The spring weather in Japan has been very mild and sunny, so it's perfect to make dried mushrooms. We can buy them at stores, but I prefer my homemade ones. I use shiitake mushurooms because drying them brings extra benefits. For example, drying increases their Vitamin D content, which helps strengthen bones. They also contain folic acid, which helps prevent anemia, and biotin, which supports healthy skin. Once shiitake is dried, its flavor turns more delicious and its has different aroma as well.

I bought two packages of organic shiitake at a farmer's market.

First, I separated the caps from the stems and sliced the stems.

Then, I placed them in a bamboo basket and put it in a sunny spot.

Leave them until they'll complete dry.

Next, I flipped them over to dry the other side.

Make sure both sides dry. Your shiitake is ready to use once they fully dry.

If you want to cook Japanese dishes, dried shiitake is one of the must ingredients. Today, I'd love to show you how to cook okowa (steamed rice dish made with glutinous rice mixed with meat or vegetables) to use my homemade dried shiitake.

First, let's soak your dried shiitake. It takes seven to eight hours, so I usually leave them all night.

As you can see in the photo below, once they're re-hydrated, the mushrooms become much bigger than when they're dried. You can compare the re-hydrated shiitake and dried ones in the photo below.

Let's slice some vegetables. First picture shows gobo (burdock, root vegetable), a common ingredient in Japanese cooking.

The next is a carrot.

Then, you can see re-hydrated shiitake.

After that comes takenoko (bamboo shoot).

The picture below shows konjac (a jelly-like food made from konjac root).

Since I was using raw chicken, I used a separate cutting board for the meat.

The picture below shows reconstituting liquid from the dried shiitake. This liquid makes a wonderful soup stock, so don't throw it away.

Now, I placed all the slices in a pan and added some sugar, soy sauce, mirin (cooking sake), the soaking liquid and soup stock from seaweed and bonito flake. Then, I simmered everything gently.

Everything looks soft and tender in the picture below.

Keep the soup stock for cooking the rice.

I used four cups of glutinous rice, three and a half cups of the soup stock and the cooked vegetables and cooked everything in a rice cooker.

After about 35 minutes, it turned okowa.

The photo below shows the meal I made that day.

This is just one example of how to use dried shiitake mushrooms.

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