Wooden Ear Mushroom Salad (凉拌木耳)

February 3, 2025

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This wooden ear mushroom salad is an easy and refreshing chilly appetizer that’s bursting with taste, similar to you’d discover in a Chinese language restaurant.

It’s uncommon to see wooden ear mushrooms salad on an American Chinese language takeout menu. However for those who’ve been to eating places that serve dishes extra loyal to genuine Chinese language traditions, wooden ear mushroom salad is a dish that you may’t miss.

Relying on the area, there are various methods to make a wooden ear mushroom salad. Some are extra on the spicy facet and a few are sweeter. In Northern China, we also have a model with a dressing containing mustard and honey.

At this time I need to introduce you to the wooden ear mushroom salad that my mother likes to make. It makes use of a easy soy sauce and vinegar based mostly dressing that’s savory, bitter and barely candy. Then you’ll make a sizzling aromatic oil by frying Sichuan peppercorns and drizzling it into the dressing to deliver out the flavour of the aromatics.

What are wooden ear mushrooms

Wooden ear mushrooms, or Mu Er (木耳), have a crunchy texture and darkish brown shade and are formed like ears. A uncooked wooden ear mushroom has a grassy and woody perfume, however doesn’t have a robust style as soon as cooked. Or, you could possibly say, it tastes like no matter sauce it’s served in.

Dried wooden ear mushrooms are essential merchandise within the Chinese language kitchen as a result of they’ve an extended shelf life. You may rehydrate them any time you want them and use them in salads, stir fried dishes and soups so as to add texture and shade.

For instance, wooden ear mushrooms are a key ingredient in Sizzling and Bitter Soup, Cantonese Steamed Hen, and Northern Chinese language Noodle Sauce.

You may simply discover dried wooden ear mushrooms at giant Asian markets and Chinese language grocery shops. You can too buy them on Amazon.

Wooden ear mushrooms salad substances

Listed below are the substances I exploit within the dressing:

Garlic
Mild soy sauce
Chinkiang vinegar
Sugar
Salt
Peanut oil
Sichuan peppercorns

They mix to make a scrumptious French dressing that’s savory, bitter and barely candy, stuffed with aroma.

I used some fresno chili pepper in my wooden ear mushroom salad for shade and texture. You need to use any sizzling chili pepper or candy pepper you favor, or skip all of it collectively.

Ingredients to make wood ear mushroom salad

The best way to make wooden ear mushroom salad

First, measure out the dried mushrooms and rehydrate them in heat water. As you possibly can see within the image beneath, the mushrooms broaden their dimension by rather a lot as soon as soaked. When you don’t have a scale, I’d use a small handful of dried mushrooms. It should make a correct sized appetizer as soon as rehydrated.

Combine collectively the vinegar and soy sauce dressing. Then prepare dinner Sichuan peppercorns in sizzling oil to infuse the oil with a aromatic taste. As soon as the Sichuan peppers flip darkish and the oil is sizzling, take away the peppercorns and drizzle the oil onto the sauce. This step is essential. The recent oil sizzles the sauce, bringing out the flavour of the substances. It additionally makes the sauce straightforward to emulsify, so it coats the wooden ear mushrooms a lot better.

Then you possibly can combine the sauce with the wooden ear mushrooms, chili peppers and cilantro.

NOTE:

As a result of wooden ear mushrooms have a easy floor they usually don’t soak up sauce, it’s quite common to have a small pool of sauce on the underside of your bowl. You may toss the salad just a few occasions when serving, to ensure the mushrooms are coated.

The best way to serve wooden ear mushroom salad

Wooden ear mushrooms are sometimes served as a chilly appetizer to begin a meal. Irrespective of whether or not you’re serving Steamed Pork Dumplings, Lanzhou Beef Noodle Soup, or Sichuan Boiled Fish, the wooden ear mushroom salad is a superb appetizer to accompany the meal for added texture and vitamin.

Wooden ear mushroom salad might be made forward of time and saved within the fridge for a day or two, making it a handy dish to have if you’re getting ready a multi-course meal for a cocktail party.

Different scrumptious chilly appetizers

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