Easy recipe shows how to grill a mushroom so it tastes just like meat.

There are a lot of places where you can pick up Japanese recipes and cooking tips, but when they come from a manga, we always sit up and pay attention. So when the main character of Otsuki from food-focused manga 1-Nichi Gaishutsuroku Hanchou (literally “One-Day Outing Foreman”) shared a delicious way to grill shiitake mushrooms in the latest chapter, we knew we had to try it out.

▼ All you need for this easy recipe is a pack of mushrooms, a pan, and some condiments.

According to Otsuki, the key ingredient to making a delicious grilled shiitake is one simple step: do not flip the shiitake over while cooking. If you avoid doing that, you’ll have juicy, delicious mushrooms that almost taste like meat, with Otsuki describing it as “meat disguised as mushrooms”.

▼ It’s also a good idea to start with large, good-looking, fresh shiitake, and to prep them, simply cut off the base of the stems.

▼ Then place the caps facing down in a pan, and slowly grill over a medium heat.

Again, the one vital step to remember is that the mushrooms must absolutely not be flipped over. According to Otsuki, most people would think to flip, but that is a common mistake.

▼ If you resist the urge to flip and wait a few minutes, you’ll begin to see the magic happen.

Gradually, clear juices will start to emerge from within the mushroom, collecting inside the cap. In the manga, this juice is likened to the juice that comes from meat while it’s being cooked, and it’s fascinating to watch it form. It’s also the reason why the mushrooms should not be flipped over, because doing so would mean all those delicious natural juices would spill out and be lost in the pan.

According to Otsuki’s cooking method, seasonings such as soy sauce or salt should be added directly into the pooled juices, so we followed his advice and added a few drops of soy sauce.

Otsuki also says you don’t need chopsticks to eat the shiitake – instead, pick them up by the base of the stem, taking care not to spill the juices.

▼ We feared they might be too hot to handle, but thankfully, the base wasn’t that hot at all.

As we went in for a taste, we realised the hardest part about these mushrooms is eating them. It’s difficult to maneuver them into your mouth without the juices spilling, so we recommend holding a small plate underneath to catch the liquid as you bite into them. When we did eventually bite into it, a rich umami-packed broth burst out from inside.

▼ Thick meaty, and so, so juicy, it was hard to believe this was a mushroom.

▼ The shiitake was so insanely delicious it was worth cracking open a can of beer for.

It was truly hard to believe how much flavour was in the mushroom, with barely any modifications to it. Even when we tried one with nothing but a sprinkling of salt, we felt as if we were biting into a fancy dish at a restaurant.

The shiitake are said to work with all sorts of condiments, including a knob of butter, or a topping of basil sauce and cheese. However, what we recommend trying is yakiniku sauce. Since the food-loving manga character described shiitake mushrooms as meat, we decided to try it, and it turned out to be a fantastic pairing.

More than soy sauce or salt, the yakiniku sauce attains an elite level of deliciousness, elevating the mushroom into meaty main meal territory, making it more than just a side dish.

The sauce works remarkably well by giving each mushroom a yakiniku-like flavour, but without the heavy feeling you get from eating meat. You don’t have to feel guilty about eating them either, and the mouthfeel is rich and satisfying, due to the chewy texture of the shiitake.

Though mushrooms obviously aren’t meat, they are a fantastic substitute, and eating them grilled like this is a great way to discover just how meaty they can be. It’s surprising how different cooking methods can highlight different textures and tastes, and thanks to the advice of a Japanese manga character, we now know the best way to have our ‘shrooms.

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