A scrumptious shiitake risotto with soy sauce, parmesan cheese, fresh chives and an egg yolk… And more about my cooking class in Shanghai!
Shiitake risotto!
My husband always says that I am the risotto queen.
I will start to believe it one day! Truth is that I love making risotti. And I will show you that a risotto dinner is not all that boring as it sounds.
Take for instance my shiitake risotto below. See what I am talking about? Far from the sloppy soupy rice dishes you sometimes get in restaurants!
Shanghai
I created this shiitake risotto for my foodie friend Tom in Shanghai!
I traveled to China to teach his staff all about risotto. Risotto rice and shiitake mushrooms, if I could make a great dish with those ingredients? Absolutely!
More on that amazing foodie adventure below this shiitake recipe.
Best Shiitake Risotto with Egg Yolk & Soy Sauce
Shiitakes and rice are great.
But I was still looking for a stronger flavor background, something more powerful than chicken stock. I always have to repress my natural urge to add miso paste to dishes – I already made a miso risotto with bacon wrapped quail legs, check it out as well!
So I went for a good splash of soy sauce instead. I thought that soy sauce and shiitake mushrooms would be a big flavor combination.
And it was!
I kept the other condiments very basic like in every Italian risotto: butter, parmesan cheese, fresh herbs. My goal was to create a risotto with a slight Asian touch to it but still with that essential Italian classic risotto background.
Egg Yolk
Job well done in the end, I guess!
Don’t freak out about the raw egg yolk on top of this risotto: it is there to add extra creaminess to the rice. And it is harmless.
If you don’t trust it, well then here is an idea: add the egg yolks to the risotto rice when you stir in the soy sauce, freshly chopped chives and half of the shaved parmesan cheese.
By doing that the egg yolks will break, ooze into the shiitake risotto and cook with the risotto rice.
Enjoy!
Best Soy Sauce & Shiitake Risotto Recipe
A scrumptious shiitake risotto with soy sauce, parmesan cheese, fresh chives and an egg yolk... And more about my cooking class in Shanghai!
- 9 oz shiitake mushrooms (250 g)
- 2 cups chicken or vegetable stock (480 ml)
- 5,5 oz risotto rice (155 g)
- 3,5 oz parmesan cheese (100 g), shaved
- ½ small onion chopped
- 2 garlic cloves chopped
- 3 tbsp fresh chives chopped
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- pepper
- salt
- Pour the olive oil in a large non-stick pan and add half of the butter. Place the pan over medium-high heat. Once the butter has melted, add the chopped garlic and onion. Season with pepper. Don’t add any salt yet, we’ll add soy sauce later on.
- Stir well. Let the onion and garlic sweat for 4 minutes in the butter. Add the rice and stir well.
- Bake the rice for 3 minutes. Add little splashes of the warm chicken or vegetable stock until the rice is almost cooked.
- This will take about 15 to 20 minutes. Check the tenderness of the rice regularly. Don't overcook the rice. In the meantime clean and trim the shiitake mushrooms. Slice them up. Once the risotto rice is almost tender, add the mushrooms.
- Turn the heat lower. Let the mushrooms cook for 5 to 7 minutes until soft. Stir in the soy sauce, chopped chives and half of the shaved parmesan cheese. Add the rest of the butter to the risotto as well. You can also add the egg yolks now if you don’t want to serve them raw as a garnish.
- Give the shiitake risotto another good stir and take the pan off the heat. Check the seasoning of the risotto and add extra pepper, salt or soy sauce to taste if necessary. Give the shiitake risotto one last stir and divide it over to deep plates. Place an egg yolk on top for garnish. Sprinkle with the rest to the shaved parmesan cheese and extra chopped chives to taste. Serve the shiitake risotto piping hot.
Tom!
I already mentioned it in my previous introduction: Shanghai!
So you might all be wondering what my shiitake risotto has got to do with Shanghai… and I am going to tell you everything about it. Whatever happened in Shanghai – everyone should know about!
Because I am so happy and proud about it.
Where should I start.
Probably with my link with Shanghai, and this link is actually my amazing foodie brother and friend Tom! We met ages ago in Brussels for the very first time. Both of us were on this foodie website called Foodspotting years ago and that is how we got into contact.
And also stayed in contact once that food website ceased to exist.
Seafood Fair, Brussels
One day Tom asks me about interesting restaurants in Brussels since he was going to be there for the International Seafood Fair in April with his company.
So started writing down some ideas.
In the end I deleted it all and suggested we’d show him around our favorite neighborhood and grab dinner together at Chez Henri.
Long story short.
That was an amazing evening.
Ever since that day in Brussels we have met up all around the world, I lost count of how many amazing days and dinners we have shared together.
Shanghai
So how did you wind up in Shanghai after all, I can hear you ask.
Tom lives in Shanghai, surprise! We simply promised that we would come and visit his hometown and meet up with his beautiful family. So when we booked our Japan trip that felt like the greatest opportunity to make good on that promise.
Besides, flights from Osaka to Shanghai just the about 90 minutes.
Piece of cake.
Cancelled Flight
Or so I thought.
I will skip that part where our flight was delayed for 4 hours, Shanghai airport was closed due to a typhoon and that when we were up in the air that 20 minutes before landing the pilot decided to turn back to Osaka.
I won’t mention any of it at all.
Cross my heart. I think it would have been quicker to swim to Shanghai. But I was not going to mention any of that, right.
Culinary Meal Solutions
So here we finally arrive in Shanghai, the typhoon has gone and we can’t wait to see Shanghai.
And our visit took off at high speed when we met up with Tom’s adorable family for an amazing lunch: those xiao long bao! Best ever! OK I could easily write another post about the food that we tried and tasted in Shanghai, we will stick to the shiitake risotto adventure for now.
Cooking Class
Because Tom had to work during most of the day, Andy, a friend of him took us into town to visit places for three days. Three days? Well here is the catch: Tom’s business and factory is in Qingdao, so that is where we flew to for a visit… and a risotto cooking class by moi!
And again I will skip that part where our flight was delayed, then cancelled, then delayed and cancelled again. We got to Qingdao right on time for pre dinner drinks instead of pre lunch drinks.
No worries.
Qingdao
So the day after I unpack my chef’s jacket and we hop into Tom’s van to go visit his factory and staff. Boy that was an interesting experience! The fish cleaners, the spotless warehouses with monster machinery to cook, bread and fry ingredients such as fish and seafood.
Because that is what Tom’s business stands for (and I think I hadn’t mentioned that before): he creates (quick frozen) culinary prepared foods for selective retail and food service customers in Australia, the USA, Europe and China.
I copied that from your LinkedIn profile by the way to be sure I got that right, Tom. 😉
Food Sampling
Food of course!
And that is what we are here for today: to cook. When entering the building I saw this amazing shiny industrial kitchen out of the corner of my eye…
That is going to be my paradise today!
But first: lunch!
Actually we tried a bunch of Tom’s products and wrote down what we thought of it. There were some great bites that passed the test.
I clearly remember the spaghetti marinera, the fried mozzarella and tomato fritters, the samosas, the salmon croquettes, the shrimp croquettes and the beer batter fish tenders.
Paella
But my favorite dish: the paella!
I live in Spain and honestly one out of two restaurants here can’t make a paella that is anywhere close to Tom’s paella. I loved the chunky fish, the seafood and the squid on top.
The rice was flavorful and not overcooked at all – that is what you would expect of a microwave paella, but not this one. The dish looked appealing and exactly like the picture on the box: another thing I liked about it.
Great product, hands down.
My Cooking Class
Ok time to put on my chef’s jacket!
But cheeky Tom has another trick up his sleeve: a personalised chef’s jacket with my name on it! Boy do I look professional now! Thanks a ton! So after introducing me and my recipes website to his staff we get cooking in the shiny kitchen!
Risotto… that is the dish I was asked to prepare in here.
A shiitake risotto. I sent an ingredients list one week before to be able to make my dish. We start prepping and Tom has this awesome idea to make a chicken broth with some freshly cleaned chicken bones.
Superb!
Making Shiitake Risotto in Qingdao
So all the ingredients are prepped and chopped for my shiitake risotto.
Off we start with a little sofrito of garlic and onion. In goes the rice. I have never had so many eyes on me while cooking but I feel like a fish in the pond (pun intended).
If it is about food and cooking, I can talk for ages. All the while Tom’s assistant Cindy is translating in Mandarin for her Chinese colleagues.
I should do this more!
Fresh Broth
The freshly made broth is added to the risotto rice laddle by laddle.
Seems like my shiitake risotto is coming together nicely. In go the sliced shiitake mushrooms. Good stir, another knob of butter, grated parmesan cheese, herbs. Then check the seasoning and the tenderness of the shiitake risotto rice.
And I think we are all done here!
Plating my creamy shiitake risotto up is a breeze but I hope that my hand won’t shake now that those many eyes are watching my every move. Scoop the shiitake risotto up, make a little dent in it using a teaspoon to secure the egg yolk on top.
Shave parmesan cheese, more fresh herbs.
Last sprinkle if pepper.
And we are done.
Success!
As we head back to the hotel that afternoon I’m thinking that I could honestly get used to giving more cooking classes in the future!
I had a blast, really.
Thanks Tom for this amazing experience!
