Posts tagged Mushrooms
Teriyaki Chicken Stuffed Mushrooms

Have you ever had Chinese-style baked stuffed mushrooms? When I was growing up, it was a popular appetizer at Chinese and tiki restaurants my family frequented. Usually filled with a sesame-accented pork filling that became caramelized in the oven, these bite-sized morsels were hard to resist.

With February designated as National Snack Food month, I decided to create a similar dish using Soy Vay® Veri Veri Teriyaki sauce, a thick flavorful sauce with plenty of sesame oil and sesame seeds. (I started my partnership with Soy Vay last month and have been experimenting with a few of their sauces.) Instead of pork, I decided to use ground chicken as a mushroom filling. For the flavoring, I just added minced ginger, scallions, and the Veri Veri Teriyaki sauce. You simply mix together the filling, fill up the mushroom caps, brush on a little olive oil, and sprinkle extra sesame seeds on top. Then the stuffed mushrooms bake in the oven for just 20 minutes.

The mushrooms make for tasty hor d’oeuvres for parties or just a side dish at dinner. You can also mix the filling and stuff the mushrooms ahead of time, and just pop them in the oven before serving. To test the seasoning of the meat mixture, just sauté a small bit of the filling in a skillet, and adjust accordingly with salt and pepper.

Read More
Partnerships, RecipesDiana KuanChicken, Mushrooms, Recipes, Soy Vay Comments
Sichuan Wild Mushroom Sauté with New Zealand Spinach

One of the things I missed the most while traveling was having a standard stock of kitchenware. When you're bopping around from city to city, and readjusting to a new kitchen every few months, you're not going to have all necessary tools at your disposal. Especially the super heavy items, like a mortar and pestle. I went almost three years without one. If you cook for a living, that should be a crime.

I used a mortar and pestle whenever I could, like while working at The Hutong in Beijing, but for most of the last peripapetic 3 years I mostly made do with ground spices. I just couldn't justify moving around 10-pound stone objects to every kitchen I used. (Nevermind that I had at least 5 times the weight in cookbooks.) But now, ever since moving home, I've been crushing spices like a fanatic.

For anyone who craves the numbingness of Sichuan peppercorn, the whole spice will always be more satisfying than the pre-ground variety. If you have to use "crack" to describe any food item, use it for Sichuan peppercorn, instead of Momofuku desserts. So, when faced with a mountain of shimeji, king trumpet, and large shiitake mushrooms (went a little overboard at Whole Foods), I decided to sort of recreate a wild mushroom stir-fry from a trip last year to Chengdu.

Read More
BlogDiana KuanChinese, Healthy, Mushrooms, Recipes, Sichuan, Vegetarian Comments