Recipe: Pan-Fried Crispy Enoki Mushrooms

• Remove the enoki mushrooms from the packaging and cut off about 1 inch from the bottoms connected to the dirt. Discard the dirt section.
• Brush off any bits of dirt with kitchen roll, a brush or your fingertips. Do not wash the mushrooms in water.
• Carefully separate the enoki mushrooms into small bunches and set them aside. If possible, leave the small bunches attached on the bottom, but don’t worry if they separate.

Coating the mushrooms:

• In a dish or bowl, combine the tapioca starch, salt, onion powder, white pepper, garlic powder and paprika and whisk together.
• Add a few bunches of enoki mushrooms to the tapioca starch mixture and toss gently to fully coat. Shake off the excess and set them aside on a plate or pan and continue with the remaining mushrooms.

Cooking the mushrooms:

• Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add approximate 2 tbsp oil and swirl to coat.
• Add the enoki mushroom bunches, a few at a time, to the skillet, sliding them around in the oil. Do not overcrowd the pan. If the mushrooms are loose and separated, bunch some together into a small bundle and lay them in the pan. They will stick together as they cook.
• Fry the mushrooms for approximately 2 minutes, until golden brown on the bottom. Flip them over. Add more oil to the pan, if necessary.
• Once the mushrooms are golden brown on both sides, transfer them to a rack over kitchen roll or in a pan. Sprinkle coarse salt over the mushrooms while they’re still hot, if desired. Continue frying the remaining mushroom bundles, adding oil to the pan as you go.
• Transfer the mushrooms to a dish and garnish with chopped spring onion, sliced chilli peppers and sesame seeds, if desired. Eat them as they are, wrap them in lettuce leaves or dip them in Thai chili sauce.
  
  

• Most packets of enoki mushrooms are 200 grams, but this can vary. The ingredient measurements for the coating are meant to be enough to coat 200g enoki mushrooms.
• Do not wash the enoki mushrooms in water. Clean off any bits of dirt with damp kitchen roll, a brush or your fingertips. They will absorb the water if rinsed and will not crisp up when fried.
• The mushrooms will absorb the oil in the pan as they cook, so be sure to add fresh oil as necessary between batches. If there is not enough oil, the coating on the mushrooms will not get crisp.
• You can slightly flatten the mushrooms in the pan so that they cook more evenly and quickly.
• Use tongs or chopsticks to lightly handle the mushrooms in the pan – they will become a bit sticky as they fry.
• Cornflour an be substituted for tapioca starch.
• Add chilli powder to the tapioca starch mixture to add some spice or simply adjust the seasonings to taste.
• If the mushrooms have separated into individual strands, simply bunch several of them up into a bundle and lay them in the pan to fry. As they cook, they will stick together.
• You can loosely toss all the enoki mushrooms with the tapioca starch mixture and lay them all at once in the skillet like a nest, flattening them to cook evenly and flipping as one pancake. Cut them into wedges to serve. They will not be as crisp as cooking the mushrooms in small bundles because the pancake will be thicker and there will not be as much surface area being fried.
• If you notice the mushrooms browning too quickly or beginning to burn, slightly reduce the heat.
• These fried mushrooms are best eaten right away.
• For detailed instructions – with images – on how to make this dish, check out the recipe on my website.
  
  

For more awesome vegetarian recipes like this, like Foodie on Facebook and visit my blog, A Day in the Kitchen