the roundup on Feb 1st.  I know I will!  :-)

Dried Mussels with Chicken and Mushrooms

Another dried mussels recipe from me!  The one packet of dried mussels can actually make with few dishes, I still have half a packet left.  I had tried it with Lotus Root Soup and Chap Chai and now tried it with chicken and mushrooms.  But I would probably say it would taste better with pork belly or drumsticks.  But if you are health conscious, then just use skinless chicken breasts like me.   Perhaps I will use the dried mussels in a vegetable soup next.

Oyster Mushroom Chicken

 

I couldn't resist myself when I see fresh oyster mushroom in the Asian market.  I loved to serve variety of mushrooms for my family.  Oyster mushroom is said to be able to lower the cholesterol levels as it naturally contains lovastatin.  All I know is mushroom is good for us so I am trying to cook it often.  However, my Evy is not a mushroom lover which makes it hard for me.  Because I am trying to give her food that is good for her but she just won't touch it.  The only mushroom that she would eat is Enoki mushroom which I will also get whenever I am in the Asian market.

This is one easy stir-frying dish with oyster sauce.  If you have a bottle of oyster sauce, you can make lots of Chinese dishes with it.  There is even a vegetarian version of oyster sauce which is made from this oyster mushroom. 

Deep Fried Oyster Mushrooms

I saw this recipe emerged during the Chinese New Year period.  Deep-fried oyster mushrooms, how interesting and said to be delicious.  I seldom do deep-frying so it has taken me a while to revisit this idea of deep-frying oyster mushrooms.  Speaking of which, I wonder why people only do this during Chinese New Year?  Since I have tried this, I got to say it is very delicious when just out of the deep-fryer, it is hot and crispy on the outside and slightly soft inside.  I was trying a new batter here and it turned soft when cold, so you got to eat this hot!  Or use your trusted batter recipe for this.

This is the fresh oyster mushrooms.  You can buy it at the Asian grocery store.  It is said to be able to lower the cholesterol levels because it is naturally contain lovastatin.  Asian eat this mushrooms a lot, we used it in soup and stir-fry.  I prefer the fresh one when comes to oyster mushrooms, the canned oyster mushroom has a smell that I dislike.

Tea Tree Mushroom

Brief introduction (from the back of this packet):

Tea Mushroom is one of the series products of the People Fortune Company. It is picked in the Daba Mountain which lies in Sichuan Province. The Tea Mushroom is a parasite of the oriental white oaks. In the wild nature, thanks to the special climate there, it is bathed in the sunshine and the moonlight, moistened by rain and dew. It is a kind of mushroom which has a long stem and tender pulp with a crisp and refreshing flavor.

Soaked and cleaned before using. Can be used in deep-fry or stir-fry.



A Chinese friend got us this Tea Mushroom from China (the direct translation would be Tea Tree Mushroom). He said this mushroom is very popular where he is from and it is delicious. Frankly this is the first time I have seen this kind of mushroom, something new for us to try. The stem of this mushroom is very long and I have no clue whether it can be eaten. I wonder why they package the stems if it can't be eaten? But the stem is pretty hard, so I cut off half and use the top half to test it out.

I just stir-fried it with some ginger, chicken and oyster sauce. This Tea Mushroom has a strong woody smell and pretty fragrant, in a mushroom way. But some of the stems were too hard to chew. Guess it's only the mushroom and the immediate stem below it can be eaten, the rest were too tough. Very interesting mushroom and glad to have a chance to try it.

If you have eaten this tea mushroom, can you let me know whether I did it right regarding the stem, okay? TIA!

Abalone Mushrooms/ Oyster Mushrooms

Besides the fresh oyster mushrooms, I also bought some canned one. It only registered to me that abalone mushrooms is actually the same as oyster mushrooms when I opened the can. Even though the picture on the can looks like oyster mushrooms, the name abalone sort of made me thought it might be of a different mushrooms. Silly me! (Guess I thought it would be the cap of the king oyster mushroom) Hmm... I don't really like the canned abalone mushrooms, it got some sort of smell which I don't quite fancy.




I decided to try something different and cooked it with shrimps and tofu this time.



I used the soft tofu and cut it into cubes. Arranged it on a plate and microwaved it for one minute, so that it would be warm. Then, I prepared the abalone mushrooms and shrimps sauce to pour on top. First, I stir-fry some chopped garlics in oil, then I added the mushrooms, then shrimps (one shrimp I cut into 4 pieces), saute for awhile, added some water, then seasoned with salt, rice wine & chicken stock granules. Added one egg white and thicken with cornstarch mixture. Sprinkled with chopped scallions before serving.

Chicken with Oyster Mushrooms & Sweet Snap Peas

I did an express shopping with V at EMWK last weekend when we bumped into each other at a Chinese restaurant. Express was the right word because she had to rush back home because her daughters were not feeling well. In that short 5-10 minutes, she told me fresh oyster mushroom was on sales and I told her about the 100 cookie from Taiwan and also a tin of Singapore cookies that was on sales and that was about it. LOL! Next time, we do need to shop longer! Anywhere, while shopping at the Asian grocery store where I bought the persimmons and oyster mushrooms, I also bought a packet of sweet snap peas. With the oyster mushrooms and sweet snap peas in mind, I added some sliced chicken breasts, garlic, carrot for color and flavored it with mushroom oyster sauce. MmmMmm...delicious!
What an coincident that V also cooked her oyster mushrooms with snap peas! I told her we are beginning to think alike! Hehe... Whoohoo....spooky! LOL! :D

Introducing: King Oyster Mushroom

Have you seen this in the Asian market and wondering what it is? It is called king oyster mushroom which is also referring to as almond abalone mushroom in China as when it is cooked, the texture is similar to that of abalone. I was told of this mushroom when shopping with Lily (she introduced me to a lot of things eh...hehe). She told me this is the fresh abalone mushroom (instead of canned) that we read about in the forum. I was like really and quickly grabbed one to try. Since that day, I have been buying this mushroom every time I was in an Asian market. I really like the meaty white steam as well as the cap as this mushroom really soaked up the flavor of the broth you cooked it in.



This is what I came out with. Just a simply stir-fry and then cooked it in a oyster sauce flavored broth and top on green veggie. So good man, even my hubby finished it all. I also stir-fry this mushroom with sliced chicken breasts for variation. If you spot this mushroom in the store next time, do give it a try ya! :)

Braised Mushrooms

This recipe will only give the ingredients and techique used because that was how I cooked this dish.

Ingredients:

Dried Chinese mushrooms

Dried lily buds

Dried beancurd rolls

Dried wood ear fungus

Fa cai (optional)

(A)

Oyster sauce

Dark soy sauce

Light soy sauce

Sugar

A little chicken stock granules

Method:

1. Soaked all the dried ingredients with boiling hot water until soften.

2. For the mushrooms, cut the stem off of each mushroom. For the lily buds, cut the top harder part off (like a black tip) and tight it into a knot. If you used pieces of big woodear, just cut it into smaller pieces. Cut the beancurd rolls into 1 inch pieces.

3. In a big saucepan, add some water to boil. When boiled, add the mushrooms, beancurds, woodear and (A). Let it simmer for an hour or so. Lastly add in the lily buds and fa cai (if used) and let it simmer for 5-10 mins. Serve hot!