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Black Mushrooms, Seafood Mushrooms And Bok Choy In Oyster Sauce
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When I was a child, (many decades ago 🙂 , I, like most kids, hated nearly all vegetables with a passion. Later, grown up and being a professional cook, I realized early on that this was no fault of the poor veggies, but entirely the fault of our mothers, who usually cooked the crap out of vegetables, did not season them properly and mostly looked at them as a sideshow who did not deserve the respect the protein served in a meal deserved.
I was lucky to visit, live and work in Asia, South East Asia, India and the Orient early in my professional life, at which point my negative attitude towards vegetables was changed to an attitude of love, respect and admiration.
Meanwhile, in Europe, with the advent of novelle cuisine in the 70’s, the approach to vegetables had changed and we are now lucky to see, eat and enjoy vegetables in a completely new light. Compared to before, this changed to include vegetables in prettier, lighter, tastier and healthier food preparations, either on their own or as part of a meal.
Since then, while the average home cook (mostly) still does not understand the beauty of fresh vegetables and herbs, at least many professional chefs have seen the light and pay the simple veggie the respect, attention and love they deserve.
Nowadays, everybody and their sister touts the health benefits of fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs. Unfortunately, most home cooks and professional cooks do not pay enough respect to cook them properly, so that they are not only healthy, but also delicious and beautiful to look at.
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Today’s featured dish is a typical example how ordinary vegetables and fungi can easily and without much culinary finesse be transformed into a wonderful, beautiful and delicious dish fit for a king/queen. 🙂
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P.S.
Chinese black mushrooms (shiitake), Chinese seafood mushrooms (enokitake), Bok Choy (bak choy, bakchoi), etc, etc…….. 🙂
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P.P.S.
The only rice I had in my cupboard was Arborio. If you look closely at the cooked rice, you will see the difference of the short grain used here and the long grain typically used in Chinese restaurants.
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Bon Appétit ! Life is Good !
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Click here for Chinese Steamed Rice Recipe (Fan) on ChefsOpinion
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Click here to find out about Which Type Of Rice Is Used In Chinese Cooking
(Hint – short-, medium-, and long-grain is used)
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Click here for Rice Varieties From Around The World
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Black Mushrooms, Seafood Mushrooms And Bok Choy In Oyster Sauce
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Black Mushrooms, Seafood Mushrooms And Bok Choy In Oyster Sauce
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Black Mushrooms, Seafood Mushrooms And Bok Choy In Oyster Sauce
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Black Mushrooms, Seafood Mushrooms And Bok Choy In Oyster Sauce
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Black Mushrooms, Seafood Mushrooms And Bok Choy In Oyster Sauce
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Preparation :
To read instructions, hover over pictures
To enlarge pictures and read instructions, click on pictures
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- blanch, shock, drain 6 ea small stalks of bok choy. cut into quarters
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- prepare “Fan” – 3 cups of rice of your choice, prepare according to link “Fan” on this page
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- prepare sauce by mixing 1 cup oyster sauce, 1 cup soy sauce, 1 cop chicken stock, 1/2 tsp grated ginger, 1 tsp garlic paste, 1 tsp chili oil, 1 tsp brown sugar and 1 tsp (or to taste) chili paste, mix well
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- prepare a cornstarch slurry from 2 tblsp corn starch and 3 tblsp chicken stock
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- remove stems from12 oz fresh black mushrooms, cross-cut the top, discard the stems
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- saute the mushrooms in 2 tblsp peanut oil until starting to change color
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- add the sauce, simmer for 1 minute, remove from the heat, let the mushrooms steep in the sauce for at least 15 minutes
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- place the blanched bok choy and 5 oz raw seafood mushrooms in a steamer or colander, place in a steamer and steam covered until just heated through
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- Mushrooms steeping in sauce, bok choy and seafood mushrooms heating, rice resting
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- Chinese Steamed Rice Recipe (Fan)
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- bring the mushrooms and sauce to a simmer, add enough of the cornstarch slurry to lightly thicken, add the bock choy and seafood mushrooms, cover all in sauce, check / adjust texture and taste
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- Black Mushrooms, Seafood Mushrooms And Bok Choy In Oyster Sauce
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- Black Mushrooms, Seafood Mushrooms And Bok Choy In Oyster Sauce
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- Black Mushrooms, Seafood Mushrooms And Bok Choy In Oyster Sauce
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- Black Mushrooms, Seafood Mushrooms And Bok Choy In Oyster Sauce
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- Black Mushrooms, Seafood Mushrooms And Bok Choy In Oyster Sauce
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- Black Mushrooms, Seafood Mushrooms And Bok Choy In Oyster Sauce
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ChefsOpinion 
I’m a mushroom fan so anything with mushrooms appeals to me.
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Anneli,
I especially love this particular dish 🙂
Other favorites include chanterelles, straw mushrooms, cepes.
However, as a retired cook with a limited budget, the sky high prices prevent me from preparing them more often 😦
Still – Life is Good ! (As long as pasta stays cheap 🙂
Cheers !
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Hoorah! Vegetables given truly considerate treatment! Not that you don’t always treat them well – but here they are the stars of the show. I echo your comments about vegetable mistreatment in the kitchens of so many of us. The lady who looks after me (no euphemisms) and helps me with work originates from Pakistan, is a superb cook and has taught me a lot about vegetable cookery and how to enjoy it. And it’s good for me (which is a little worrying!)
We must learn not just to boil the poor devils! There are so many other ways, and I am hoping that my favourite Chinese restaurant will show me how to prepare their salt-and-pepper mushrooms, which just pop in the mouth, letting forth flavour, texture and, as a result, happiness at the table. I was taught to cook Basmati rice by a Sei Lankan, I found, in Kuwait, that different harvests of rice had differing qualities, like vintages of wine; and my friend, who immigrated here at the age of four, has helped me to put so much more of this together
I am no vegetarian; but I have learned a new respect for, and enjoyment of, vegetables.
Go for it, Hans, and let us have more vegetable delights, if you please.
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Peter,
will do 🙂
P.s.
Would you like them with or without shrimp ???
Just kidding.
Cheers !
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Thank you!
Crustaceans are unnecessary. Incidentally, when, as a small boy, I went shrimping with a net, the creatures were very small. The next size up were known as prawns; and later on I discovered Dublin Bay prawns, gambas and langoustines (the latter almost the size of a juvenile lobster. Over there, they are all classified as “shrimp”, it seems, even though the correct word in the plural is “shrimps”
Here endeth the semantic rant!
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Hi again, Peter<
These links should clear up some of the confusion :
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https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/langoustine
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https://www.foodandwine.com/seafood/shellfish/whats-difference-between-shrimp-and-prawns
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"Pull this question out in a roomful of chefs, and you'll have a brisk fistfight on your hands!
Generally it goes like this:
This term has several definitions:
1. "Prawn" is most commonly used to describe a species of shellfish that is part of the lobster family. These prawns have minuscule (very small) claws and bodies shaped like tiny Maine lobsters. Their meat has a sweet delicate flavor. They are 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 centimeters) long and have pale-red bodies deepening to dark-red tails.
Included in this definition of "prawn" are Dublin bay prawn, Danish lobster, Italian scampi, langostino (Spanish), langoustine (French), Caribbean lobsterette, and Florida lobsterette.
2. "Freshwater" prawns are prawns that migrate from saltwater to freshwater to spawn (lay eggs). They look like a cross between a shrimp and a lobster. Their abdomens are narrower and legs are longer than those of shrimp.
3. The term "prawn" is also loosely used to describe any large shrimp, especially one that weighs at least one-fifteenth of a pound…
…So!"
Also, while the plural of shrimp is shrimps, "Shrimps" is seldom used on a menu, at least here in the good old USA, where most folks don't appreciate "proper" English 🙂
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Again, thank you. Even though poor Mr Webster cannot spell (!) I am glad that you understand the terminological differences. What you refer to as “scallions” we refer to as “spring onions” – and so it goes on. The concern here would be (assuming that inspectors could tell the difference) that to put prawns in shrimp pâté, or to put shrimps in a prawn cocktail might result in a prosecution by the local authority for misdescription – sillier things have happened!
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