When we finished Part 1 we had just harvested our first crop that gave us enough Shitake mushrooms at one time to preserve. Today I will walk you through the process that I decided to use.
After reading about the different methods that could be used, I settled on freezing them. It's a very easy and straight forward process.
Here you can see some of the whole mushrooms to the right of the cutting board and then in the forefront you see that I have sliced the Shitakes in medium to thin slices.
This bowl was full when I finished slicing the mushrooms for processing.
I then put a few handfuls into boiling water for two minutes.
At the end of the two minutes, I used a slotted spoon and moved the Shitake slices to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.
Next step was to remove from ice water into the colandar to drain.
Then I used paper towels to pat them as dry as I could get them.
Once I had them as dry as I could get them, I placed them on a baking sheet for flash freezing them. The only stipulation given is that they can't touch one another on the pan. Then they go into the freezer for a couple of hours until they are frozen solid. Once they are frozen they are not hard to remove from the tray.
Then I just put them in quart freezer bags and returned them to the freezer.
Sorry, no picture for that step.
HOWEVER...
I did have a small pan of them that I kept in the freezer because I wanted to see how they turned out once they were cooked up since I still had another bag to process. So, I thawed them out in the pan that were in the freezer in and...
fried them up in a bit of butter and seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
They were delicious, so Strongheart and I decided that is the way we will preserve them so we can enjoy them all winter long. My fear was that perhaps they would be slimy...but they were not. I'm guessing that comes from doing the par boil and ice water before freezing. So yummy!
Shitakes are used in many Asian countries in place of meat. They have both the texture and taste of meat...
So...there you are...Shitake mushrooms from Farm to Table!
Very interesting. I wouldn't have thought that mushrooms would freeze that well. It's all in the preparation, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI know. I was a bit leary about it myself. But keeping out that one pan, thawing the mushrooms and frying them up definitely convinced us both that freezing was the way to go. I'm guessing that it had to do with the par boiling and then putting them in ice water that made the difference.
Deletethat looks so delicious!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Karen. They are so good. 😋😋
DeleteThey look heavenly!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Tina.
DeleteThose are bigger than I thought they were. Kind of sounds like how I freeze my green beans. They look really yummy in that frying pan too!
ReplyDeleteActually, you can cut the mushrooms to any size that you want, but because I was doing the par-boiling I left them a larger size.
DeleteLooks like they turned out great. Quite a process and nice that you will be eating them all winter.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Karen. We were pleased. Carroll said that he read that if we wait 8 weeks (I think) and then soak the logs again that we will have another bloom this fall! Then we will definitely have enough for winter!
DeleteThat's really quite an easy way to preserve them. I'm glad they tasted good. And I saw your comment about another bloom this Fall. All that waiting is paying off!
ReplyDeleteYes, it really is a good and easy way to preserve them. Yes ..the waiting is paying off
DeleteI'm glad you found the right process so that your could freeze and use them throughout the year! Nicely done!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind words, Ellen. We are looking forward to enjoying them throughout the winter.
DeleteGreat that the mushrooms freeze so well with the method you've used.
ReplyDeleteIt really is. It doesn't take long at all and for the benefits of eating Shitake mushrooms it's certainly worth the effort.
DeleteThey look delicious! So glad you are planning ahead and will be able to enjoy them all winter.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Julia. We have really enjoyed the Shitakes and are already planning to get things set up so we can give the mushroom logs a good soak in a few weeks so that we can hopefully have another bloom in the fall.
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