As anyone who knows me will tell you–I’m a little obsessed with mushrooms. My fridge is always stocked with at least three varieties, often more, and I eat them almost every day. I will bike further than necessary, in the icy winter rain, to do my groceries at a supermarket that carries a good selection of mushrooms.
Believe it or not, the pile of mushroom of that plate actually comes from a single specimen
And the pleasure extends beyond the gustatory. I find them fascinating to look at, in all their permutations. Whenever I spot a wild mushroom, I point to it excitedly, like a kid who’s finally spotted her Easter egg, which, if you go hiking on the Northwest Coast in November, happens about every 10 seconds. It struck me this year especially, perhaps because I’ve been doing a lot of November hiking, that I wish I knew more about my cherished caps, and the living beings that produce them. Wouldn’t it be nice, too, to be able to pick a few of these curiosities to bring back home, with the confidence that I would live to tell the tale?
I was therefore delighted when I received a bag of matsutake (pine mushrooms), freshly picked from the woods, and a week later, a second bag, this time with a single pine mushroom, bigger than any I had ever seen before. My first batch of matsutake went into a quartet of chawanmushi (Japanese steamed egg custard). I hope to post the recipe someday because it’s a very beautiful dish! I vacillated a few days with my giant matsutake, then finally decided to try grilling it under my oven’s broiler.
I cut it up (slightly reluctantly) and bathed the big meaty chunks in a simple marinade of Japanese condiments, along with some nagenegi (Japanese long onion), which tastes fantastic grilled (as well as almost any other way you wish to prepare it). While my vegetables and fungi absorbed some of the flavours, I heated up my oven’s broiler on high.
I set a stainless steel rack atop a tray and arranged the pieces of mushroom and onion on the rack. After slipping the tray into the hot oven, I hovered nearby, keeping a watchful eye for the beginnings of caramelization.
The mushrooms were, in one word, scrumptious. Sweet, woodsy and incredibly meaty. The taste of them lingered in my memory for days afterwards. The pieces of naganegi were also delicious: slightly crispy and caramelized on the outside, soft and pillowy on the inside.
I can’t wait for the start of matsutake season next year. And by that time, hopefully I’ll get my act together to go pick them myself!
Joëlle
In one word: scrumptious! Wild matsutake (pine mushrooms) and naganegi (Japanese long onion), bathed in a marinade of Japanese flavours and grilled under the broiler until perfectly caramelized. Matsutake is sweet, woodsy and incredibly meaty, and grilled naganegi turns soft and pillowy under its crispy caramel coat.
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Ingredients
- 1 cup matsutake, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 naganegi, cut into 5cm-long rounds
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp mirin
- 1 tbsp shio koji (see notes)
- 1 tbsp sake
- 1 tsp grated ginger
Instructions
- Put all the marinade ingredients in a glass container and mix them well.
- Add the mushroom and naganegi and mix gently, making sure all the pieces are well coated with the marinate. Leave them to marinate for 20 minutes, mixing once halfway through.
- Set the broiler on high. Place the mushroom and onion pieces on a tray, reserving the marinade, and broil for 10-12 minutes, keeping a close eye on them, and removing the tray from the oven halfway through to turn the pieces over, and brush them with an extra coating of the marinade.
- When the pieces are lightly charred on both sides, remove the tray from the oven and serve.
Notes
hio koji (塩麹) is a lacto-fermented mixture of rice koji (rice inoculated with aspergillus oryzae spore -- the basis for many well-know Japanese ferments such as miso, sake and soy sauce). It provides enzymes and probiotics while imparting the dish with a unique umami flavour. You can substitute sea salt, himalayan salt or fish sauce. To learn more about shio koji, how to make it at home, and how to use it in the kitchen, click here.
