In an earlier video on “How to use mushrooms in Chinese cooking” I spoke of a fear of using mushrooms.  So what better way to tackle this than to make a mushroom medley (which my hubby actually loves) with black moss (which I was also scared to use).  However, honestly, this dish is SUPER EASY and tasty!  It was amazing served with rice!

You’ll notice that a lot of these are made from dried ingredients, which means it’s pretty easy to use.  You just need a bit of planning to pre-soak, but all of these have good soak life and don’t disintegrate so you can soak in the morning to use for evening or lunch!

You can follow a video on “How to use and prepare mushrooms in Chinese cooking“.

• 5 dried shiitake mushrooms (for flavour), including the flavoured water it soaks in
• 10 dried dried chestnuts mushrooms, including the flavoured water it soaks in
• 2 small napa cabbage (or vegetable of choice) – something with a lighter taste (so the whiter / paler the vegetable is better)
• A few slices of dried tangerine peels (optional)
• 1 bunch of dried black moss
• 2 slices of fresh ginger
• 2 cloves of fresh garlic
• 1 teaspoon of soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon of oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon of corn starch (to help thicken the sauce)

1. Wash in cool water and pre-soak your dried mushrooms in separate bowls.  Use just enough water to cover them.  The longer mushrooms will absorb most of the water since expand quite a bit, but not the shiitake mushrooms so much.
2. Soak the black moss in water, ensuring it’s fully covered.  Black moss doesn’t expand that much.
3. Soak the dried optional tangerine peel
4. When the mushrooms are fully hydrated, in your cooking pan, add some oil and on medium heat, gently brown the ginger and garlic (more to bring out the flavours into the oil)
5. Pan fry the shiitake mushrooms first, browning both sides
6. Once that’s fragrant and looking lovely, you can drop in the whole bowl of the other mushrooms, including the water they were soaking in.  This will create part of the stew base.
7. I’ll take out the tangerine peel at this time and thinly slice 2-3 pieces and drop them into my dish as well. 
8. Let that cook on medium heat for 5 minutes, letting it come to a soft boil
9. Here’s when I’ll add my soy sauce and oyster sauce and let that simmer for about 5 minutes
10. Add in the fresh napa cabbage and also your black moss
11. To mix up your corn starch thickener:  Add the corn starch to half of cup of cold water and mix until it’s fully dissolved.  Then you can add this to you stew.
12. Let that simmer for 10 minutes, serve and enjoy!

Tips for this dish:

• You can pre-soak a lot of these ingredients ahead of time (first thing in the morning or when you remember) as they need to be rehydrated anyways and can stay in the water with no risk
• Always dissolve corn starch in cold water before adding it to stews.  This will ensure it’s fully dissolved and allows to thicken consistently
• To make this a truly vegetarian dish, you can replace the oyster sauce with hoisin sauce.
• Keep the mushroom water in which you hydrate the mushrooms in!  This is just as tasty and will help keep the fragrance of the mushrooms in the stew!
• This dish is saucy and savory, so perfect to be served on top of rice or noodles.
• You can follow a video on “How to use and prepare mushrooms in Chinese cooking“.