Enoki Mushroom Wrapped in Bacon

Pan-fried enoki mushroom wrapped in bacon provides an excellent balance of meat and vegetables. Have you ever tried beautiful enoki mushrooms? It is also named Enokitake. This thin and white colored mushroom is one of the most popular editable mushrooms in Chinese cuisine. We name it as Jinzhenggu, translated as golden needle mushrooms, which are always used in soups, hot pots, or salad recipes.

What are Enoki mushrooms?

The Enoki mushrooms started growing wild as far back as 800 BCE in Asia. Its full name is Enokitake and is usually referred to as Enoki for short. It is a specie of gilled mushroom scientifically referred to as Flammulina velutipes. Japan was the first place it was cultivated. These mushrooms can also be called different names depending on the geography, velvet shank in the United Kingdom, golden needle mushroom, lily mushroom, winter mushrooms, and white enoki. Enoki mushroom is a normal part of Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and other East Asian countries cuisine.

Enoki mushrooms are white, cream, or off-white, they are joined together at the base and separated at the top with each stalk having the signature mushroom head. There are two broad categories of the enoki mushroom one with pure white color and the other one with yellow color.

A lovely combination of mushroom and meat

Enoki mushrooms wrapped in bacon are a versatile crowd-pleasing dish. What’s not to love with the savory, crisp, and slightly salty delicacy? It makes a great finger food, side dish, main dish, or snack. The difference in the textures of the elements in the dish sets each other well. The crispy bacon is the perfect combination of the juicy savory enoki mushrooms. As a side dish, you can eat this delicious dish with brown or white rice, noodles, or bread.

It’s easy to make the enoki mushroom wrapped in bacon. Please note you simply pan-fry the bacon-wrapped enoki mushroom and drizzle your dressing for extra flavor. If you are on a no-oil diet or simply looking for a healthier option, then you can also bake the bacon-wrapped enoki mushrooms.

🍄Ingredients breakdown

You do not need a lot of ingredients to cook your enoki mushroom wrapped in bacon.

• Enoki mushrooms
• hot chili pepper flakes – you can use the Korean type if you want to reduce the hotness.
• Light soy sauce – provides a basic savory taste. Use less sodium type since bacon contains salt.
• cumin powder- cumin powder can provide a lovely roasted flavor to the dish.
• oyster sauce- use a smaller amount since it is quite salty.

🍳Instructions

Divide the enoki mushrooms after cleaning into small bundles of ten. Cut your bacon into two equal halves. You only need just enough bacon to wrap around the small bundles of enoki mushrooms.

Put each bacon piece flat and open on a clean board. Place a bunch of your enoki mushrooms at one end of the bacon. The mushrooms do not have to have equal ends.

Wrap the bacon around the clean bunch of enoki mushrooms tightly. Ensuring the bacon is wrapped closer to the base of the enoki mushrooms.

To ensure the bacon stays in place, use a clean toothpick or a bamboo skewer to hold it in place. Use the toothpick or skewer like you would an office pin.

Repeat the wrapping process with the remaining strips of bacon and the enoki mushrooms, until you have several bundles. You should have about ten bundles of bacon-wrapped enoki mushrooms.

Next, you get a clean bowl to mix your dressing. Add your chili flakes, cumin, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, or any other alternatives mentioned earlier. Add water and mix thoroughly.

Next, you brush on the dressing on the bacon-wrapped part of the enoki mushrooms.

You can brush on oil or butter on a clean frying pan. As an alternative, you may fry without additional oil or butter as the bacon will secrete its own oil. The frying pan should be on medium heat, place the yummy bundles into the pan and fry on all sides for between 7-8 minutes over the middle fire.