The fir eats / Diana Chistruga
| Channel | Publish Date | Thumbnail & View Count | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
 Made With Lau | 2023-02-10 23:00:14 |  422,952 Views |
🥬 🍄Dad's FANCY Stewed Mushrooms & Bok Choy! (白菜燜冬菇)
Attention mushroom lovers and shiitake obsessed! I have the perfect hearty meatless main course for you using only simple earthy ingredients. Fork-tender and juicy braised shiitake mushrooms are the stars of this dish paired with subtly sweet and delightfully crunchy baby bok choy. This umami-rich dish strikes a yin-yang perfect balance of both flavor and texture making it a treat for almost any palate. The best part? This dish is super easy to make even on busy weeknights and for time-strapped moms like me who are trying to conquer the culinary world.
This dish holds a special place in Asian cuisine and in my modern Asian cuisine; you’ll find variations of it served during important events like the Mid-Autumn Festival and birthday celebrations. In Chinese culture shiitake mushrooms are symbols of longevity and vitality (and sometimes masculinity but let’s keep that family-friendly) while bok choy represents fortune and prosperity. Combined and sometimes with the addition of dried oysters or abalone dried scallops and thick choy (black moss) the result is a dish that is as delicious as it is auspicious.
For meatless nights at home this is usually the centerpiece of my family’s meal complemented and tempered by hot steamed rice with a side of chili crisp oil. Making the sauce is a snap: mix together all the ingredients and stir-fry the mushrooms and aromatics until the mushrooms are lightly golden. Then pour in the sauce put the lid on and let the heat and sauce do their frying magic. Blanching the bok choy only takes a few minutes and you can do it right before you serve the tender juicy mushrooms. Finally don’t throw away those ginger slices; they become slightly sweet savory and surprisingly delicious. Before we dive into the recipe here’s a bit of culinary humor to round it out: why do mushrooms always get invited to parties? Because they’re such “fungi”! With this recipe up your sleeve you’re sure to be the “fungi” of any potluck or dinner party.
