The marinade in today’s recipe, Marinated Sautéed Mushrooms and Zucchini, is quite unique. It is a mixture of olive oil, shiro dashi, and yuzu koshō. The savoury aroma and umami of the sautéed mushrooms pair beautifully with the shiro dashi-based marinade, which has a slight spiciness from yuzu koshō.
Despite the oil-based marinade, the vegetables don’t taste oily at all. Perhaps the yuzu in the marinade gives the dish a refreshing taste.
The marinade is made of just three ingredients – olive oil, shiro dashi, and yuzu koshō. I used store-bought shiro dashi and yuzu koshō, so all you need to do is mix the three ingredients together.
This recipe is from the Japanese online recipe site called Nadia. I adjusted the quantities and some of the instructions. I also added more detailed instructions and notes.
Two Key Ingredients in the Marinade
I talked about shiro dashi extensively in my post Stir-fried Choy Sum with Deep Fried Thick Tofu. You can make it from scratch, but these days I often use bottled shiro dashi bought from an Asian grocery store.
Shiro dashi is so handy to have. It comes in a concentrated form and needs to be diluted to make a simmering broth. But you can also use it without diluting it, as in today’s marinade, to quickly add a great flavour packed with umami.
If you add soy sauce to diluted shiro dashi, it becomes a broth for udon and soba, as well as a dipping sauce for tempura. You can easily make many other sauces and broths with shiro dashi.
Another ready-made ingredient that I used today is yuzu koshō. You can make it from scratch by grating yuzu rind and green chillies and mixing them with some salt. Unfortunately, yuzu fruit is not easily available in Sydney, so I buy yuzu koshō in a tube. It has a softer consistency than the varieties sold in jars, and is easy to use.
Green yuzu koshō.
What’s in My Marinated Sautéed Mushrooms and Zucchini
- Zucchini
- Several kinds of Asian mushrooms
- Salt
- Olive oil.
Marinade
- Olive oil
- Shiro dashi
- Yuzu koshō.
I used five different kinds of mushrooms – king oyster mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, shimeji mushrooms, white shimeji mushrooms, and pearl oyster mushrooms. You can, of course, use other varieties of mushrooms, such as enoki mushrooms and brown shimeji mushrooms.
How to Make Marinated Sautéed Mushrooms and Zucchini
Preparation
- Thinly slice zucchini in 1-2mm/1⁄32-3⁄32″ thick rounds. Sprinkle salt over them, let them wilt, then squeeze out the excess water.
- King oyster mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms: Cut them into 3mm/⅛” thick slices.
- Shimeji mushrooms: Trim off the base of each cluster, keeping the cluster still intact. Separate the cluster into small bunches of a few stems, or individual stems if the mushrooms are large.
- Pearl oyster mushrooms: Tear the caps vertically into 2-3 pieces.
Cooking and Marinating
- Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat and sauté the mushrooms until they are wilted and partially browned.
- Mix all the Marinade ingredients well.
- Combine sautéed mushrooms, zucchini slices, and the marinade. Leave for 15 minutes or longer.
Marinated Sautéed Mushrooms and Zucchini makes a great side dish. You can also serve it as an appertiser. It keeps for 3–4 days in the fridge and can be served chilled or at room temperature.
Yumiko
The marinade in today’s recipe, Marinated Sautéed Mushrooms and Zucchini, is quite unique. It is a mixture of olive oil, shiro dashi, and yuzu koshō. The savoury aroma and umami of the sautéed mushrooms pair beautifully with the shiro dashi-based marinade with a slight spiciness from yuzu koshō.
I did not include the time to wilt zucchini in the total time because you can multi-task. You can prepare mushrooms and start cooking them while waiting for the zucchini to wilt.
- 2 zucchini (about 250g/8.8oz)
- 3 pinches salt
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 king oyster mushroom
- 5 shiitake mushrooms
- 100g/3.5oz shimeji mushrooms
- 100g/3.5oz white shimeji mushrooms
- 30g/1.1oz pearl white oyster mushrooms
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1½ tbsp shiro dashi (note 2)
- 1 tsp yuzu kosho (green, note 3)
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Cut the ends off the zucchini and slice them into rounds about 1-2mm/1⁄32-3⁄32″ thick. If you have a slicer that can cut 1-2mm/1⁄32-3⁄32″ thick slices, it is faster to use it (note 4).
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Place the sliced zucchini in a bowl, sprinkle the salt over it, and gently mix, ensuring that zucchini slices are separated and salt coats them evenly. Let them sweat for 15 minutes.
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Squeeze the water out of the zucchini slices as much as possible.
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King Oyster: If the mushroom is very long, halve it crosswise. If the mushroom is quite fat, halve it vertically. Then slice each piece vertically into 3mm thick slices.
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Shiitake: Remove the stem of each mushroom, then slice the caps into 3mm-thick/⅛ inch-thick slices.
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Shimeji: Trim off the base of each cluster, leaving the cluster still intact. Separate each cluster into small bunches of a few stems, or into individual stems if they are thick.
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Pearl White Oyster: Tear the caps vertically into 2-3 pieces.
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Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Put all the mushrooms in the frying pan and sauté. When the oil has coated most of the mushroom pieces, leave the mushrooms without stirring for a couple of minutes so that the pieces at the bottom brown on one side.
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Using a spatula, turn the mushrooms over, bringing the browned pieces to the top of the pile.
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Leave the mushrooms without stirring for another minute or two, then turn them over again. You may repeat the same action for one or two more times.
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When the mushrooms have partially wilted, occasionally mix them ensuring that every piece is wilted and cooked through. Turn the heat off.
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Put all the Marinade ingredients in an airtight container and mix well, ensuring that there are no lumps of yuzu koshō (you can do this while cooking the mushrooms).
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Put the cooked mushrooms and zucchini into the container and gently mix so that the marinade coats all the vegetable pieces.
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Place the lid on and leave it for at least 15 minutes.
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Serve it at room temperature or chilled.
1. The mushroom varieties and the proportion of the different mushrooms can vary. The dish looks particularly attractive if you use mushrooms of different colours.
2. You can use any brand of shiro dashi, but the flavour varies slightly depending on the brand. I used Yamaki brand shiro dashi, which has a strong dashi flavour.
3. I used green paste-type yuzu kosho in a tube.
4. If you are using a slicer, trim only the rounded end of the zucchini and start slicing from there. When the zucchini becomes short, hold it by the stem end and continue slicing until you reach the stem.
5. You can keep Marinated Sautéed Mushrooms and Zucchini in the fridge for 3-4 days.
You can serve Marinated Sautéed Mushrooms and Zucchini chilled or at room temperature. It is delicious served chilled, but the oil may solidify slightly. To remove solidified oil, microwave it for 5-10 seconds.
Meal Ideas
A typical Japanese meal consists of a main dish, a couple of side dishes, a soup and rice. I try to come up with a combination of dishes with a variety of flavours, colours, textures and make-ahead dishes.
The flavour of Marinated Sautéed Mushrooms and Zucchini is not 100% Western style, so almost any main dishes go well with it. I feel that matching it with a Yoshoku (Western style) dish is good, and I picked the rice gratin.
To supplement a bit more protein, I picked a soybean salad and an egg drop soup.
- Main: Prawn Doria (Japanese Rice Gratin) – or a pasta dish.
- Side dish 1: Marinated Sautéed Mushrooms and Zucchini – today’s dish, make ahead.
- Side dish 2: Soybean Salad with Carrot and Cucumber – Tuna Cabbage Salad can also work.
- Soup: Tomato and Egg Drop Soup Japanese Way – Japanese Style Egg Drop Soup (Kakitama-jiru).
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