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Bacon wrapped shimeji mushroom kushiyaki with a homemade tare sauce - Diversivore.com
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Bacon-wrapped Shimeji Mushroom Kushiyaki

Bacon's never a bad idea. Especially not when it gets to partner with a fantastic, flavourful, just-sweet-enough Japanese tare (teriyaki) sauce.
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Asian, Japanese
Keyword bacon, barbecue, grilling, scratch teriyaki sauce, tare recipe, yakimono
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes
Servings 6 skewers
Calories 183kcal

Ingredients

Kushiyaki

  • 200 g shimeji mushrooms (brown or white)
  • 16 strips thick cut bacon

Tare Sauce

  • 1 cup shoyu (soy sauce) or tamari
  • 1/2 cup mirin (see note)
  • 1/2 cup sake
  • 2 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 15 g ginger (~4 cm/1.5 inch, thinly sliced)
  • 30 g scallions (about 5-6 stalks, green portion only)
  • 4 garlic cloves (~15 g)

Instructions

Tare Sauce

  • Combine the liquid ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Add the ginger, scallions and garlic cloves and simmer over medium-high heat until the sauce is reduced by about half (about 15-20 minutes). It should be glossy and relatively thick. Let stand for 5 minutes.
  • Strain the solids and store the sauce in a sealed container. It can be refrigerated for up to a month.

Bacon Wrapped Mushrooms

  • If using wooden/bamboo skewers, soak them in water for at least 1 hour beforehand. Or just use metal skewers.
  • Heat your grill/barbecue to 350 F, assuming your it has an upper rack. If you don't have an upper rack, heat the grill to a lower temperature, about 275 F.
  • Gently clean and trim the shimeji mushrooms, then separate them into small bundles (5-6 mushrooms, depending on the size).
  • Wrap a bundle of shimeji mushroom stems with a strip of bacon, then thread the bundle onto a skewer. Repeat with all remaining mushrooms.
  • Use a small brush to baste the mushroom/bacon wraps with tare sauce.
  • Place the mushroom skewers on the upper rack of the barbecue and cook for 10-15 minutes, periodically turning and brushing on more tare sauce. If you don't have an upper rack, cook directly on the grill over lower heat.
  • Remove the mushroom bundles from their skewers and serve with extra tare sauce for dipping.

Notes

Mirin is supposed to be a sweet cooking rice wine, but outside of Japan many brands are more like simple syrups. I use a Japanese mirin brand that contains alcohol and a moderate amount of sugar. Many of the more readily available brands in North America don't have any alcohol in them, but do contain a LOT of sugar. If you're stuck using one of the more syrupy varieties, reduced the amount of sugar you use (to taste), and add a bit more sake.

Nutrition

Calories: 183kcal | Carbohydrates: 9g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.02g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.01g | Cholesterol: 21mg | Sodium: 1696mg | Potassium: 192mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 2IU | Vitamin C: 7.4mg | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 0.9mg