Mushrooms
Dried EzoyukinoshitaA Rare Hokkaido Mushroom: Drying Time and Storage
Ezoyukinoshita is a rare mushroom cultivated in Hokkaido and sold in small quantities. It’s close to the wild form of enoki, with yellow caps, brown stems and a crunchy texture.
It’s delicious blanched and tossed with grated daikon, and it makes a good broth in miso soup and other soups. It’s rarely found outside Japan; if you can’t get it, see dried enoki, which dries the same way.
| Drying time | Storage | |
|---|---|---|
| Dry | 1–3 days | 3 weeks at room temperature |
Drying times assume drying during the day in sunny weather and bringing them in at night.
How to dry ezoyukinoshita
- Wipe clean: Don’t wash it; wipe off any dirt with a paper towel.
- Don’t cut it: Trim off only the hard base, loosen the clump a little, and dry.
- Use a fine mesh: Once dry, the stems get very thin, and on a basket or net with a wide mesh, they catch in the gaps or fall through. A finely woven bamboo basket, or a net, works best.
- Dry: Put it somewhere sunny and breezy, and bring it in by evening.
Where and when to dry is covered in How to Dry Vegetables, and tools in Tools for Drying Vegetables.
When it’s done
Dry (1–3 days)
It’s done when the stems are thread-thin and snap when pinched. The bundled part at the base dries last, so check there.
Day by day
Before drying
Day 1
Day 2
Storage
- Dry: Put completely dry mushrooms in a bag or airtight container with a desiccant, and keep somewhere cool and out of direct sun for about 3 weeks. In humid summer weather, keep them in the fridge.
- Frozen: Frozen, they keep 2–3 months.
Fuzzy white or green growth, black spots or a bad smell are signs of mold or spoilage. Don’t eat them; throw them away. More in How to Store Dried Vegetables.
Rehydrating and using it
- Always cook it: Never eat mushrooms raw. Always cook them first.
- Use it dry: Rinse quickly and add straight to miso soup, soups, hot pot or nametake (simmered in soy sauce).
- Rehydrate: To toss with grated daikon, soak in water for about 5 minutes, then blanch briefly.
Use only cultivated ezoyukinoshita sold in stores. Wild mushrooms are hard to identify and can be confused with poisonous ones, so don’t eat any you’ve picked yourself.
