Shiitake Harvest Take Two!

So continued from "Shiitake Harvest Take One", more shiitake mushroom sprouted out a weekend later. There were about 15 mushrooms total in all, not a lot, but enough to give some away and make a few dishes out of them.

This time, I want to use these mushroom to make healthy and vegetarian dishes.

I notice a lot of American or Asian fusion restaurants offer mushroom risotto of some sort, and so, I wanted to try making some. I didn't have any Aborio rice at home, so instead of using Aborio rice , I used brown rice instead, hoping it'll turn out somewhat similiar. I just want a creamy texture, but not neccessary the mushy feel of the rice.

Shiitake Brown Rice "Risotto" - Shiitake Mushroom, long grain brown rice, swiss cheese, garnished with diced tomato

I browned some garlic and 1/4 cup of brown rice, and then let them simmered in half cup of chicken broth for awhile. I then added the shittake mushroom and let the mixture simmered until about two tablespoon of water was left. Lastly, I mixed in some swiss cheese. This makes one serving. The whole dish was creamy, but not mushy. Since brown rice consisted of the hulk, it is quite chewy. The rice absorbed the shiitake flavor, so the rice turned out exactly how I wanted it to taste.

Next I wanted to make some curry stir-fry. The shiitake will not add to the flavor of the curry too much, instead the mushroom itself will retain its own flavor on top of  curry flavor. I threw in all the vegetables I can find in my fridge. Cabbage, spinach, tomato, button mushroom, shiitake and tofu all together.

Stir Fry Vegetables in Panang Curry - Cabbage, spinach, tomato, button mushroom, shiitake mushroom and tofu stir fried with Panang Curry

Brown some garlic with a little bit of oil. Add in napa cabbage and 2 tablespoons of water. Add in button mushroom and shiitake, then tomato, spinach and tofu. When everything is semi-cooked, add in panang curry paste, salt and pepper. Stir fry everything together. Adding corn starch to thicken the sauce is optional. Since I didn't add any coconut milk in this, the sauce loses its taste after chewing on the vegetable. The vegetables tasted very good combined with the curry though. This dish is pretty healthy since it's high in fiber, vitamins and low in fat and oil.

The last thing I decided to make with the shiitake mushroom is a vegetarian Shiitake gyoza/potstickers. This potstickers consisted of similar ingredients as the stir fry above.

Recipe and instruction for Vegetarian Shiitake Gyoza will be in the next post, stay tune!