This stuff is really my absolut favourite! MISO FERMENTED MUSHROOMS. Jeeeez just saying this out loud my mouth starts watering. :)

So the idea of mushroom-fermenting is coming from a man who is ‘kindof’ my mentor in the world of foraging and fermenting ‘inthesametime’ – he is Pascal Baudar from LA. He has great books and also very joyful to follow him on social media as he is pretty active and loves sharing knowledge. First time i saw his ‘king oyster scallops’ and i just wanted them. All in my face. Immediately. I checked his recipe and seemed pretty straight forward. Tried it. Immediately.

Changed only one thing – well two actually – i was using some very authentic japanese miso paste and wild mustard leaves when i did my first ferments. And i also used my rye starter not sauerkraut juice. Was lucky finding some king oyster mushrooms in the local asian market. Bummmmm. After 2 days the jars had been sizzling like crazy. I shaked them vigorously time to time. After 14 days i opened the jar and … i felt love at first sight.

Here i did not find king oyster mushrooms but i got some shiitake and enoki to play. Made 3 different styles of ferments – so u can see how easy to modify and find the one u like the most.

The basic method is the same –

U have to steam your mushrooms first – otherwise you are not really be able to digest some enzyms. I dont do raw mushrooms ever anyway. So first you steam them – small pieces for 15 big ones for 20 minutes approx. I do this in my bamboo steamer. After just let it cool down so u dont harm (‘burn’) your lactobacillus in the starter or cabbage juice. All my mushrooms were around 150g approx (little enoki probably 100g).

• with the shiitake mushrooms i made my favourite fermenting mix – 1 tbsp of miso paste with couple of tbsp of shaoxing ricewine (i learned this magic touch while i was in Japan) adding a tbsp of maple syrup and a tbsp of rye starter.

• with the big enoki mushrooms i used 2 tbsp soy sauce (depending of the saltiness of your sauce) with a tbsp of maple syrup and a tbsp of rye starter

• with the baby enoki mushrooms i used 1 tsp of normal salt with foraged wild garlic, tbsp of maple syrup and the rye starter

After steaming your mushrooms you end up having ‘superclean’ food – which means you just killed all the natural occuring lacto bacterias hanging out on the surface of your mushrooms. THis is the reason why in this case u DO HAVE TO USE ANY SORT OF STARTER – like active sauerkraut juice, probiotic capsule or my sourdough starter – so u replace the killed good bacteria which can start the good fermentation after all.

Let your mushrooms cool down and add to your fermenting mix.

Prepare your clean sanitized jars and filled them with your mushroom mix. Its already smells like heaven. Your juice wont fill up and cover all your mushrooms – thats the reason why you have to keep shaking for the next 2 weeks, couple of times a day to make sure the fermentation is even in the jar.

After some days u will hear sizzling noise and small bubbles will appear in the jar (they try to escape thats why the sizzling noise). U dont need to open the jar to release the preassure – its not that high.

Nothing left but lots of patience. And … what to do with your fermented mushrooms? Well anything what u would normally do with mushrooms. I love just simply panfry them with some greens – as they already have sooooo much flavor going on and u dont really want to overpower with lots of other ingredient.

But be joyful and brave to play with them. No limits.