Enoki Mushrooms and Carrots

Those lanky, ill looking enoki mushrooms, you might saw at Chinese markets, need a little help to get some flavor. But when helped, they can become very indulging treat like here, in this salad.

Blog's Category: Awesome Findings, International, Vegetarian



Intro

When at Chinese store, I am always tempted to grab enoki mushrooms because they are inexpensive, has reasonable shelf life in my fridge (until I get to cooking them :) and just because, as a vegetarian, mushrooms are one of my protein sources.

So far, I used enoki mostly for soups, as edition to my stews, or as a filling for omelets. This time I have decided to do something different with them and come across some simple recipe, modified it heavily to my liking and ended up with the recipe below. I liked a lot its Japanese character, awesome texture and versatility.


What is it?

Essentially, it's cooked enoki mushrooms, carrots and ginger, seasoned in oriental style.

Taste Description

Here, the perfect match of carrots, enoki and ginger creates true oriental flavor. This flavor is multiplied with soy sauce and brown sugar [Think of teriyaki! Did you know that teriyaki sauce is no more than marriage of salty soy sauce with a lot of sweet stuff such as sugar and/or mirin?].
Although the most impressing to me in this salad is its texture and that's where enoki mushrooms step forward - their remarkable texture qualities are layered perfectly onto smoothness of half-cooked carrots and crunch of sesame seeds. Real pleasure!

How to Serve

 It's delicious warm or cold and will keep in your fridge for several days. I like it as a topping for my rice but it also can be served with cold or hot pasta, as a layer for your sandwich or on its own as a side salad.

Enoki Mushrooms and Carrots

 



• 2 bunches of enoki mushrooms, root end trimmed 1.5" off, then cut in half
• 3 carrots, peeled and grated coarsely or cut into long matchsticks
• 1.5" ginger root, peeled and, with a sharp knife, cut in a very thin matchsticks
• 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 2 tbs white dry wine (or 1.5 tbs rice vinegar)
• 2 tbs light soy sauce
• 3 tbs toasted sesame seeds for garnishing

- At a medium-low heat, cook ginger and carrots and sesame oil, stirring, for 2 minutes.

- Add enoki mushrooms and cook stirring for 2-3 minutes.

- Add sugar, wine (or rice vinegar) and soy sauce, stir couple times and take off heat. Isn't it easy?!

- Serve topped with toasted sesame seeds and enjoy!


Note

You may notice funny smell when cooking on sesame oil (not that earthy, smoky, special one we love when sniffing from a bottle)! No worry, this flavor will be gone after cooking.

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IN PICTURES

Use your fingers to separate threads in the lower part of bunch...

Brisk rinsing of lower parts won't hurt but not required if you cut roots high enough to get rid of dirty ends.

Use sharp knife to cut ginger as thin as you can.

For speed's sake, I used my electric hand held shredder. I like that it produces neat, tiny, stiff carrot shreds.