Spicy Mushroom Meat
This shreddy, savory mushroom meat is both practical and magical: it comes together quickly using only dry pantry ingredients – and you don’t even need to presoak the mushrooms. Use in tacos, dumplings, cheesesteaks, or anywhere you want a bit of meatiness and heatiness.
category
Recipe
Author
Foraged
date
03.17.23
read time
1 minutes
Overview:
Active Time
25 minutes
Total Time
25 minutes
Cost
20
Course
Entree, Main Course
Keyword
Dried Mushrooms, Easy, Mushrooms, Pantry, Quick
Cuisine
American, Chinese, Mexican
Yields
1
INGREDIENTS:
Spicy Mushroom Meat Ingredients
- 1 Blender
- 1 Large Skillet with cover
- 1.5 cups dried mushrooms
- 1.5 cups water
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 whole dried pepper [or 1/2 tbsp crushed red pepper]
- 1/2 tbsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp wild spices & herbs [we used spiceberry, fennel, and peppergrass]
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 4-6 tbsp olive oil
Preparation:
Step 1 - Blend the sauce ingredients
1. Blend the water, tomato paste, soy sauce, dried pepper, spices, and salt until smooth and homogenous.
Step 2 - Place the dried mushrooms in the pan
2. Place the blended liquid and dried mushrooms into a large skillet set over medium-high heat.
Step 3 - Pour in the blended sauce
3. Pour the blended sauce and bring to a simmer.
Step 4 - Cover and simmer until liquid is absorbed & evaporated
4. Cover, and cook until all the liquid has been absorbed or evaporated, 10-15min.
Step 5 - Add olive oil to brown
5. Add 2 tbsp of olive oil to the pan and let the mushrooms sit undisturbed to brown, 3-5min.
Step 6 - Repeat until mushrooms are deeply browned and slightly charred.
6. When the mushrooms have taken on crispy parts, stir the pan and repeat the process two more times with the remaining olive oil. The mushrooms should be quite dark with the occasional charred spot.
Step 7 - Roughly chop the mushrooms.
7. Remove the mushrooms from the pan and coarsely chop.
The best way to cook dried mushrooms.
We tested this with maitake, shiitake, wood ear, lobster, oyster, beech, enoki, yellowfoot chanterelles, chicken of the woods, and morels. Every time, we got a versatile and flavorful mushroom meat that is has all the chew and char needed for your favorite recipes. Try different spices and mushrooms, but keep the technique the same: simmer the dried mushrooms in a flavorful sauce until the liquid is absorbed, then add fat to the pan to brown the mushrooms all over.
make something wild
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