Mushroom Rice Bowl with Meat Sauce

버섯덮밥

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When my daughter was about 5 years old, she suddenly refused to eat mushrooms.

I blame it all to my husband for calling them “fungus” over a dinner table one day. “Look what we got. Fungus for dinner!” I was serving some mushrooms on the side.  He was not (and still is not) a mushroom guy. Ever since then my daughter tattooed the idea ‘mushroom = fungus = gross’ in her brain for the next 7 years.

Not every fungus is created equal. Some fungus-es are bad, of course. But mushrooms (the edible kinds) are the good guys.

Luckily my daughter grew out of her fear of eating the edible fungus. She enjoys them in many dishes now (Thanks to her mother’s countless efforts to feed her good food… :)).

Fall is a great mushroom season. You will see several different variety of mushrooms in many stores. So grab a few package and make this simple Mushroom Rice Bowl with Meat Sauce.

This is a simple one dish meal. So don’t be alarmed by the long list of ingredients. They can be put together lightening fast.

You will savor the aroma of fall mushrooms from the moment you open the pot. I used minced pork in the topping sauce but you can certainly use ground beef instead.

Rinse your rice (short grain) in water several times and drain well. Set aside.

Here are my three mushroom amigos. I used dried shiitake (soaked in water for 1 hour), oyster, and large enoki type mushrooms.

Lovely fungus, aren’t they?

I reserve the shiitake mushroom soaking water. You can use plain water instead.

Heat a little oil in a heavy bottom pot over medium heat, toast the rice for couple of minutes.

Pour the reserved mushroom soaking water (or plain water) and a large piece of dried sea kelp. Koreans call it dashima, Japanese call it kombu.

Anyway, bring them to boil.

When it reaches to a full boil, remove the sea kelp and discard.

Scatter the mushrooms over in the pot, cover with a lid, reduce the heat to low, and let the whole thing to simmer for 15 minutes. Then turn the heat off and let it rest for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook ground pork or beef in a skillet until they are no longer in pink. We are making the topping sauce to go with mushroom rice.

Pour mushroom soaking water or plain water, and simmer until water is reduced a little.

Add soy sauce,

and the rest of the topping ingredients and let them simmer for 5 minutes.

That’s all. This topping sauce is delicious enough to eat with just plain rice.

Look! our mushroom amigo rice is done. Looking good!

Gently toss the rice with mushrooms so they can get incorporated.

Scoop the rice in a serving bowl and top with the meat sauce. Mix it up, folks!! You just got a delicious yet healthy meal in your hand.

And you are supposed to give big thanks to all the fungus in the world. The culinary world would not be the same without them.

Go fungus!

Mushroom Rice Bowl

Holly Ford

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Prep Time 2 hrs

Cook Time 30 mins

Ingredients

  

• 2 cups short grain rice preferably Korean, rinsed and soaked for 30 minutes, and drained
• 6-8 dried shiitaki mushrooms soaked in water for 2 hours
• 1 package about 5 oz, 150g oyster mushrooms
• 1 package about 3.5 oz, 100g bunapi or enoki mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon grape seed or canola oil
• 2.5 cups mushroom soaking water
• 1 large piece of dried sea kelp

for the meat topping sauce

• 1/3 lb ground pork or ground beef
• 1/2 cup water
• 7 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Korean chili flakes
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon Korean plum extract optional
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
• 3 green onion finely chopped
• 1 red chili seeded and chopped

Instructions

 

• Make sure your rice is soaked at least 30 minutes and drained well.
• Take the shiitaki mushrooms out of its soaking water and squeeze out the excess water. Reserve 2.5 cups of the soaking water. Slice the shiitaki mushrooms into bite size pieces.
• Cut off the bottom end of other mushroom stems to remove dirt. Separate the mushrooms to bite size pieces.
• Heat oil in a pot over medium heat and put rice in. Toast rice until they are coated with oil, about 30 -60 seconds. Pour the reserved mushroom soaking water and the sea kelp. When the water boil and bubbles up, remove the sea kelp. Add the mushrooms and close the lid. Turn the heat down to low and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the pot sit on the stove for 5 more minutes.
• Open the lid and gently toss the rice and mushrooms together to incorporate. Serve warm with meat chili sauce to mix with.

To make the topping sauce:

• Brown the ground pork (or beef) with a little oil until no longer pink over a medium heat.
• Pour water and let it simmer until the water reduces to half. Turn off the heat. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir well.