Editor’s note: The theme of Gohan Lab is to help people make simple, tasty “gohan” (meals).

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The third choice of this series on dried food looks at dried shiitake mushrooms. Its rich umami adds depth to the flavor of simmered dishes and soups, but it takes time to reconstitute the fungus. No doubt, some readers have experienced starting to cook and then realizing they had forgotten to soak the shiitake in water beforehand.

This is where sliced dried shiitake comes in handy as it conveniently turns soft in no time. Let us quickly saute it with cabbage and dried sakura shrimp.

Dried sakura shrimp is another dried food that expands our cooking options. Drop them in oil to cook and once a fragrant aroma rises, add the cabbage. If pasta is added, the dish will turn out Western in style. But if the dried shiitake and the water it was soaked in are added, one ends up with a flavorful dish featuring tender cabbage, fluffy shiitake and sakura shrimps that serve as an accent. The ingredients are unsophisticated yet draw out the flavor of each other.

The water used to reconstitute the dried food is a stock in its own right. If meat and vegetables are added and the water is brought to a quick boil, it will turn into a gentle-tasting soup.

ENHANCE NUTRITION

Dried shiitake comes in a variety of types. Those with caps that are 50 to 60 percent open are roundish and thick and called “donko,” while those that are 80 percent open and thinner are known as “koshin.”

Keiji Hoshina, senior adviser to the Tokyo-based Dried Food Association of Japan, says, “Donko is suited to ‘takiawase’ (dish whose ingredients are cooked separately but served together), while koshin works well in dishes like ‘chirashi-zushi’ (sushi rice topped with various ingredients).”

Many dried shiitake marketed today are machine-dried and have not been exposed to the sun. The amount of vitamin D is said to increase when the reverse side of the cap is exposed to sunlight for about an hour before being soaked in water. After it is reconstituted, the stem of the shiitake also produces tasty stock.

BASIC COOKING METHOD

(Supervised by Katsuhiko Yoshida in the cooking aspect and Midori Kasai in the cookery science aspect)

* Ingredients (Serves two)

15 grams sliced dried shiitake, 1/8 (100 grams) head cabbage, 1 tsp dried sakura shrimps, 2 Tbsp sake, 1/4 tsp salt, 2 Tbsp cooking oil, 2 Tbsp water used to reconstitute shiitake

1. Place dried shiitake and 300 ml water in plastic bag and leave for 30 minutes (PHOTO A). If time permits, bag can be left in fridge overnight.

2. Cut cabbage into strips that are 5 mm wide (PHOTO B).

3. Pour oil to frying pan on medium heat. Add sakura shrimps right away. When they start to sizzle and aroma rises, add cabbage and saute.

4. When oil has coated cabbage, turn off heat and add dried shiitake whose water has been squeezed out (PHOTO C). Turn on stove again to medium heat. Add sake and salt and cook further. Add water used to reconstitute and it is done when the ingredients have turned moist overall.

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Katsuhiko Yoshida is the owner chef of Jeeten, a restaurant in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Uehara offering Chinese home cooking.

Midori Kasai is a professor at Ochanomizu University and chairwoman of the Japan Society of Cookery Science.

ARRANGED VERSION

Create a soup rich in ingredients and the umami of the whole shiitake. Soak 15 grams of sliced dried shiitake in 300 ml water. Cut a Chinese cabbage leaf (100 grams) into strips that are 5 mm wide and 3 cm long. Add 300 ml water and 50 grams ground chicken in a pot and loosen the meat thoroughly before turning on the stove. This way, the ground meat is less likely to clump when cooked.

Over medium heat mix occasionally so meat does not stick together. When content comes to a boil, add Chinese cabbage, dried shiitake, water used to reconstitute it and cook for some time. Add 1 Tbsp sake, two pinches salt and bit of white pepper and lower heat when soup comes to a boil. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes until Chinese cabbage is tender. It serves three to four people.

COOKERY SCIENCE

Although the more the dried shiitake absorbs water the softer it becomes, water absorption is reduced if the water temperature is high. Its umami component (guanylic acid) also increases along with water absorption. But since the degradation of the acid progresses if the water temperature is high, the shiitake should be reconstituted in the fridge at around 5 degrees.