In this series, we’ll be looking at ingredients which are common in Chinese supermarkets (超市, chāo shì), but may be rare or expensive in our home countries. Each post includes a recipe, so you can start exploring a new world of food!

In my last post, I was diverted from my mushroom hunt by the rare opportunity to sample delicious morels. However, the Chinese supermarket regularly features a range of exotic and interesting fungi, at bargain prices. My local chāoshì lets you pick three different packets for RMB 10, a bargain indeed. For this recipe though I ended up using only two.

Shiitake mushrooms are usually known in the west by their Japanese name, and as the alternative, “Chinese black mushroom” is also used for the wood ear, we’ll stick to it here. They’re cheap as chips here, but I find that their strong flavor needs to be handled with care, or can be overwhelming.

Enoki mushrooms have a satisfying crunch and work well in stir-fries and salads.

My recipe uses one more distinctively Chinese fungus-based ingredient.

The supermarket has a range of exciting chili oils and sauces which I have been experimenting with, and this mushroom chili oil is a key ingredient in my:

Mushroom Rice Bake

What you’ll need
– 2 cups of rice, cooked
– Mushroom (around 200g)
– Two large leeks
– One head of broccoli
– Garlic
– 1 jar of mushroom oil chili
– 2 cups of vegetable or chicken stock

Instructions

1. Get the oven heating to 180 degrees Celsius.

2. Chop and fry the leeks in an oven-proof casserole dish. Chop the broccoli into small florets and discard the stems (you can use them in the stock if throwing them away pains you, or in a soup, if you’re using stock cubes.) Add the broccoli to the dish and fry too, nice and hot so it browns a little. Clean and chop the mushrooms, and chuck them in as well. Add garlic to your preference; I love garlic and use a whole head, peeled and finely sliced. When it all smells fabulous stir in the mushroom chili oil, then the rice.

3. Pour in the stock, mix thoroughly, then transfer from the hob to the oven. (I used to top it with cheese, as in the picture below, but I’ve decided this is an unnecessary indulgence, though you might like to top with breadcrumbs, if you have them handy.) After 30 minutes, serve and enjoy!

Photos: epicurious.com, Andrew Killeen

In this series, we’ll be looking at ingredients which are common in Chinese supermarkets (超市,chāo shì) , but may be rare or expensive in our home countries. Each post includes a recipe, so you can start exploring a new world of food!

This post was going to be about mushrooms generally, but while gathering ingredients I came across something particularly exciting: morels. If your local supermarket stocks this fabulous fungus then I urge you to try some now, while it’s in season.

Morels in the wild

At nearly RMB 300 per kilogram, it’s not exactly cheap, but that’s still almost half the price you’d pay in Europe or the US (if you can find morels at all.) The reason it’s so expensive is that the morel has resisted all attempts to cultivate it, and can only be found in the wild, where it mostly grows on trees. The morel doesn’t have the same glamorous reputation as its subterranean cousin the truffle, but for my money it’s a richer and more complex experience: woody, nutty, and meaty, delicious with either a full white like a Chardonnay or a luscious red such as Primitivo.

Its subtle flavor is best enjoyed cooked simply, but the challenge is cleaning them. All those little holes in the cap can hide dirt or worms. (I still cringe with horror at the memory of the time I cooked risotto for a group of writers in Latvia with wild mushrooms from the market, but didn’t clean them properly, so everyone sat munching on grit with brave smiles.)

Soak the morels in salted water to clean them

Opinion is bitterly divided on the internet (as it is about so many things) between advocates of soaking and dry brushing. I went for soaking, in part because of my Latvian experience but also because the morels felt quite dry. The results were fine, so here is my recipe for preparing and cooking morels:

1. Rinse the morels in clean water.
2. Pour a cup of boiling water into a bowl, and add salt (enough to kill any lurking life, but not so much as to ruin the flavor; a couple of tablespoons should do it.) Then add cold water until the bowl reaches room temperature. You don’t want to boil your mushrooms!
3. Soak the morels in the salted water for 15-20 minutes, then drain. Remove any stray bits.
4. Cut the morels in half lengthwise. Remove any remaining dirt inside with a damp piece of kitchen roll.

Morels cut and cleaned, ready for cooking

5. Get a heavy frying pan nice and hot, then dry fry the morels for a couple of minutes until they brown. Add a pat of butter and saute. At the last minute, chuck in a little splash of wine to deglaze the pan. Serve and savor.

Photos: Kelly via Pexels, Sharksbaja via Wikimedia Commons, Andrew Killeen