hey guys welcome back to MulYeung the cooking channel that's not so useless
in this video we'll be showing you how to properly rehydrate dried shiitake mushrooms
such that they're clean, plump and tender, and storable for easy use any time for up to half a year
if you're no stranger to Chinese cuisine
you would have encountered this versatile ingredient before whether it be from soups or braised dishes
and in comparison to their fresh counterparts dried mushrooms really amp up the umami in a dish and is an essential ingredient we store in our kitchen
but before we begin I must preface that this process is quite time consuming
but the end result and just in general the amount of time you save over half a year is well worth the time sink
now if you do enjoy this video do consider subscribing for more videos
so this video is going to be split into four parts: cleaning, rehydrating, trimming, and then steaming and storage
and for this video we'll be rehydrating about half a kilo of dried shiitake mushrooms which may seem a lot but you should be doing this in big batches anyway
cleaning is by far the most laborious task
and of course the main goal is to get rid of all the dirt, mud and debris from the mushrooms
and to start off we're going to wash the mushrooms four to five times
run the mushrooms through cold water
and almost rub them against each other to loosen up the surface dirt
and just from the initial wash you can see how dirty the water is
then we'll repeat this three to four more times each time noticing that the water is less murky
after four to five washes your mushrooms will look like this which is a stark improvement from when we first started
now we've managed to wash the surface layer of dirt off the mushrooms
but there's still dirt trapped within the mushroom gills
and to make the mushroom easier to work with we're going to submerge the mushrooms in cold water for about half an hour
half an hour later drain the mushrooms and notice how they're a tad bit more malleable
next we're going to add about one cup of flour and any type of flour will do
and about two spoons of salt
then gently mix and squeeze the mushrooms to really get that flour deep into those gills
not only does the flour help clean the mushroom it also helps remove some of that bitterness and makes the mushroom much smoother
now it's fine to add more flour in since we added one more cup but the aim is to make the liquid almost creamy in texture
after all that mixing if we gently squeeze one of the mushrooms you can see that the flowery water is a tinge of brown and we'll want to wash that out
next keep washing the mushrooms until the water becomes clear
and for us we stopped after our fourth wash
rehydrating is pretty simple just submerge the mushrooms in cold water and then weigh them down with a plate
the time it takes to rehydrate however will vary on the quality of your mushroom and in this video we rehydrated the mushrooms for about 6 hours
if you want you can rehydrate these for a shorter time or even overnight but at the very least you want the middle of the mushroom to be soft to the touch
after six hours take the mushrooms out and keep the water
that water is essentially a premature mushroom stock which works great as a vegan alternative for chicken stock
so strain this water
and keep it to cook with
looking at our mushrooms they're quite plump now and a lot lighter in color
the mushrooms are now extremely easy to work with so we're going to partition into the cap and stem parts and also trim off any hard bits from the cap
with a pair of scissors cut off the stems
if you're finding it difficult to cut the stems off
you may need to soak your mushrooms for a bit longer
after you finish trimming you'll end up with the hard mushroom pieces we don't want
the mushroom stems which we'll be using in soups and this beautiful mountain of mushrooms
now onto the final phase we want to further tenderize the mushroom through steaming
put the mushrooms into a big container for steaming or if your steamer is multi-layered you can separate into two dishes
at your stove turn the heat on high
then pour in a lot of water
and put the lid on and let the water boil
once the water boils
put your mushrooms in
and let it steam for one hour
if you're using multiple dishes be sure to cover the mushrooms on the bottom layer to prevent any condensation from falling into it
after one hour
the mushrooms have expanded once more and you can tell that this will be a meaty bite
but we're not going to stop here we want the mushrooms to be even meatier
so we're going to let the mushroom bathe in the residual steam overnight
so let the water boil once more then turn the heat off and let the mushrooms sit overnight
the next morning your mushrooms are rehydrated
now just admire how your hard work turned this into this
and if we cut one in half again just look at how meaty this looks
now get some freezing containers or use a sealable bag and start portioning the mushrooms
then put the lid on
seal with plastic wrap
and keep a reminder of when you did this
and finally put it in your freezer and take it out the night before cooking
so guys that is how you rehydrate dried shiitake mushroom
I hope you all enjoyed this video and if you want to see any of our future videos be sure to subscribe
see ya