This week, both white and brown beech mushrooms (buna shimeji mushrooms) are on sale. I got a couple of boxes of them but don’t really have a good recipe to prepare them. I then think of Japanese recipes as mushroom is a mainstay in Japanese cuisine and I had personally savored delicately flavored mushroom dishes during my trips to Tokyo.
- Buna Shimeji Mushrooms Health Benefits
- Buna Shimeji Japanese Cooking School
- Buna Shimeji Japanese Cooking
Northern California is experiencing major heatwave in these past few days. The temperature exceeds 38 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) for 3 days now, and I have no mood to stand in the kitchen. With that in mind, I will share this really quick and delicious stir fry with you, butter garlic soy sauce shimeji stir fry.
Shimeji (beech mushroom) and other ingredients for this stir-fry
Shimeji is actually not just one mushroom, but a group of edible mushrooms native to East Asia. Like most mushrooms, shimeji is rich in guanylic acid, glutamic acid, and aspartic acid, basically components that make shimeji mushrooms full of umami flavors.
Two varieties of shimeji that are commonly sold in the US are buna shimeji/brown beech/brown clamshell mushroom and bunapi shimeji/white beech/white clamshell mushroom.
Buna Shimeji Mushrooms Health Benefits
If you have never tried shimeji before, you are missing out, and I think they look super cute too :) If you can get both the brown and the white varieties, I think using both varieties lends the dish a pretty color combo presentation.
To prepare shimeji, trim off the root part (like enoki if you ever tried that). Then, tear off individual mushroom stalks so they don’t all bunch up together. If you see any dirt, just wipe them off with a wet kitchen town since it’s always better not to submerge mushrooms in water.
Aside from shimeji, you will also need unsalted butter, garlic, soy sauce, salt, ground white pepper, and scallion.
5 Minutes Stir Fry
Once your prep work is done, the dish should be ready in no time.
Heat butter in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Once the butter melts, add shimeji to the pan and cook for 2 minutes.
Add garlic into the pan, mix well and cook for 30 seconds.
Add soy sauce, salt, and ground white pepper. Once the sauce is dry, turn off the heat and transfer to a serving plate.
Buna Shimeji Japanese Cooking School
Serve the shimeji stir fry immediately garnished with thinly sliced scallion.
Buna Shimeji Japanese Cooking
Voila! You have a quick and delicious shimeji mushroom dish. If you want, you can pair this with a plate of pasta too for a quick weekday meal.