Date I made this recipe:
August 18, 2013
Everybody’s Wokking
by Martin Yan (From the national Public Television series YAN CAN COOK)
Published by: Harlow
& Ratner
ISBN: 0-9627345-0-0
Recipe: Vegetable Fried Rice – p. 137
“And today’s secret
ingredient is….Mushrooms!”
Given that this blog focuses on my cookbook collection, my
usual MO is to select a cookbook I like and then select the recipe from that
book. This time around, I had an
ingredient and just needed to find a recipe within one of my cookbooks in which
to showcase it. The ingredient? King oyster mushrooms. The recipe?
Vegetable Fried Rice. The
cookbook? Everybody’s Wokking by Martin Yan.
(And no, the title is not Working but Wokking –as in stir
fry. And yes, it took me a minute as
well!)
But wouldn’t you know that “working” (with an “r”) is
exactly how I came to find today’s ingredient.
By day, I provide business and legal consulting services to small business
clients of a St. Paul-based nonprofit – Neighborhood Development Center (NDC) –
and NDC recently asked me to work on a marketing plan for one of their new
clients, Mississippi Mushrooms (www.mississippimushrooms.com). After our last meeting, the guys gave me some
of their product – king oyster mushrooms – to take home with me and of course,
I couldn’t resist finding something to make with these mushrooms from my rather
large (1,692 cookbooks…and counting) cookbook collection.
This though, was not as easy as you would think. First, I may have a huge cookbook collection
but only a small portion of it covers Asian food, a cuisine I think makes the
best use of mushrooms. Second, many of
these cookbooks did not do much with fresh mushrooms (dried mushrooms, on the
other hand, was a prevalent ingredient) and those that did utilized button
mushrooms and button mushrooms are okay, but they are not and should never be
confused with king oysters. Worse, many
recipes called for canned mushrooms and I’m sorry, they have their place (like
in a casserole buried under a can Cream of X soup), but not for this dinner.
So after careful consideration and perusal, I selected the
Martin Yan cookbook (given to me recently by my friend, Melissa Embser-Herbert)
because it had what I was looking for: a
recipe that called for fresh mushrooms – nothing more, nothing less.
At this point, I must confess that I felt like I was on the Food Network Show, Iron Chef America, a show that pits one of the show’s
previously-ordained Iron Chefs against a chef competitor in “kitchen stadium”
where both must create fabulous dishes using a “secret ingredient.” I love this show unless they feature a secret
ingredient that I detest in which case, I hate this show.
So the two chefs meet in front of a table hidden by a hood
that contains the secret ingredient.
Tension builds as they wonder what the secret ingredient will be. And then on cue, “The Chairman” (the show’s
primary judge), demands the secret ingredient be revealed, the chefs either
groan or giggle with glee at the thought of the creative dishes they will make
for the judging panel and then The Chairman yells (…“in the words of my
uncle”…) “Allez Cuisine” (which roughly translates to “Get Cooking”) does a
karate chop (Why, I don’t know) and with that, the chefs gather up the
no-longer secret ingredient, race to their stations, yell orders at their sous
chefs, and begin the battle (during the course of the show, this will be referred
to as “Battle Mushroom” – I love it!).
So today’s secret and only ingredient was king oyster
mushroom (currently the main focus of Mississippi
Mushroom’s business) and while normally the Iron Chefs and contestants
create dishes to showcase the secret ingredient, here I just wanted to make
sure it got incorporated into something tasty that most everyone would feel
comfortable making. I’m not into sous
vied (cooking in a water bath food that is sealed in plastic pouches) or
emulsions or extrusions or anything else.
Here, it was chop, wok and serve.
Easy!
That said, I did adjust the recipe just a tad, decreasing
some ingredients (for example, I ran out of onion – how inconvenient) so that I
could showcase the mushrooms. And I must
say, I think even a panel of food critics would have approved. Was it Iron
Chef America-worthy? No. Did I care?
No. Should you? No.
What you’ll get is very flavorful fried rice, loaded with chopped
vegetables, featuring the wonderfully nutty-flavored king oyster mushroom, and
kicked up a notch on the flavor wheel by the addition of fresh minced
ginger.
Although this recipe is titled “Vegetable” Fried Rice, it is
not vegetarian; for that, substitute vegetable broth or water for chicken
stock. And when Martin Yan said “Of
course, you can add meat or seafood if you like,” I did indeed “like” and so
after I stir-fried the vegetables, I removed that mixture from the wok, added
more oil and stir-fried some chicken bits in the same sauce that I fried the
vegetables: oil, soy sauce, oyster sauce
and sesame oil. Once cooked (this takes
minutes) I then placed my chicken on top of the fried rice. The result was very yummy and we pretty much
polished off the rice in two easy sittings.
So the good news is that the king oyster mushrooms were
delicious in this recipe but the bad news (well, not that bad) is that this
company is just getting its product to market and so right now, you can find
them at the Fulton Farmer’s Market
(at 49th and Chowen in South Minneapolis) through fall and (soon) Linden Hill’s Co-op in the Linden Hill’s
neighborhood of Minneapolis. If all goes
according to plan, they will be in a lot more local co-ops and local
restaurants – stay tuned! But if you get
a chance, head to these locations and talk, if you can, to the three guys who
put this business together – Ian Silver-Ramp, Nik Prenevost and Michael
Melander – because you will get the very cool back-story of their mushrooms as
follows:
Once upon a time, three guys
figured out how to grow really fabulous mushrooms indoors, year-round from (and
you will love this) a concoction of (beer) brewer’s after-products, sourced
from local brewer Boom Island Brewery,
and sawdust from Wood from the Hood,
a company that fashions very cool furniture out of fallen trees. Add those ingredients together, mix with some
agricultural know-how, “bake” in a special growing area and voila! Fabulous mushrooms. Actually fabulous “fertilizer-free” mushrooms
since most mushrooms are grown using fertilizer. Ew.
These mushrooms are fresh and clean and healthy for you to boot,
containing lots of dietary fiber and iron and other essential vitamins. But essentially, the thing you need to know
about them is that they just taste good.
In fact, as I am wont to do, my manta in my kitchen today was “one
[slice of mushroom] for the recipe, one for me…one for the recipe, two for me…”
Now, it is not uncommon on Iron Chef America for one of the culinary world’s celebrity judges
to say something like “I’m normally not a [in this case] mushroom fan” but this
recipe is delicious!” After today, count
me as one of the converted and start demanding these mushrooms from your local
favorite vegetable “supplier.” And
remember, you heard it here first: Mississippi Mushrooms! (And let’s not forget Martin Yan, who I also
think is very cool and is frequently a judge on Iron Chef America—so there!)
Vegetable Friend Rice
– Serves 6
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon minced ginger
½ small onion, cut into ¼-inch cubes
1 small carrot, cut into ¼-inch cubes
1 stalk celery, cut into ¼-inch cubes
2 tablespoons chicken broth or water (or vegetable broth)
1 can (about 8 ounces) baby corn, drained, rinsed, and cut
into ½-inch pieces
1 green onion (including top), thinly sliced
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
½ cup sliced fresh mushrooms (Ann’s Note: try to use my
clients’ king oyster mushrooms if you can)
4 cups cooked brown rice (Ann’s Note: healthier yes, but I prefer white rice)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
¼ teaspoon white pepper
Shredded lecture for garnish
Place a wok or wide frying pan over high heat until
hot. Add the vegetable oil, swirling to
coat the sides. Add the garlic, ginger,
and onion; cook until the onion is soft, about 30 seconds. Add the carrot, celery, and broth and
stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add the baby
corn, green onion, peas, mushrooms, and rice, separating the grains of rice
with the back of a spoon; mix well. Stir
in the soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and pepper; cook until heated
through. Garnish with shredded lettuce.
Notes from Martin Yan:
Most Chinese do not eat brown rice; we get plenty of fiber in our diets
from vegetables and fruits, and in the quantities in which we eat rice every
day, using the whole grain would be too much.
But brown rice is popular in the West, especially among vegetarians, so
here’s a way to use it along with assorted vegetables. Of course, you can add meat or seafood if you
like.
How the rice is cooked in the first place affects the
texture of fried rice. If you want the
rice to be separate and chewy, use slightly less water; if you prefer it more
tender and sticky, use more water.
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