I am rushing off to bake my first brioche of the year before the kids are home from school.  So I won’t describe much about this savory mushroom stir fry dish that I cooked last week, except that I made them slightly saltier, as a side dish to go with my plain millet porridge.  Feel free to reduce the amount of oyster sauce to 1 tablespoon, or dilute with more of the liquid reserved from soaking the dried mushrooms, to make the dish less salty.

Mushroom lovers like me will use at least 3 kinds of mushrooms for a stir fry dish like this.  I used 2 types of meaty texture mushrooms : fresh shitake and king oyster, to add some bulk, as the tea tree mushrooms are on the scrawny side.  Also these 2 fresh mushrooms do not have too strong a fungi taste, so as to let the dish takes on only the tea tree mushroom’s aroma, the main star of this dish!

VEGETARIAN STIR FRY ASSORTED MUSHROOMS
SERVES 1
INGREDIENTS

50g dried tea tree mushrooms
2 stalks King oyster (Eryngii) mushrooms, sliced
2 fresh Shitake mushrooms, sliced
1 small knot of ginger, about 1 cm, julienned
1 tablespoon cooking oil
2 tablespoons vegetarian oyster sauce
1 cup of liquid reserved from soaking tea tree mushrooms
White pepper, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

01. The night before, wash and then soak the dried tea tree mushrooms in a bowl filled with enough filtered water to submerge the mushrooms.  Leave in fridge overnight.  Before cooking, remove the mushrooms from the bowl, squeeze out the water, chop mushrooms into 2 cm lengths.  Reserve the soaking liquid for later use.

02. Heat up cooking oil in a pan over medium heat.  Add ginger slices and fry till they turn aromatic and slightly brown.

03. Add in the chopped tea tree mushrooms, stir around to cook.  The pan will be almost dry, as dried mushrooms do not release water.  Add 2 tablespoon of reserved soaking liquid to let the steam from the water cook the tea tree mushrooms faster.  Continue cooking till most of the water evaporates.

04. Add in the remaining fresh mushroom slices, mix well.  Some liquid will be released by the fresh mushroom as they get cooked.

05. Mix vegetarian oyster sauce with the remaining liquid left in the cup.

06. Pour sauce mixture over the mushrooms, stir to mix well.

07. Continue to cook and let liquid reduced to a light gravy.  Add a dash of pepper, season to taste.

08. Remove from heat and transfer to serving plate.  As usual, eat while it’s piping hot.