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Crispy Shiitakes With Chinese Steamed Bun

Shiitake Steamed Bun

Shiitake Mushrooms Rule

Here’s the thing about shiitake mushrooms, they have perfect texture via all methods of cooking and provide the perfect earthy, smokey, and nutty flavor balance of all the mushroom kingdom. Crispy Shiitakes therefor are the ultimate way to prepare shiitake mushrooms, at least in my opinion, because they really hold in texture when fried and have amazing flavor profiles.

The next catch is to then pop these crispy shiitakes into a Chinese steamed bun. If you’re uncertain what type of bun I’m referring to, just think of the taco looking white buns that typically come to the table when ordering peking duck.  You can purchase these in the frozen food section at any asian grocery market. steamed Chinese bun

Vegan Peking Duck?

What we’re going to do now, is leave the fucking duck alone, cause we’re Vegan, and draw from the flavor profiles of shiitake, green onions, and hoisin sauce, to mirror an even better dish. The end result will leave you wanting to stuff your face with hundreds of these shiitake buns from heaven until you realize your buns are expanding in your stomach and you’ve over indulged to the point of food coma. For this reason, please be careful when eating these!

To start, we’re going to quickly prepare the green onions for the toppings later. We want to curl these green onions by slicing them real thin. thin sliced green onions

We’ll then take a small bowl filled with water and 2-3 cubes of ice to bathe the green onions in. This will aid in the curling process and remove some of the bitterness you get with eating raw onion. ice bath for green onions

If you do not have ice on hand, that’s okay! You’ll just need to throw the onions in cold water and put the bowl in the fridge. Simple as that.

An Easy Frying Batter

Next up, we’ll make the batter mix.  Batter MixThe key to a really good Vegan batter mix is to add some corn starch, baking powder, and baking soda, while using really cold water to mix everything together. To give this dish a touch more nuttiness of a flavor profile, we’ll lean on the sesame seeds and throw that into the batter as well. sesame seeds Toasted sesame seeds will really make the shiitake mushroom flavor come alive. It’s always best to use fresh shiitake mushrooms whenever you can and to prepare them for this dish, we’ll simply rinse them off and thoroughly pat them dry. Sliced shiitake mushroomsGive them a thick slicing to prepare them for the batter. I find that slicing them thick gives more of a bite to this dish, but if you like thin shiitake mushrooms, you can do that too! For easy of cooking, I like to minimize the number of dishes I use, so I just drop the shiitake mushrooms right into the mixing bowl and evenly coat them all.

Deep Fry or Shallow Fry?

While they are resting in the batter, heat up a pan with 1/2 cup of oil. I prefer to shallow fry these, so I can use less oil. The cons of shallow frying is that splatter of hot oil is inevitable, so please be careful when you start the frying process!  As a kid, my mom would always stick a chopstick into the oil and watch for the bubbles. That’s when you knew the oil was hot enough. heating oilI honestly don’t know what temperature the oil falls at, I just go by this golden rule of seeing bubbles. When the oils ready, just lay down the shiitakes gently and shallow fry them on each side for about 3-4 minutes. Shallow Fry Shiitake MushroomsI like mine really crispy, so 4-5 minutes is even okay. What you’ll want to look for is a deep golden brown color being cautious that you’re not burning them. shallow fried shiitake mushroomsThe crust should build up and the shiitake mushrooms should remain tender inside. Amazingly crispy is what we all love! When they are done, you’ll want to just lay them down on a paper towel and sprinkle them with seasoning while they are still hot.  five spice seasoning For these mushrooms, I chose to use a five spice powder, along with a touch of truffle salt. One might say I’m a little obsessed with truffle salt, but hey, who isn’t?! I don’t put a ton of salt on it either, just enough to give it that umph. We’ll draw from the salt profile of the hoisin sauce later.

The Best Steamer…Ever.

Once the last batch of shiitakes goes down on the frying pan, I’d start heating up a pot of water to prepare for steaming your Chinese buns. I received an awesome steamer by Jia Inc., as a birthday gift from my beloved sister.Jia Inc SteamerThe bamboo center rack gives a very traditional flavor profile to the steam and this steamer just looks fuckin’ sexy sitting on any stove top! Jia Inc SteamerAt any rate, you’ll want to steam the Chinese buns for about 5 minutes until they are piping hot.  steamed bunsAt this point, you’ll want to keep them hot and moist for serving. If timing isn’t right, you can just plate these buns with a warm, wet paper towel, over them to keep them nice and toasty.

Curled Green Onions!

Curled green onionsYour green onions should be super curly by now so let’s get them ready to assemble our dish. We’ll also slice up some avocado to add a little more creamy texture to the buns too. To prepare the sauce, just mix hoisin sauce with Vegan mayonnaise and that’s it! For a sauce, it really doesn’t get much easier than that. hoisin sauce

The Build

What I do is take the bun and gently fold it down flat. Then, spread a nice layer of sauce, along with 2-3 pieces of shiitake mushrooms that we’ve fried. The avocado slices go down on one side, and the whole thing gets  topped with green onions.Then, just fold them up and if you’re preparing this for an appetizer or plating these for later, use a toothpick to hold them in place. Toothpick for holding

I eat these as an entree, but you can choose to serve these as whatever type of dish you’d like. They go great with just about anything. Hell, you can even throw some kimchi in these and make the dish spicy with some Sriracha sauce. Possibilities are quite endless. Steamed Chinese Bun with Crispy Shiitakes

Well, I hope you truly enjoy this great plant based dish.  They will absolutely be a head turner at your next Vegan dinner party. Have a blast with them and remember to eat like you give fuck.

Crispy Shiitake With Chinese Steamed BunCrispy Shiitakes With Chinese Steamed Bun

Print Recipe
Deep Fried Shitake With Steamed Bun
A stunning combo of crispy shiitake mushrooms tucked away inside a Chinese steamed bun with green onions and avocado.
Servings
people
Servings
people
Instructions
Green Onions
  1. Thinly slice green onions lengthwise and place into small bowl of water. Add 2-3 cubes of ice to bowl and allow onion to sit in ice bath to aid curling process.
Batter Mix
  1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients: flour, corn starch, baking soda, baking powder, sesame seeds, and salt together. Mix to evenly distribute.
  2. Add cold water to mixture and whisk until semi-smooth. Leaving clumps is okay.
Crispy Shiitake Mushrooms
  1. Prepare shiitake mushrooms by rinsing and patting dry with paper towel. Thickly slice mushrooms and mix them into batter, coating each piece evenly.
  2. Heat oil in pan over medium-low heat. Test for readiness by placing a chopstick down and watching for bubbles. When oil is hot, place pieces of battered shiitake mushrooms down and shallow fry for 3-4 minutes per side. Look for golden brown coloring.
  3. Place finished shiitakes onto a plate with paper towel lining. Sprinkle with tiny amount of five spice seasoning and truffle salt. Repeat steps for remaining batch of mushrooms
Steamed Chinese Bun
  1. Remove 6-8 buns from package and place onto a steamer rack. Steam for 5 minutes.
  2. While waiting for buns to steam, prepare slices of avocado and hoisin sauce mixture. In a small bowl, whisk together mayonnaise and hoisin sauce for mixture.
  3. Apply a generous layer of suace to Chinese bun (both sides), and place 2-3 shiitake mushrooms in. Place two slices of avocado down on one side, along with green onion topping to finish. Fold bun together and hold in place with toothpicks if needed for presentation.

1 comment on “Crispy Shiitakes With Chinese Steamed Bun

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