No, they are not a spice, herb or condiment per se, but did you know that pulverized, dried shiitake mushrooms can add oomph to your dishes nonetheless? I didn't, either, until Eric Gower, chef and cookbook author, taught me how to use them as a seasoning instead of rehydrating them to use in place of fresh mushrooms.
In fact, says Gower, many people prefer the taste of dried over fresh, saying they come with a purer blast of instant umami flavor.
Before you cook with them, though, you've got to buy the right ones, and to Gower the choice is clear.
"I buy large bags of dried, whole shiitake from my local Japanese market, but most Asian markets carry them," he says. "I'm prejudiced toward Japanese ones -- quality seems higher. I've had gritty unpleasantness with some cheap Chinese ones, had to throw them out."
Gower has written books on Japanese cooking, so it's no surprise that he's such a fan of the shiitake, often referred to as the "monarch of mushrooms" in Japan, according to "Shiitake: The Healing Mushroom" by Kenneth Jones.
The shiitake -- sweet-smelling with a meaty texture -- takes its name from the Japanese words "take" (mushroom) and "shii" (a type of chestnut tree on which these mushrooms are commonly found).
Here's how Gower suggests cooking with them:
First, grind them to a fine powder, and then use them in scrambled eggs (with shallots, rosemary and Greek yogurt), in pasta sauces (add toward the end of the cooking), in soup bases, with sautéed winter greens or, for true fanatics, infused in olive oil. Add a few tablespoons to a bottle of good olive oil and let it infuse for a week or two, then strain and use as you wish.
If you're more familiar with Italian than Japanese cooking, you might be wondering about porcini powder, and how it compares. Gower said that shiitake delivers more of an umami punch, although he said he has had success with porcini, too. A bigger fan, naturally, is cookbook author and restaurateur Lidia Bastianich, who looks at the comparison from the opposite perspective: "Porcini powder is much more elegant and aromatic," she told me. "Shiitake is more intense and a bit muddy."
"Porcini powder is something that has always been used in the Italian cuisine, but more as salvaging the crumbs and powder leftover from dry porcini that has crumbled in the storage process," she said. You can add dried ground porcini to soups; mix it with coarse sea salt, black pepper and sugar to make a great dry rub for meat; and sprinkle it on mashed or roasted potatoes.
