My third mushroom fries recipe. There’s plain mushroom fries (which requires a dipping sauce), there’s the version inspired by Taiwanese popcorn chicken and, now, this.
What makes mushroom fries so good? Two reasons.
- The texture. The light batter turns crisp during frying.
- The versatility of oyster mushrooms. They have a very delicate flavor — bland, in fact — and that means you can season them differently each time.
If you’re wondering if teriyaki sauce isn’t too thin to coat the fried battered mushrooms, well, there’s a trick so simple that you won’t mind the extra time and effort.
You pour the three ingredients required to make teriyaki sauce — soy sauce, sake and mirin — into a sauce pan and simmer them until reduced by more than half. As the mixture simmers, it thickens. So, you want it to reduce to a syrupy consistency. Not too thick as it thickens some more as it cools. When it reaches the thin syrup stage, turn off the heat and let it cool.
While the sauce cools, prep and cook the mushrooms. These are oyster mushrooms. They have lots of grooves and crevices to catch the batter. If you substitute mushrooms with smooth caps, the batter will just slide off. So, oyster mushrooms.
Place the mushrooms in a mixing bowl (you might want to tear large ones into smaller pieces), crack a small egg over them, toss well, add potato starch and toss again making sure that every piece of mushroom is coated with egg and starch.
Don’t add salt because the teriyaki sauce that you will toss them in later is sufficiently salty. Salting the mushrooms before frying will make them excessively salty by the time you serve them. So, no salt.
Heat up oil in a wok or frying pan and cook the battered mushrooms over medium-high heat until the batter is crisp and golden. Depending on the size of your pan and the amount of mushrooms you’re going to cook, you may need to do this in batches so that the mushrooms can swim freely in the oil without sticking to each other. Drain the fried battered mushrooms in a strainer.
Dump the fried oyster mushrooms into a mixing bowl, drizzle the cooled reduced teriyaki sauce over them and toss.
Teriyaki mushroom fries
Ingredients
Teriyaki sauce
- 3 tablespoons Japanese soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons sake
- 3 tablespoons mirin
Mushrooms
- 250 grams oyster mushrooms
- 1 small egg
- ⅓ cup potato starch
To cook and garnish
- cooking oil
- 1 tablespoon finely sliced scallions
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
Instructions
- In a small sauce pan, simmer the soy sauce, sake and mirin until reduced by a little more than half. Set aside to cool.
- In a mixing bowl, toss the mushrooms with the egg.
- Add the starch and toss thoroughly to distribute evenly.
- In a wok or frying pan, heat enough cooking oil to reach a depth of at least two inches.
- Over medium-high heat, fry the mushrooms in batches until golden and crisp, and move to a strainer.
- Dump the mushrooms into a clean mixing bowl, drizzle in the reduced teriyaki sauce and toss.
- Garnish the teriyaki mushroom fries with toasted sesame seeds and sliced scallions before serving.
