Posted on: Wednesday, August 15, 2001
Off the Shelf
The mushroom that adds crunch
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| Dried tree ears are easy to find in Chinatown and in some supermarkets.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser |
We don't usually eat mushrooms for their crunchy texture except for tree ear or cloud ear variety, also known as mok yee. These fungi grow on rotting logs and are dried after harvest. They don't have much flavor but will soak up the flavors of what they are cooked with. Tradition says tree ears are good for circulation and blood. To use them, soak in hot water 20-30 minutes; cut away hard portions, rinse, then chop, sliver or use whole if they are small. Tree ears will triple in size when soaked. Use them in soups (hot and sour soup is a classic), in stir-fries (they're a key ingredient in mu-shu pork) or spring roll stuffings.
