From Chef's Table · 2015- · Reconstructed
Rice-Syrup Braised Shiitake Mushrooms
Serve when
Serve when the Buddhist monk Jeong Kwan explains, half-amused, that the dish she cooks daily and never eats has become the one she's known for.
In the series
Volume 3
- S3E1 · ~00:18:05 Jeong Kwan braises shiitake mushrooms in a slow rice-syrup reduction at her mountain hermitage, describing it as the dish she's become known for despite no longer eating it herself
In the series
Jeong Kwan cooks this dish daily at her temple as an offering, though as a practicing monk she no longer eats meat-adjacent umami-heavy food built to be craved — and she says outright that the dish she's most identified with is one she's given up. The episode treats that contradiction, someone perfecting a food they don't taste, as the whole point of temple cooking discipline.
Ingredients
Method
- Combine the rice syrup, soy sauce, water, and ginger in a wide pot and bring to a gentle simmer.
- Add the shiitake mushrooms whole or halved if large, making sure they're mostly submerged.
- Simmer uncovered over low heat, turning occasionally, until the mushrooms have absorbed most of the liquid and turned deeply glazed and dark, 30 to 40 minutes.
- Stir in the sesame oil in the last few minutes.
- Serve warm or at room temperature, finished with sesame seeds.
Substitutions
- Rice syrup: Jocheong (Korean rice syrup) can be hard to find outside a Korean grocer. Light corn syrup thinned with a little water, or honey cut with rice vinegar, both approximate its mild sweetness without rice syrup's specific malty note.