What do you use dried mushrooms for?
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I sometimes use them in beef stew, but the idea of using them to enhance the store ramen sounds great!
I’ll throw all kinds of things in there: ham, fish balls, kimchi, egg (soft boiled or fried), bacon, sprouts, peas, corn, seaweed, whatever I have on hand. The wood ear mushrooms (sometimes called black fungus) are amazing in it, I pretty much always keep some on hand just for that.
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Space Travel
Magic or Discovery. Or both.
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I’ve been getting dried wood ear mushrooms at an Asian grocery to add to ramen for a while, and it’s a game changer. I just put it in a mug of boiling water for a few minutes and then add it into the soup.
I recently got some dried shiitake, and that’s an ingredient that I wish I’d known about before. You rehydrate them in boiling water and leave them for a few hours. After that, squeeze them out and prepare them like fresh mushrooms. Retain the water that you soaked them in and you can use it to infuse that mushroom flavor into whatever you’re cooking. I made a mushroom gravy over rice yesterday, and it was great.
I think even people who don’t normally like the texture of mushrooms might enjoy them; they’ve got a bit more of a “meaty” texture than fresh ones, not quite so spongy. You can also grind them up while they’re dry and add savory mushroom flavor to anything.
It’s a great way to always have mushrooms on hand. Do you have a way that you like to prepare them?
About 10 years ago, I bought a ridiculously large bag of dried shiitakes online. I’m almost to the end of the bag now lol. Over the years, I learned to skip the step of soaking the shrooms in hot water if they were being added to soups or anything liquidy enough that was also being heated. So just throw them into your bowl of ramen before adding water and cooking, that way you get the extra flavor and save some time and energy
