Shiitake

Shiitaké

What it is

For a thousand years, Japanese and Chinese growers have coaxed shiitake from oak logs — shii is the tree, take the mushroom. Dried, it becomes one of the deepest umami sources known, the quiet power behind countless broths.

In the kitchen

The stems are tough but full of flavour: keep them for stock, and score the caps to help them drink the sauce.

Goes with

Soy sauce Ginger Rice Miso Garlic Sesame

Same species

Dried shiitake (donko)

Also used with

Dangmyeon Disodium guanylate Hoba leaf (magnolia leaf) Honkarebushi Komatsuna Breton kombu

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