Weekday meals are always hard to prepare. We get home from work, maybe had a long commute and still have work ahead of us...making dinner.
Recently, I made minced pork stuffed in shitake mushrooms. This dish just reminds me of simple home cooking and is one that I remember my mom making every so often. For special occasions she would top it with carrots cut into the shape of old Chinese coins or modify it using black moss seaweed. Usually there is no written recipe so I had to experiment and come up with my own proportions. This dish does require some planning as the dried shitake mushrooms have to be soaked either the night before or early in the morning. But, the recipe is fairly quick and can be modified to make it a little more simplier or more detailed depending on how much time you have.
The final dish took a little more time than I'd like (just over 1 hour) because I added the carrots and peeled extra waterchestnuts, but here is the recipe and I'll make notes of where time saving can occur.
Minced Pork Stuffed Shitake Mushrooms
Makes 24 stuffed mushrooms
Ingredients
12- 24 Shitake mushrooms (small to medium sized)
1.5 lbs Ground pork
80g or 6 Water chestnuts
1 1/4 tsp Salt
1 1/4 tsp Sugar
1 1/2 tbsp Soy sauce
4 dashes White pepper (ground)
1-2 stalks Green (spring) onion
2 tsp Sesame oil
1 1/2 tsp Corn starch
1/2 - 1 Egg white
For the sauce afterwards
3/4 cup Reserved mushroom water
Liquid drained after steaming stuffed mushrooms
2-3 tsp Oyster sauce (depending on how salty you prefer the dish)
2-3 tsp Corn starch
2 tbsp Water
Instructions
1. Soak the shitake mushrooms overnight or at least 8 hrs in cold water. If you want to make every meatball with mushroom, use 24. I only decided to stuff 12 so didn't soak as many.
TIME SAVING: stuff less mushrooms, remaining meat can be rolled into a ball which is faster.
2. If using fresh water chestnuts, peel water chestnuts.
TIME SAVING: use canned. Mince the water chestnuts and add to pork.
3. Add salt, sugar, soy sauce, pepper to the pork and chestnut mixture.
4. Chop the spring onion and add to the pork mixture.
5. Add sesame oil, corn starch and egg white.
6. Let pork marinate.
7. Squeeze out the water from the shitake mushrooms and cut off the stems. Reserve some of the liquid for the sauce.
8. Dust the inside of the mushroom cap with some all-purpose flour.
9. Fill each mushroom cap with the pork mixture and shape into a ball.
10. Steam in steamer on high for 15-20 mins depending on the size of your stuffed mushrooms.
TIME SAVING: Use this time to make a side dish of vegetables or wash dishes.
11. Drain the juices from the steamed stuffed mushrooms and add to a small saucepan. Add the reserved mushroom liquid (about 3/4 cup).
TIME SAVING: Omit making the sauce (steps 11-14). The stuffed mushrooms should have a enough flavour on it's own but the dish looks less polished without a thickened sauce.
12. Heat liquids and oyster sauce until boiling.
13. Mix the cornstarch and water.
14. Add cornstarch mixture to mushroom liquid until sauce is thickened. You might not need all the cornstarch mixture. Once thickened, pour over stuffed mushrooms and serve with a side of rice and your choice of vegetables.
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Modifications
I had a carrot in the fridge so I decided to "pretty up" the dish by cutting out some flower carrots to add to each stuffed mushroom.
How to:1. Peel the carrot.
2. Microwave for 1 minute (to slightly soften).
3. Cut into coins (thin slices).
4. Use cutter to cut each slice or several slices at a time. If you're skilled in vegetable carving, you can carve the carrot into desired shape and then cut into slices.
5. Top each stuffed mushroom with a carrot slice before steaming.
