Mushrooms in a Beef Sukiyaki Blanket - a Japanese-inspired Recipe

We've all heard of pigs in a blanket. But have you heard of "mushrooms in a blanket"? Just imagine - finely chopped tender and juicy shiitake mushrooms wrapped in a thin beef sukiyaki, sauteed, then topped with green onions. On the side - a delicious Japanese soy sauce and radish dipping sauce. All the ingredients on their own have a distinctive taste. When cooked together, they hold their personalities, but also create a harmonized treat! :)

The name of this recipe is just something I conjured, but the dish itself is inspired by something I ate at a Japanese restaurant some few months ago. This is the perfect thing to have as an appetizer but it can actually serve as an entree as well, given its ingredients. Consider serving this especially for the month of April as we all celebrate Mushroom day on April 16!

The mushroom family is a big one with extended cousins and aunts twice removed. The Japanese cuisine focuses on a small subset of those but if you had the power to decide - Which mushroom tickles your palate the most?

My pick? I'd narrow down to three - shiitake (why else would I make a recipe featuring them?), portabello (the steak of all mushrooms!), and Matsutake. The first time I tried matsutake was inside a soup - dobin mushi. Imagine a broth infused with a generous amount of matsutake mushrooms. The soup was served inside a teapot. Each small teacup shot of soup was divine!

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Serves: 3

Chop up your mushrooms very finely. You will need around 1 teaspoon of chopped mushrooms per beef sukiyaki strip so base your amount of mushrooms from there. Once they're chopped, heat up your pan with a bit of oil (canola, sunflower, or corn oil works best; I generally don't use olive oil for Asian recipes) then once the pan is hot, put in your chopped mushrooms and stir them around till they get tender.

Time for the fun (but slightly tedious) part! Get a big plate (or a big tray would be even better!) Place your sukiyaki strips one by one. Then scoop up around a teaspoon of the sauteed mushroom goodness and lay it out in a nice thin column on the center of the strip.

Then, start rolling!

Heat some oil in a wok then carefully place the rolls to shallow fry them. Don't fry too many at the same time so they have some space in the pan to cook.

I love sauces and this Japanese dipping sauce ranks high in my list of favorites. Just get some kikkoman (no other brand would do, you have to use Kikkoman soy sauce because it has a very unique Japanese flavor). Then grate the radish finely over the kikkoman. Heat up a small saucepan and cook it a bit (just a minute or so) so the radish doesn't taste too raw.

Optional: You may also add a dash of vinegar if you would like a tart flavor

This is my favorite step. I love how everything comes together. I love even more the fact that I finally get to eat these blankets of delicious goodness! Ideally, plate up three or five of them on a plate (did you know that four isn't exactly a good number for the Japanese and Chinese? The word for four sounds like death). Pour some of the sauce over the blankets. Top with chopped green onions.

DIG IN! And enjoy! As the Japanese say, "Itadakimasu!"

Many people, in general, think that fresh is always best. With good reason too - of course we love the idea of eating something that's been newly harvested. In the case of mushrooms, however, dried ones also have some good qualities - for instance, the flavor of the mushroom becomes more intense. In my recipe, I used dried shiitake mushrooms purely because they were more available at the time I purchased them.

What is your take on this delicious debate?

Which one's better? Dried mushrooms or fresh mushrooms?