The Recipe
Shreddy Shrooms. It may not look like much, but you’ve just found your new back-pocket mushroom recipe. Congrats! Transform dried and musky mushrooms into a tender, meaty, and savory topping that can be used just about anywhere. Most of this recipe is inactive cooking, meaning you can make these while prepping the rest of your meal with virtually no effort. Add these shreddy shrooms to rice bowls, ramens, tortas, taquitos, congee, and punchy salads - or just serve them with a bright herb sauce.
Dried Mushrooms
In the upcoming season, you can expect newsletters for individual species of fresh mushrooms. For now, when Winter is still clinging to our cabinets, I want to give you some strategies for working with the miscellaneous dried mushrooms you’ve tucked away for a later date (today is the later date). If you’re not someone that has dried mushrooms on hand, this is your call to pick some up on your next grocery trip. They’re often hidden on aisle end caps, hanging from clips near boxed broths, or inconspicuously shelved just out of sight of the fresh portabellas. Hunting for these gems in stores can sometimes be more challenging than actually foraging in the woods; in both habitats, you’ll be surprised by how many fungi are all around you.
Dried mushrooms tend to be more affordable than their fresh counterparts, but can be far more aromatic and flavorful. As mushrooms dehydrate, their savory and umami qualities concentrate, making mushrooms like shiitake more earthy, and black trumpets more cheesy. You won’t need many to add to your meal either - mushrooms are mostly water, so just 1oz of dried mushrooms can balloon up to a full serving after rehydration.
Choosing which mushrooms to try can be daunting, but it’s common to find bags of mixed dried species, giving you the opportunity to explore. Here are a few types you’re likely to find that are flavorful, approachable, and rehydrate easily: shiitake, maitake, oysters, yellowfoots, chanterelles, morels, and porcini. Once you’ve got some dried mushrooms on hand, check out these quick strategies and recipes for culinary inspiration:
Rehydration
Rehydrate dried mushrooms by fulling submerging them in a bowl of warm (not boiling) water. Be patient. It may take up to an hour for thicker pieces to fully rehydrate, but many species can take as little as 10-20 minutes. You’ll know they’re ready when the entire mushroom has some flexibility and give; a partially rehydrated shroom will still have a firm core. When ready, pat dry and cook as you would fresh mushrooms (their flavor and texture will be similar, but not the same). Don’t throw away the soaking liquid - it’s the start of a beautiful broth or sauce.
Grinding & Spice Blends
If you don’t have the patience to rehydrate your shrooms, throw them in a spice grinder (or try this immersion blender hack with small pieces). You’ll end up with a dry powder that can be used to season soups and chilis, sprinkled on eggs and toast, or mixed into a compound butter. Take it up a notch by mixing it with salt and other spices to make meat rubs or bouillon powders, like this Smoky Dried Mushroom Rub or Mountain Rose Herb’s Mushroom Bouillon.
Soups, Broths, & Stocks
Sometimes it’s best not to overthink it. Toss dried mushrooms into simmering soups, or add them into any stock for a boost of umami and nutrient density. Try Nami’s Shiitake Dashi, Andy Baraghani’s Vegan Broth, or Forager Chef’s Zuppa di Funghi.
Shreddy Shrooms
The novelty of this week’s Shreddy Shrooms recipe is that there’s no need to pre-soak the mushrooms ahead of cooking (and it’s not a soup). It can be made with any number of wild or cultivated species, and takes just 5 ingredients - including salt. The finished shrooms can be used in just about any meal or cuisine.
Find the Flavor
Find Dried Mushrooms
✓ Go to your cabinet. They’re in the back, and you forgot about them.
✓ Browse dried mushrooms from individual foragers on Foraged
✓ Purchase online & in major grocery stores, especially in grocers specializing in East Asian cuisine (do your best to look for small businesses and brands).
Find Dried Mushroom Products
✓ Chicken of the Woods Mushroom Powder form Devils Hill Herbs
✓ Mushroom Powder + Cocoa blend from Anima Mundi
✓ Shiitake Mushroom Powder from Southern Belle Chanterelle
References & Resources
Hot to make Mushroom Powder Youtube Video
USDA Dried Shiitake Nutrition Data
California Indian Ethnomycology and Associated Forest Management | “The Nisenan Maidu dried ground mushrooms and tree fungi to flavor acorn soup in the winter”