Simmered Shiitake Mushrooms

 Ingredients 

• container of dried shiitakes (around 30 grams)
• 1 1/3 cup water
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp mirin
• heaping half TBSP sugar

Instructions

1. Fill an air tight container or a bowl with the water and soak the dried shiitake mushrooms in it. Cover and leave it overnight (6-7 hours+) in the fridge (note 1).
2. Remove the stem of the rehydrated mushrooms, discard the stems and place the mushrooms in a saucepan. Do not discard the mushroom liquid as it is the shiitake dashi.
3. Put the shiitake dashi through a sieve and get rid of black bits in the liquid.
4. Measure 200 ml (note 2) of shiitake dashi and add to the saucepan. Add the remaining ingredients to the pan and heat over medium heat.
5. When it starts boiling, scum (whitish bubbly substances) surfaces quite a lot. Remove the scum using a ladle as much as possible (note 3).
6. Place a drop lid on (note 4) and cook for 15 minutes.
7. Remove the drop lid and cook further 5-10 minutes until only a small amount of liquid remains (note 5).

Recipe Notes

1. It’s ok to leave it in the fridge up to 3 days.

2. If the amount of shiitake dashi is not enough, add water.

3. When removing scum, use a bowl filled with water and rinse the ladle in it each time after scooping the scum from the pot. The scum tends to stick to the bottom of the ladle and it goes back to the pot next time when you try to scoop new scum.

4. A drop lid is called 'otoshibuta' (落し蓋) in Japanese. It is a round lid that is slightly smaller than the opening of a saucepan. It is traditionally made of wood but I have a stainless-steel lid. It is placed on top of the ingredients in a pot to ensure the heat is evenly distributed, ingredients cook faster, and stay in place without breaking apart. It also stops the liquid from evaporating quickly.

If you don’t have a drop lid, you can make one with aluminium foil. Cut a square in foil, fold the edges to make it a round shape with the diameter slightly smaller than the pot. Then poke the foil with a knife or a chopstick to make holes in several places.

5. Mushrooms will keep up to 1 week in the refrigerator or up to 2 months in the freezer.