(Joyful music) (audience clapping) - Now, are you ready to have some fun?

With fun guy.

In the last few years, the variety of mushroom, I'm talking about fresh mushroom, available for home cooks have really mushroomed.

Would you believe, there are over 38,000 type of mushroom in t.. And let me show you a few that we'll be using that you can find it in all the supermarkets.

Here, of course, we have the most familiarized.

Button mushroom.

Why button mushroom?

Fresh button mushroom, We have the small shiitake mushroom, and we also have the brown button mushroom.

We have the oyster mushroom, and then of course we have the enoki mushroom.

Here, we also have some fresh cloud ear black mushroom.

And then also have slice.

You can also buy sliced mushroom in the market.

Now, and this is interesting.

This is fresh.

Wood ear mushroom, look at that.

Also called elephant ear mushroom.

And this is used in a lot of great variety of Chinese dishes.

And of all of these mushroom that we'll be using to do a number of dishes.

So!

The first dishes I'm gonna do, the first dish, I'm gonna do, show you is the triple mushroom roundup.

That means I'm gonna use three different kind of mushroom to do a variety of dishes.

Okay, here you notice that mushrooms are wonderful because mushrooms have a very delicate flavor.

And also, I would like to keep them clean and simple.

Don't do too much to mushroom because they absorb and take in a lot of the flavor.

So, you can for interesting.

This particular mushroom dish is a very simple dish and yet very, very delicious.

Okay.

First of all, I'm gonna use this.

Put this spinach.

(bowl thuds softly) Put right in here.

I'm gonna put this spinach in the bottom of the dish.

And perk up my mushroom to make it look nice and also nutrition, even more balance.

First, we're gonna have some boiling water, we're gonna put some mushroom.

I'll put some spinach right here and lose this, (bowl thuds softly) stir it a little bit (sticks clicking) with the chopstick.

So, they're nice and even.

Don't cook it over (pot clinks) too much.

Anything green, you wanna make sure to put a tiny b.. to keep that nice, green, bright pigment.

(bottle clinks) And also a teeny-tiny bit of salt to flavor it, okay?

We'll let it cook.

(hands tap) In the meantime, I'm gonna get up s.. Chinese.

(saucer thuds softly) Shiitake mushroom.

(knife clinks) Most of these mushroom (knife clinks) are beautiful.

(knife thudding) Because, (mushrooms crunching) look at that, we put this all, whole thing up.

This is shiitake mushroom fresh.

(knife clinks) Now, most of these (knife clinks) are grown in Monterey Peninsula (knife clinks) in California.

'Kay?

(knife clinking) (knife thudding) They produce some of the best mushroom.

(knife thudding) Put it right here.

(knife thudding and clinking) Set it aside.

Set it aside.

Put it right here.

(knife swishing) We sautée this.

This is the shiitake mushroom.

(knife clinks) They available all year round.

(knife clinks) And they're also have a woodsy and meaty flavor, which is very, very nice, it's got a nice brown.

They sometimes called it black (saucer thuds softly) forest mushroom, or call it golden oak mushroom.

(knife thudding) And this is of course, (knife clinks) the fresh mushroom, also from the Monterey area.

And then we cut it up.

(knife thudding) When you choose mushroom, you gotta know that (knife clinking) the size of mushroom is not the indication of quality.

Small one, medium one, big one, they are just as good.

Make sure you got some nice, firm mushroom.

(knife thudding) White, firm mushroom.

And it's firm, (knife swishes) and it's nice.

Also, (knife clinks) we've gotta pick up some oyster mushroom right here, okay?

Oyster mushroom.

So, we'll put them all together.

This is nice enough, (knife thudding) we don't, just cut it in half.

Okay?

Just cut in half.

(knife swishes) And the great thing about this, (knife clinks) why we're doing this we are going to (hands tap) stir fry our mushroom.

Now, first of all, have the tiny bit of oil, not much.

A lot of people don't realize, (glass clinks) (utensils shuffling) mushroom is also very, very high in.. And also a lot of fiber.

So, it's good for you.

In fact, mushroom, (utensils rattle) oh, let's stir fry this.

Mushroom (mushrooms sizzle) is wonderful (knife swishes) because how many you know that (mushrooms s.. mushroom was first cultivated in China?

(mushrooms sizzle) 300 BC.

And then later on, (knife clinks) (pan clinking) (mushrooms sizzling) Japan in 14 centuries.

And until 1896, is introduced into this country.

(pan thuds softly) This wonderful.

Stir, stir.

(mushrooms sizzling) (pan clinking) And then put a tiny bit of broth.

(mushrooms sizzling) (mushrooms sizzling) Okay?

And you want, (glass clinks) you can use a tiny bit of garlic and shallot to put it in, (mushrooms sizzling) and flavor it.

It gives wonderful.

(pan rattling) You can use oil or butter, or margarine, okay?

(pan rattling) Stir.

Very good.

(pan clinks) While you're stir frying this, (hands tap) you'll get ready, this (plate thuds softly) wonderful (hands tap) platter.

(mushrooms sizzling) Get this out.

And I'm gonna squeeze this.

Look at this, (plate thuds softly) very interesting.

I'm gonna squeeze this mushroom.

This, a little (mushrooms sizzling) spinach.

Right here.

Squeeze it.

Okay?

Put it right here.

(plate thuds softly) Get the water out.

And then put it right over here because we are going to use this as a bottom of a (plate thuds softly) to perk it up, (pan rattling) in the meantime, (mushrooms sizzling) toss the mushroom.

Now, shiitake mushroom and oyster mushroom, and button mushroom, the reason why (pan clinks) they're so good is because they are available all year round.

So, you can use it in a lot of dishes, (mushrooms sizzling) and shallot in.

Stir fry in (pan clinking) salt, sugar, and a tiny bit of sugar, and also thicken up with a tiny bit more extra broth and sesame seed oil.

And then (bottle thuds softly) we'll thicken it up.

Very, very good.

(stirrer clinking) The great thing about mushroom, it's, of course, you can stuff them, (pan rattling) you can stir fry them, and the whole thing is (pan clinks) fresh triple mushroom roundup, (pan rattles) is right here.

(mushrooms sizzling) Ohh.

Sizzling, hot, light, and delicious.

And most of all, absolutely healthy.

(audience claps) Now, (hands tap) we just have show you how to do a t.. with all the fresh mushrooms.

Everybody in this country or around the world, love the Chinese style fried rice.

And this is a lighter version called the Jasmine rice with shiitake and fresh oyster mushroom.

I also have a few slice of button mushroom.

Now first of all, I want to quickly introduce you to a couple of things.

This is Jasmine rice right here.

I already have show you sometime ago.

And you can buy them in a bag like this, okay?

They're normally imported from Thailand.

(hands tap) From Thailand.

They buy it normally in a 10-pound or 15-pound..

Okay?

(bag crinkling) We set it aside.

And then I also have some Jasmine tea.

(hands tap) This Jasmine tea, and this way, we'll infuse some Jasmine tea here.

(glass clinks) This is Jasmine tea infused in water, so you have (Chef inhales audibly) mmm, very, very aromatic.

Now, you can have oolong tea, but this is Jasmine rice with Jasmine flavor.

So, we're gonna do this.

What I'm gonna do is, (tray clicks) this rice is already somehow, (saucer thuds softly) rinse it.

Okay?

So, that means is, rinse it once.

Anytime you buy rice (lid clinks) from import, you should always rinse it a little bit.

But you'll buy rice in this country all ready, wrap it up in a saran up.

You don't necessary have to rinse it because they already have fortified vitamin.

They have fortified niacin and thiamin.

(rice grains rustle) And you put this over here.

(saucer thuds softly) Put this (bowl clinks) and you are gonna cook it with this.

Very unique.

Jasmine, Jasmine tea infuse water.

Use one portion rice to about one and a half portion of tea, Jasmine tea.

And then you cover this up and let it simmer for approx, (lid clinks) you can cover it like this, or you can let it boil (lid clinks softly) until (lid clinks) most of the water evaporated.

And then you see create a hole, and then you cover up and reduce the heat to, (lid clinking) let it simmer for approximately (hands tap) 18 minutes.

(hands tap) In the meantime, you're gonna stir.. the mushroom right here, okay?

Because you want to top with the mushroom.

So, we're gonna turn this up high.

And then we'll put up a tiny bit of oil, (bottle clinks softly) put a tiny bit of oil.

Okay?

Of course, you can use butter (bottle clinks softly) and margarine too if you want, if you will get used t..

But you can use just regular (pan clinks) vegetable oil.

And I put a tiny bit of shallot.

(shallot sizzling) Wow, look at this.

And a tiny bit of green onion.

(onion sizzling) And then while I'm (ingredients sizzling) getting all this flavor out, (pan c..

I can also (utensil clinks) chop up some fresh (knife clinks) (knife thudding) mushroom.

Button mushroom, button mushroom.

(knife thudding) Very nice and firm.

And also shiitake mushroom.

(knife thudding) Cut it up.

And then we are going to (knife clinks) put them all together and sautée.

(ingredients sizzle) Ohh, look at that, this gonna be very exciting.

(plate thuds softly) Stir.

(utensils clinking) (ingredients sizzling) (pan rattles) Stir, make sure I put a (pan clinking) tiny bit of wine.

(ingredients sizzling) Ohh.

A tiny bit of (utensils clinking) soy sauce, and a tiny bit of salt.

(pan rattling) (ingredients sizzling) Toss.

And then if you want, you can use a teeny-tiny bit of chi.. to make sure.

Wow, look at that.

(pan rattling) (ingredients sizzling) (speaks indistinctly) And then (pan clinks) all of these mushroom are nice (pan clinking) and give wonderful texture, nutrition to your dish.

And not only that, (hands tap) look at that.

(plate thuds softly) We have the rice here, we can put it.. or we can put it (plate swishes) over here.

(plate thuds softly) Okay?

When this is done, (pan rattles) this is beautiful.

(ingredients siz.. You can make a little sauce, make a little sauce and thicken it up with corn starch solution, as I said, you always (mushrooms sizzling) thicken it up with a tiny, tiny bit of one portion of corn starch and about two or three portion of water.

(pitcher thuds softly) And then, (pan rattles) this is very colorful.

And then all you have to do, (pan clinking) is put this rice right over this Jasmine tea infused Jasmine rice.

(mushrooms sizzling) Look at this.

It's a very unique version, a lighter version of your favorite .. Jasmine rice with Jasmine tea, with (pan clinks) shiitake and oyster, and button mu.. (audience claps) So far, we have been cooking mostly with fresh mushrooms.

But in Asian cooking, dry mushrooms are also very popular.

You know, and mushroom is about 90% water.

So, when you dried it, they become very flavorful, very intense, concentrate flavor.

Dry mushroom can be quite expensive, but don't worry, you don't really have to use too much.

Let's go to do some mushroom market analysis at the dry mushroom market (Chinese music) in Hong Kong.

One of the most widely-used and most popular ingredient in Chinese cuisine is of course, shiitake mushroom.

The Chinese call dong gu.

It is a very good, dehydrated, dry black mushroom.

The price can range anywhere from $12 U.S. a pound to about $75 U.S. a pound.

Depends on the size and the shape on where they're from.

They add aroma, they add flavor, and a meat texture to all your wonderf.. For instance, these are baby ones.

This approximately about 15 to $70 U.S. a pound.

And the medium ones is approximately 24 to $30 a pound.

And then here, you have something .. 40 to $75 a pound, depends on how they package it.

All of these are my favorite ingredient.

Aside from all of these mushroom, they also have another type of fungus, which is wood ear, okay?

This is called (Chef speaks in for..

This is supposedly reduce your chance of heart disease because it slow down the blood clot.

And they also have the wan yee which is cloud ear.

See, they're smaller, they're all black fungus.

They're all mushroom type.

Aside from this, it's also very popular, is the black moss.

Have you ever seen?

Widely-used in a lotta Chinese vegetarian dishes.

Look at that.

(Chinese music) (audience claps) Now, it is time for more mushrooms.

For my next dish: East meets west pasta dish.

I call it pasta with shrimp and fresh mushrooms in garlic chili sauce.

All we have to do is have all of these mushroom.

Now, a lot of people don't realize, mushroom is actually very easy to clean up, and you should not wash or clean up the mushroom too early.

You should do in the last minute.

And also, don't soak the mushroom in cold, (utensil clinks) in water.

If you want to rinse it, just rinse.. Or, you can clean up with this mushroom brush like that.

(brush whishing softly) Look at that.

Very easy.

This way, they don't even soak up any water.

(brush whishing) Very easy to clean up.

After it's clean up, all you have to do is slice it up.

(knife thudding) A lot of people always said, "How come you cut it so fast?"

Because (chuckles) I don't have that much pat.. (audience laughs softly) And you put it right over here.

And we save all of these all together.

And here, I also, (knife clinks) besides the fresh button mushroom, we also have straw mushroom.

We also have, of course, the black shiitake mushroom.

You can use fresh or dry.

And we also have a tiny bit of purple onion.

Let me cut up this, (knife thudding) julienne this, and get ready.

(knife clinks) Set it aside and put it right here.

And then after (knife clinks) this is done, we're gonna put it (plate whishes) right over here.

Now, you cannot make a pasta dish unless you get ready some pasta.

This is one of my favorite.

Spinach pasta.

You can color coordinate your pasta.

You can add bead in pasta to make purple color pasta.

You can add carrot to make orange color.

(water gurgling) And you can add egg to make it like a pink.

Put it over here and let it boil in this wonderful pot.

(lid clinks) And then we're ready to stir fry.

Now, while I'm heating up this wok, I'm gonna cut up a tiny bit of shallot.

(knife thudding) Make sure you always coordinate the movement of your finger, okay?

(audience laughs) In the right direction, always make sure firm grip, and push the blade against your knuckle.

(knife thuds) So this way, you're actually doing downward, forward, (knife swishing) downward, forward, downward, forward.

It's just that sometimes I go so fast.

You wouldn't know that there movement.

(knife clinks) And you set it aside and you put he.. And of course, make some nice ginger.

(knife clinks) (knife clinks) Cut up some ginger (knife thudding) and mince them.

Op!

(knife clinking) Done.

Mince ginger.

(audience laughs) (knife clinking) Op!

Done.

Mince ginger.

(knife clinking) Op.

Done.

Mince ginger.

And (knife clinks) after this, ginger is ready, all the mushroom is ready, we're ready to cook.

Heat up your wok.

Ohh, over high heat.

(hands tap) Get ready.

(wok rattles) This wok.

(spatula tapping) You get a well-seasoned wok.

Make sure the wok is hot enough.

Whenever you do any stir fry, okay?

Particularly when you're doing meat.

Put a tiny bit of oil, (wok clinks) move them around.

Wow, (wok clinks) you can tell (spatula taps) it's hot.

Some garlic and ginger, (ingredien.. and shallot.

(wok rattles) Wow.

Exciting!

Ha!

(audience laughs) (wok clinking) And then put some, in the meantime, (spatula rattles) while I'm stir frying that, I wanna show you how easy it is to do (knife clinks) butter fry.

This shrimp, and cut it in half.

(knife clinks) Look at that, line them all up.

You go one, two, three, four.

(knife swishes) (audience laughs) Done!

(knife clinks) Ohh.

How fast.

(knife swishing) And you put them all together and you stir (knife clinks) (ingredients sizzling) this in.

Stir this in.

(glass clinks) Stir.

(wok rattling) (wok rattling) (ingredients sizzling) It's hot.

You cook until they're light and pi.. (wok rattles) Okay?

If you want, you can cook this sepa.. You don't want to over cook them.

Toss them.

This way, (wok clinks) nice, uniform cooking.

Also, great exercise, work up (wok clinks) your appetite.

(wok clinks) Okay?

(ingredients swishing) Ohh, look at this, very simple to do.

Nice and pink.

When it's nice and pink, (wok clinks) you'll put it (plate clinks) back here, you can do the mushroom.

(ingredients sizzling) Look at this.

(wok clinking) And then you can do the mushroom.

(wok rattles) Put all the mushroom and the purple onion, ripe green (ingredients sizzling) onion or onion.

And all kind of mushroom, fresh mushroom.

(bowl clinking) (spatula clinks) Sautée.

(plate thuds softly) (wok rattles) And put a tiny bit of chicken broth or water.

(broth sizzles) Wow, look at that.

(glass thuds softly) Ohh, look at that.

(ingredients sizzle) (wok clinks) A lot of time when you buy mushroom, you know that sometime, (wok clinking) in bags, in little saran wrap containers.

And that is good because it keep the mushroom nice and fresh.

(ingredients sizzle) And also, (wok thuds softly) most good mushroom, firm, white mushroom (wok clinking) can be kept for several days in your fridge.

Now, (wok clinking) let's flavor it with a tiny, tiny bit of sesame seed oil.

(bottle thuds softly) If you want, you can use olive oil, okay?

Olive oil.

Tiny bit of soy sauce.

(bottle thuds softly) And now, it comes to the exciting p.. We're gonna use a teeny-tiny bit of garlic chili, garlic-flavored chili sauce, okay?

To make this (glass thuds softly) very unique and very different.

You continue to move.

And this is done!

Ohh, look at that.

(lid clinks) This is done.

(hands tapping) Pick this out.

(plate clinks) I am gonna show you how unbelievably (hands tap) simple.

(pot clicking) (water trickling) Take this out.

(pasta shuffling) Don't rinse it!

Good pasta doesn't have to be rinse.

(pasta shuffling) Put it right over here.

Okay?

Look at this, how beautiful.

And then (pot clinks) in the meantime, toss these, toss these.

(wok clinking) Put the shrimp back.

(plate clinks) (plate clinks) And then if you want, you can put a tiny bit of chop Italian parsley.

Okay?

(ingredients sizzling) Ohh, (chuckles) this is so marvelous.

Can you hear, (wok clinking) can you smell it?

Can you see the steam?

(audience talking distantly) I hope you can smell it at home.

This is wonderful.

(wok clinking) (ingredients sizzling) You can see how I turn and move around, and allow more uniform mixing.

(wok clinking) This way, every single piece is wonderful.

And you turn it off and you are ready to toss this in to here.

And (ingredients sizzling) this is, ohh (ingredients sizzling) can you hear the sizzling sound?

Sizzling sound.

I save half of these for myself because I love this pasta.

(plate clinks) That's the reason why I want (wok clinks) to garnish this with even more chop Italian parsley, and garnish it just like that.

That's very simple, beautiful, wonderful (saucer clinks) spinach pasta with mushroom.

(audience claps) Fungus for dessert, why not?

In Chinese cooking, we use this snow white, dry fungus.

Called xue yi.

In dessert soups, in formal dinners, all we have to do is make sure to also have some rock sugar to flavor it.

Just like the Chinese chef do.

This is a piece of rock sugar.

I'm gonna dump this little piece in here and let it boil!

And dissolve it.

In the meantime, I'm gonna lift this dragon kiln.

(lid clinks softly) Double boil steamer.

See this special lid?

First, one lid and then you lift it this way.

Complete seal of steam and flavor.

And then I'm gonna break up some of these fungus.

Xue yi.

Right here.

Breaking more up.

So this way, we can steam, double steam.

You see, we'll put this in a steam bath.

The steam would cook and boil up, bring the liquid in the, inside this double boiler, into a boil.

So, called double steam.

Double boil.

Then when this is dissolved, (pan rattles) and we put this right in here.

(water trickles) Okay?

And then (pan clinks) we'll put this, set this aside, (lid clinks) cover this up like that.

And (lid clinks) put in a steam bath.

Now, I'm gonna give this dragon kiln in a steam bath right here, put it right in here, (pot clinks) and we'll cover this up with this lid.

Okay?

(lid clinks) In the meantime, (lid clinks) I'm gonna get ready, some of these papaya and cantaloupe.

Papaya is one of my favorite food, it's also very popular in all over Southeast Asia.

I'm gonna use this little melon baller to (bowl whishes) scoop it out.

A little round ball like this.

(bowl clinks) Round ball.

(bowl clinking) Okay?

Very simple.

And then to add some extra aroma and flavor, I'll also use some cantaloupe.

In fact, the best cantaloupe is grown in the west side of the San Joaquin Valley.

(bowl clinking) The best in the world.

Normally, (bowl clinks) the best cantaloupe is available from July (bowl clinking) 'til September.

'Kay?

Nice, firm.

(bowl clinks) Make sure you pick (bowl clinks) the medium right one.

(bowl clinks) Adds color, (bowl clinks) aroma, and texture to our dish.

(bowl clinks) When this is all nice and done, (tray swishes) let's remove these (tray thuds softly) and then take this around here.

And then in the meantime, I am going to put this because I have been steam bathing, double boiling the white fungus, the snow white fungus, also called the xue yi.

(lid clinks softly) (lid clinks) (exclaims softly) Don't do this at home.

It's not safe.

(audience laughs) And then in the meantime, (utensils clinking) I scoop in and put this right here because I have been steaming this, double steam this for approximately half an hour to 45 minutes.

In order to really have the flavor permeate, you need to do it for about one and a half hour.

And when it's done, (bowl clinks) you'll cover (bowl thuds softly) this whole thing up again and let it double boil, okay?

(lid clinks soft..

In the meantime, of course, (lid clinks) we have one already done for you right here.

All you have to do (lid clinks softly) is open it up (lid clinks) while you serve, and scoop out all these wonderful (water gurgles.. flavor like syrup, papaya and cantaloupe.

To get that nice, delicious, light (utensil clinks) dessert that everybody love (utensil clinks) in informal Chinese banquets.

(audience claps) Whether you decide to get fresh or stay cut and dry, mushrooms and fungus will help you add flavor, character to all your dishes.

I hope you take the time to make room!

For mushrooms in your own kitchen.

Have fun!

With fun guy.

And remember, if Yang can cook, so can you.

“Goodbye!” (##!)

(audience claps)