Mushroom substitute

[uniqueenigma]

I found a recipe for Japanese simmered mushrooms. Originally the recipe calls for matsutake mushrooms; however these are available only in Japan (to my knowledge) and even in Japan they're only available during certain times of the year. When they are, they're very pricy.

What can I use as a substitute? In the original recipe, you just combine all your sauce ingredients in a saucepan, bring them to a boil, then add your mushrooms whole and let them simmer covered.

I was thinking of using a combination of whole shiitake and baby portobellos. Advice and input regarding this would be much appreciated. Thank you!

Below is the original recipe:

20 fresh matsutake mushrooms
2/3 cup good-quality sake
4 tablespoons dark soy sauce
2 1/2 tablespoons Mirin
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar

Clean the mushrooms with a mushroom brush.

In a saucepan, combine the sake, soy sauce, mirin and sugar and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add the mushrooms. Simmer for 7 minutes. Removemushrooms and use in a salad immediately or with grilled meats.

 

[Jeekinz]

There's an American variety that can be purchased dried or fresh in the Fall months.

Link

The foundation of that dish is that specific mushroom, so a substitute will not yield the same result.

 

[BreezyCooking]

While I agree that not using the specific mushroom won't yield the same result, I do think that you'd still get an extremely delicious result from using whatever "wild"-type mushrooms available - i.e. shitake, oyster, maitake, etc.

Experiment - you might really like what you end up with.

 

[GB]

I would think you could use many different types of veggies with this. No it will not be the same, but lots of things could work here.

 

[DramaQueen]

I purchased matsutaki mushrooms from Whole Foods in my area, at least that's what the label said. They are pricey and I know they were dried. But when any mushroom is dried it weighs far less so don't let the price per pound scare you. It takes a whole load of dried mushrooms to make up a pound.

 

[QSis]

Wow, I'd never heard of matsutake mushrooms before! Oh man, now in addition to truffles, I have another fungus I want to try but can't afford!

Thanks a LOT, UE!

Lee