Dried shiitake (donko)

Shiitaké séché (donko)

What it is

Donko means winter mushroom: the cap is picked young and still curled under, in cold dry weather that cracks the surface into white fissures. The drying does the real work — enzymes build the guanylate that the fresh mushroom barely carries, and sunlight turns the ergosterol in the flesh into vitamin D.

In the kitchen

Soak in cold water in the fridge, six hours or overnight; hot water is faster but drags out bitterness. Bring the soaking liquid slowly up through 60–70 °C rather than straight to the boil — that is the band where the guanylate is released — and leave the gritty last centimetre in the bowl.

Goes with

Kombu Soy sauce Hon-mirin Chicken Pork Bamboo shoot Napa cabbage Junmai sake

Same species

Shiitake

Also used with

Japanese abalone Bamboo fungus Dried lily buds Disodium guanylate Sea cucumber Dried oyster

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