Before salt roasting gingko nuts you need to crack the hard shell and remove the top half or bottom half of it. Put the partially shelled gingko nuts in a heated skillet with some sea salt and cook, shaking the pot until they start to smell fragrant, about 4 minutes. The inside nuts turn to beautiful bright green color. Break the remaining shell, remove the thin brown skin which covers the nuts (when the gingko nuts are hot, it is easy to do this operation) and enjoy with a little salt sprinkled over. Gingko nuts has a slight mochi (rice cake) like texture and distinctive flavor with pleasant astringency.
I have never tried the method but you can cook the gingko nuts in a brown paper bag in the microwave oven. This method saves us trouble and time to crack the hard shells of the nuts and cook them in the skillet. Why do we have to use a brown paper bag but not the white one…? I could not find the answer on line.
How to enjoy matsutake mushroom
1. Matsutake mushroom soup
Bring chicken stock in a pot to a gentle simmer; add cleaned and sliced matsutake mushrooms and cook for 15 minutes over medium-low heat, covered. Flavor the stock with salt. Prepare poached egg and add to a soup bowl. Pour the mushroom soup into the soup bowl. Garnish with sliced green part of scallion and serve.
2. Rice cooked with matsutake mushroom
7 ounces matsutake mushroom
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 1/2 tablespoons sake (rice wine)
2 1/4 cups short- or medium-grain polished white rice
2 1/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon water
4 inch square kelp
1 1/2 tablespoons plus1 tablespoon soy sauce
Lime
Remove the bottom tip part of the mushroom and cut into thin slices. Transfer the mushroom in a bowl and toss it with sea salt, sake and 1 tablespoon soy sauce.
Rinse the rice three times, changing water. Drain the rice. In a bowl add water, kelp and the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce and let it stand 20 minutes.
In a heavy bottomed pot add the rinsed rice and kelp and soy sauce added water. Put the pot, covered with a lid, over medium-high heat and cook the rice. On first boiling remove the lid, add the mushrooms along with sake and soy sauce and briefly stir the rice. Cover the pot with the lid and cook for 7 minutes. By this time water inside the pot is almost all absorbed. Turn the heat to very small and cook the rice additional 10 minutes. Serve the rice in a rice bowl. Garnish the rice with finely grated lime rind.
3. Tempura matsutake mushroom
Refer the tempura preparation in The Japanese Kitchen.
4. Prepare matsutake risotto
