ingredient stalker: what are chinese black mushrooms (shiitake mushrooms)?

Chinese Black Mushrooms or 香菇 (xiāng gū), are medium-size brown mushrooms that have a strong, meaty flavor. They taste good in soups, stir-fried in vegetables (I stir-fried them with snow peas and chicken broth in the video above), or sliced-up and thrown into a lettuce salad. If you've never heard of them, you've probably heard of Shiitake Mushrooms which is their Japanese name. Contrary to what you might think, you should buy the mushrooms dried rather than fresh. The drying process intensifies the flavor and makes them taste better. Fresh ones can taste a little ho-hum. In the video above, I show you how to prepare Chinese Black Mushrooms, talk about some of their health benefits, and we have a blind taste test to see, once and for all, if re-hydrated mushrooms taste better than fresh.

Chinese Black Mushrooms or Shiitake Mushrooms can be found at most grocery stores these days. Oddly, fresh mushrooms are what I find the most but if you go to an asian grocery you can find the dried version.

ingredient stalker: what is dragon fruit?

Here's a short video about how to select and prepare Dragon Fruit (火龙果, hǔo lóng gǔo), a funny looking fruit that doesn't get the attention it deserves! You can buy Dragon Fruit at specialty grocery stores or Asian markets. When selecting, pick firm dragon fruits with a bright red peel color and green (not brown) tips. It has a sharp, sweet taste kind of like a kiwi-- great for salads and salsas. 

ingredient stalker: what is lotus root?

Lotus root (藕,ǒu)  is my favorite vegetable. Actually a root vegetable, it looks kind of like giant white sausage links and grows in the mud at the bottom of lakes. It has a crunchy texture like water chestnuts and a subtle flavor similar to a potato. Check out the video above for some pointers on where to find lotus root and how to prepare it.

There are a ton of ways to eat lotus root: boil it in soups, deep-fry and stuff it, stir-fry with other vegetables, eat it raw in salads, or sweeten it with sugar and fruit. Here's a simple and quick recipe for stir-fry lotus root. It's the same recipe I make in the video.

(藕,ǒu) Simple Stir-Fry Lotus Root

2 lb. lotus root (fresh or canned)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon chili sauce or fermented bean paste

Peel the lotus root and slice into 1/8"-thick slices. Heat up the oil in a wok over medium heat. Add the lotus root slices and stir-fry for 7 minutes, or until the lotus root is cooked through but still a little crunchy. Toss in the salt and chili sauce and stir-fry for 30 more seconds. Serve.

ingredient stalker: what are bamboo shoots?

Bamboo shoots (竹笋尖, zhú sǔn jiān) are the tender edible shoots that sprout out from the ground when bamboo is just starting to grow. Bamboo is actually a grass and there are over 1500 species but not all have edible shoots. I learned this the hard way the first time I came back from China and wanted to cook Chinese food for my family. I went in the backyard and pulled some of the bamboo plants growing next to the shed and brought some back in the kitchen. I was rinsing them in the sink when my dad (a biology major and botanist wannabe) said something like, "doesn't bamboo contain cyanide? Are you trying to kill us?" I did some research and found out that my dad was right. Most varieties have low levels of cyanide in them. The cyanide can be removed by boiling the shoots to leech the poison out, but I don't recommend it. What if it didn't?   

Edible bamboo shoots vary in size from large foot-long shoots to tiny slender shoots. They have a sweet and sour taste similar to artichoke hearts. You can find the sliced versions canned at most western supermarkets and whole shoots (canned and fresh) can be found at asian grocery stores. They taste great in salads or thrown in a stir-fry for extra fiber and potassium. I have yet to see bamboo shoots catch on as an ingredient in Western food dishes... but they should. You can however find bamboo bed sheets and bed bath and beyond and other similar stores in the states. Mary Kate loves them, they're too soft for me.  In China, bamboo is also fashioned into chopsticks, food, furniture, water pipes, helmets, music instruments, paper, and the list goes on and on. 

On a side note, I recently saw the new movie District 9 and I was struck by how much the aliens' facial tentacles resembled slender bamboo shoots. I did some field research and have concluded that Peter Jackson got his inspiration for the Aliens from canned bamboo shoots.  See my findings HERE.

Here's a photo of canned bamboo shoots...

 

ingredient stalker: what is taro?

Selecting taro: choose firm taro roots that do not show signs of mold or have shriveled skins.

I really missed eating dairy my first year living in China. I love cheese, yogurt, milk, and ice cream, but there aren't many dairy foods in the Chinese diet. I eventually found a man who would deliver yogurt to my apartment door every other day from an icebox on the back of his tricycle. I also discovered a corner store that sold Nestle ice cream bars. The ice cream bars came in two flavors: chocolate-vanilla and lavender colored "ube."  I assumed ube was grape flavored because of its purple color but it actually tasted something like roasted hazelnuts. I had no idea what ube was but I was hooked. These little ice cream bars were a contributing factor to the 20 lbs I packed on that year.  I found out later that ube is a tuber very similar to taro. Taro is a common flavoring in foods in China.  

Taro, 芋头 (yu tou), is a leafy tropical plant with underground root-like tubers. It's poisonous if its large leaves or tubers are eaten raw. I think they should put a warning sign or a sticker on taro at the market... "this can kill you. Cook first!" If cooked, taro is actually really nutritious (iron, potassium, vitamin C). Its tubers look like miniature coconuts or hairy sweet potatoes. In China, taro is a common ice cream flavor (it's as addictive as chocolate ice cream in my book, I love it), there's also taro bubble tea, taro ice cream, popular taro root cakes during Chinese New Year, McDonalds sells a taro flavored pie, and taro tubers are incorporated into many other traditional dishes.

We're cooking fried sugared taro tonight. 

-Nate