Fried Hiratake Mushroom - 日式炸香菇

Don't we all love fried mushroom?

Today I gonna show you my Japanese style fried mushroom, using 3 coating steps: flour, egg, and panko. Panko is Japanese style bread crumbs. It comes in larger and flakier bits compared to regular store bought western style bread crumbs.

Here's what you can do if you can't find any panko around neighboring grocery stores:
Take some one day or two days old bread,
The tip here is the dryer the bread the better the crumbs you'll get.
Tear the bread into smaller pieces and toss them into a food processor.
Just keep pulsing till desired size, store with tightly sealed Ziploc.

Ingredients?

20 hiratake mushroom
5 cups of vegetable oil
Some all purpose flour
1 to 2 eggs
Some panko
Some black pepper
Some salt
Some yuzu kosho (yuzu pepper)
Some dried seaweed flakes
Some other power seasonings if desired

How?

Thoroughly rinse the mushroom and dry well with paper towel -

Have three deep plates ready,
Put some flour in one plate, beat one egg in one plate, and panko in last plate,
Here we have our little assembly line.

Take the mushroom one at a time,
First, evenly coat it with the flour,
Give the mushroom a quick shake to get rid of the excess flour,
Dip into the egg wash,
Finally, evenly coat the mushroom with panko then set aside,
Repeat the steps till all the mushroom are ready to go.

Try to use one hand while coating the mushroom with flour and panko,
Use the other hand while dipping the egg wash,
That way you get one hand dealing with dry ingredients, the other with wet ingredient,
This will prevent some gooey lumps from sticking all over your fingers.

Pour 5 cups of vegetable oil into a deep medium sized pot,
Turn to high heat and wait till the oil just started to get bubbly,
Fry the mushroom in 2 to 3 batches, till the color turned slightly browned on the edges.

While frying the mushroom, line a big plate with paper towel,
Once the mushroom are done, remove from oil and transfer to that plate,
The paper towel will help absorbing the excess oil from the veggie.

The seasoning part is totally up to you,
Here are some suggestions:
Seaweed flakes,
Yuzu kosho,
Black pepper and salt mixture,
Dried Italian herbs,
Paprika,
Curry powder.

The list goes on, I bet you can even sprinkle some cheese powder and make it into an afternoon snack.

My favorite is seaweed flakes with either yuzu kosho or black pepper & salt mixture,
If you have other ideas, share with me please, so I can savor your creation with my imagination!

Cindy's Rating: 9