Brad Makes Fermented Mushrooms

It's alive, Fermented Mushroom, take one.

Action. Action!

[audience applauding]

And we're here, oh hello Hunzy.

[audience applauding]

Stiff Steve, thank you for joining.

Hello guys, today on It's Alive, the home edition.

[drum roll] We're gonna be makin'

a really cool thing I've been foolin' around with

while I've been you know,

working from home, shooting from home,

spending a lot of time here, everythings great.

Everythings great, spending a lot of time here,

everythings great, everything.

[soft music]

Hey guys today on It's Alive, the home edition.

We're here in my lovely kitchen and today we're gonna

be making some fermented mushrooms.

Shiitake mushrooms, fermented in soy sauce

with some miran and some, uh.

Spending a lot of time here.

I'm havin' a blank moment.

Oh that is miran too.

Everythings great.

Hey guys, hey guys, today on It's Alive!

[lively music]

[Grif crying]

[Brad laughing]

Yeah huh?

Oh cry in the laundry basket, I wanna do that too.

I got some real.

Hey, I got some real nice,

just normal you wanna get some nice organic you know,

the best ones you can get, if you gotta mush,

if you gotta mushroom guy or girl

okay whose growin' some really cool mushrooms, get those.

Go to the farmer's market, find that little tent.

You know you got that person whose growin'

really cool mushrooms, get 'em from them.

Okay, the quality, we only have a few ingredients here.

So you wanna get the best stuff you can get.

I got some cute little baby shiitakes.

Okay, and then I got some normal ones,

I'm just gonna nip of the stems,

and that's kind of it.

Back to the cuttin' board Steve.

Oh oh!

Ooo, little hip save in a beaut!

[upbeat music]

Enough yappin' Brad.

So like I said, I'm just gonna cut this, the stem,

you know, I haven't experimented too much

with the stem in this application,

they're a bit woody though in my opinion.

So I just cut the stem off kind of at the base there.

This is really where you wanna look through

and make sure there's no rot spots or bad blemishes

or dirt or anything bad that looks like it wouldn't age well

Discard that and move on with your life.

[light music]

You know, I've gone back and forth from that school,

you hear it a lot you know,

do you wash mushrooms?

Do you not wash mushrooms?

And I remember I was readin' a little while back.

Someone did like some serious data collection experimenting.

I forget what website it was,

it was probably like Serious Eats or something.

Apparently, when you wash them, they take on moisture

and then they won't brown when you wanna like

you know saute 'em, they won't pick up color

because they've absorbed moisture.

So, some people did some experiments

where they did you know, side by sides,

with the washed and unwashed and et cetera

and then they weighed 'em

and see'd how much water content water content was in 'em

and they cooked 'em and apparently,

might wanna fact check all of this.

But apparently, the end result was like it didn't really

make a difference, I don't wash mushrooms now.

What I do have is like a little like cheap paint brush.

Che che che che che che che.

Little brush 'em off, little brush.

Like a little archeologist.

And you know what, washin' 'em, I don't,

you don't really wanna,

there's a lot of probably like micro,

good bacteria and yeast and micro organisms on the mushrooms

we wanna invite them to the party

to the best of my understanding and knowledge.

[Children] Yay!

But really the high sodium in the shoyu

kinda knocks everything down,

I don't think much is surviving in shoyu.

But then again,

I don't know.

I just like experimenting.

I don't know, Google it, 'cause I didn't!

Okay maybe you shouldn't ferment mushrooms in shoyu

but I'm pretty sure it's just fine.

I've been eating these for the past couple weeks now

and I feel great.

I'm gonna put the stems aside.

Maybe I'll use those, put 'em in a stock or somethin'.

I'm gonna add the baby mushrooms in first,

right on the bottom.

Oh my God, they're so cute,

they're like little buttons, huh?

Look at them, like little buttons.

I want little button mush,

I want little mushrooms as buttons,

or like what do they call, Hunzy?

Cufflinks?

Little button, oh!

Can someone make me, I'll pay you!

[cash register chiming]

A Morell mushroom like brass cufflink.

Whoa, that'd be sweet.

And then I got, look.

I got a nice little piece of seaweed.

North Atlantic Kombu, all right.

This is the good stuff, babe.

I'm gonna shove a piece right on top of the babies, okay.

And then we're gonna add the big ones,

okay, like so, like so.

[soft music]

Let's not go, let's not get nutty.

I like to leave a little bit of head space

but not too too too much, okay.

All right and then I'll but another little piece of kombu

right on top, yeah, here I'll come up

and give you the close up.

That's what we're lookin' at, somethin' like that, okay.

Oh, she's a beaut!

Look at those fricken things.

Look Hunzy, you can see it too.

And now, that's the head space,

what I like to do, I got these little weights,

boom I just keep 'em down, keep 'em submerged.

Steve, Steve, focus.

For our next trick, I'm gonna add little bit of mirin.

Little bit of rice cooking wine,

I'm gonna try making some.

I've been foolin' around making koji and stuff,

maybe we'll make a video of that too,

huh Steve?

Maybe I'll make, I wanna try makin' mirin.

[clock ticking]

[explosion] Okay

[man screaming]

I'm gonna add

I'm like a dog whose about to go to the bathroom.

I'm gonna add, let's say, look, oh!

What was that?

Three tablespoons, big whoop.

I'm gonna add say three tablespoons of each.

The mirin and then this is the seasoned mirin.

Come on.

These things, you know, these little,

you pull the tabs.

I can never get my damn finger in there,

they're like for baby fingers.

[baby crying]

And then the rest we're gonna top off with shoyu, boom!

Shoyu baby.

Get yourself some.

Make sure all the mushrooms are nice and submerged.

And then I put my little weight on there.

And s'oh!

I give it a little, a little woo woo

to make sure everything is nice and mixed up

and the bi product of remaining liquid is so good.

Like oh oh, hey, oh honey,

we're gonna order some sushi tonight, okay?

We're gonna get some sushi.

Leave a note and say hey hey, don't worry about it,

those little packets of soy sauce you're gonna send me,

you send like 45 of 'em in the bag,

you go ahead and keep those, okay?

I got my own, I got my own stuff.

Mushroom, mushroom kombu shoyu.

All right, I got my own, it's fermented,

don't worry about it.

So we're gonna let that go, like I said,

we're gonna get it go a week

then we're gonna slice it up,

we'll put it over a little rice.

Uch!

See ya in a week.

All right, oh, let me hit stop.

[dramatic music]

[lively music]

[bleep] damn needy, oh I'm hungry,

oh I want water.

[Hanzy] Just get a plant,

they're much easier.

Yeah or one of those little like,

you put the two liter bottle like

the dog feeder water thing, Yeah

just [bleep] put a whole bag of cereal in there

and some water and they can just feed themselves.

Here, boys!

C'mon, giving each of you one fig newton.

Okay, let's do this, go outside it's so nice out.

It's Alive Soy Fermented Shrooms Take Two.

Okay!

[dramatic music]

So we're back.

We left off,

I had a little bit of an incident, okay.

Everything was goin' great,

I had some nice little bubbles, but what happened,

I forgot, hold on I'll show you.

Now, old silly Brad here.

I got a bunch of different types of jars, okay?

We got this one which we put the mushrooms in,

and then there's this one which they're currently in.

This one, okay, I don't know if you can see it,

but it has a slight

little concave to that, concave, right?

Tapered in, call it whatever the frig,

you know what I'm tryin' to say, okay.

It's got a little concave or con, it goes like that, okay!

And so I put the little glass weight in,

and it got pinched in there, I forgot that this thing

wasn't straight edged, stupid design.

And I couldn't get the glass weight out

'cause it got lodged in there.

[depressing music]

Oh I spent like a half an hour,

I tried gettin' it out,

I was like bangin' it out,

so I'm like tryin' to bang it,

usin' my fingers and this and that

and eventually the glass jar broke in my hand

and um, there was glass everywhere.

So I took the mushrooms, okay.

And I gave 'em a little rinse of water real quick.

And now they're here, okay?

So that's why they're in a different jar.

I'm not gonna consume these ones

just because you know the glass,

the whole glass shards, you know?

So I'm gonna, and I'm gonna unfortunately,

I'm gonna have to discard these.

I have an older batch that I'll slice up a mushroom

and I'll plate up and stuff so we can try it and look at it,

fun fun!

[guitar strumming]

These are the old ones, oh yeah.

It gets like so nutty with the mushrooms

and the soy sauce and I guess the kombu.

Maybe it's a perfect storm,

I think it's mostly the soy sauce and the mushrooms.

But it's like earthy, almost like peanutty

and a little weird, uch it smells so good,

the older one actually smells better.

So I guess maybe it mellows and it hits its nice little,

it's nice little spot.

I don't know how long these last.

[dramatic music]

I'd like to believe there's so much salt in there

that bad things don't happen, but I don't know.

So try to eat 'em and then make new ones.

I think it's safe to say a week in the fridge,

mine have been in there a little longer.

So, I'll try those and then if we keep makin' videos,

then you know it can go a little longer!

You see what I do for you guys?

You see what I do, you see what kinda guy I am.

Wah wah wah,

wah, wah, wah, wah, wah.

I don't even know what day it is,

I don't know what time it is.

I always want a little bar,

I feel like I told this story.

I want a bar you know to hear people's problems.

Pour 'em a drink, uch God I wanna own a bar one day,

me and Vinny and Delany, uh Delany.

Maybe we'll do that one day, always keep a clean bar.

You know, yep I hear ya brother, yep, anyway.

Okay, I had some left over pork last night that I roasted,

delish, I'm just gonna crisp it up in the frying pan, sss,

and then we'll put it over a little rice

and we'll slice up some mushrooms.

I'm makin' a little lunch,

little lunch for the gang and the kiddos.

Turns out you gotta feed your kids, quite often.

So what you wanna do, okay,

we're gonna walk through this like this one isn't

potentially filled with micro bits of glass

and we're gonna strain the liquid into here,

we're just gonna pretend, pour that right in,

woop there goes my thing, forgot that was in there.

Let that drain, okay?

And here's my weight, the thing that screwed me in the end.

But they're actually fantastic

and they're great to have,

just always watch that your glass jar

doesn't have a little heesh!

So you strain that and then you want that liquid,

oh man just go ahead and what I do is keep old bottles,

like you could use jars, but I keep like old

shoyu or soy sauce or mirin or rice wine vinegar bottles

that have that little, you know,

portion control valve.

I keep those, wash 'em out,

and then when I make my own liquid concoctions

and infused shoyus of such,

I fill 'em into those old bottles.

I take the label off

and I put a date on it, and I say what it is.

And then you have your own little custom stuff,

it's real nice.

I am so bummed that these got broken with the glass

because these mini, these little mini shiitakes

oh my God are they adorable!

I guess it's hard to see, I'll get a proper beauty but man!

Look at these little tiny cute little buttons of mushrooms,

just nice and marinated and fermented in that soy,

slice 'em up, look at that,

they're like little sponges for flavor, okay.

Oh God, oh!

Oh God, what a fun, fun, little ingredient.

Those little baby shiitakes I'm just in love with 'em.

I just want all baby shiitakes,

a whole jar full of fermented, soy,

that's it, let's shoot the episode ever, over.

Do the whole thing over, I won't settle.

All right, let's make a little lunchy lunch, okay?

Ugh, as hard as it is, I have to put these ones,

I have to discard these.

It's just not worth it, okay.

It's just little mushrooms.

Okay we can get some more, I'm sorry guys, okay.

[light guitar strumming]

You were not wasted, you are,

we used you in the name of science and we learned

and we're going to apply this to your future ancestors.

All right, we're gettin' a little weird over here Hunzy.

All right, so I got the king trumpet

[trumpet tooting]

What I really love with the king trumpets,

where's my damn knife, oh.

Is the stems, you slice 'em up when you ferment 'em like

this you can slice 'em up into little coins.

Some folks like compare 'em to like,

they call 'em like mushrooms scallops or somethin'.

And you can sear these up too which would be pretty cool.

These would be hard to sear 'cause they're so wet.

You know that's something like some people,

well not with trumpets, you know everyone kinda knows

that they're pretty delicious,

but some folks throw 'em away,

and that's just a damn shame.

Slice these up, put 'em on top of your rice,

whatever, pop 'em in your mouth.

But I wanna find a little shiitake cap in there.

Yeah, 'cause that's what I fermented with you guys.

This ones been in there for about a week and a half

longer than those and the texture is just,

so like all that liquid and flavor just like penetrates,

where the hells the lens, penetrates through the mushroom,

and you just get this like beautifully flavorful mushroom.

[dramatic music]

Recipes like this are just a great thing

to have in your pantry, they're just powerhouses

they're you know, big flavor, good for you,

and you know hey let's face it man, they're impressive.

You get some guests over, all right?

Miss those days,

you get some friends over, make some dinner,

oh my God what were those mushrooms

on top of the ramen you made.

Oh let me tell you about 'em,

they weren't just any mushrooms,

then you tell 'em the whole story!

All right, look at you, whose better than us!

Yeah this is what we're lookin' at,

this is what we're lookin' at boys.

Oh yeah.

Simple!

[angelic singing]

Little rice!

Nice little scoopy scoop.

Put my little piece of pork on there.

Dut dut dut.

Little nest of fermented mushrooms.

That looks great, I'll eat that right up.

Look at that, little snack.

I'll get a better shot, that looks stupid.

Well there it is folks,

little fermented mushroom,

keep the liquid, again, liquid you can put that on anything,

you know you could drizzle a little, oh!

Drizzle a little of that on your pork,

that would be fantastic.

Put it on a salad, put it on some ribs,

drizzle it over some fish,

it's just delightful, it's just a delight!

Keep 'em in the fridge when you're done,

that's just what I've been doin',

I don't know if that's necessary

but it just seems like the right thing to do.

And again, try different mushrooms, experiment,

have some fun okay, and you know guys,

I'm always lookin' for some good ideas, okay.

And you guys are, the internet is so awesome,

you know I get so much feedback and love from you guys

all over the world, you know, different recipes whether it

be from people you know in Japan or the Philippines

or Ukraine or wherever, wherever, okay?

New Zealand!

What I was gettin' at is you guys are super smart

and talented you know, and this is not a new thing

and there's so much I can, we can,

there's so much more I can still learn and I wanna learn,

so I need some ideas too!

So help me, I'll help you, we can all help each other.

Bon Appetite!

[lively music]

That's it, I'm gonna go in the backyard and garden.

Oh in the garden I'm growin',

we're gonna do some pull beans,

I got a lot of mint.

Oh my God, this year,

sorry Hunzy I'm talkin' to the camera now, not you.

But I'm really talking to you, Hunzy.

This year, I'm growin' tons of my red perilla.

Big purple, dark purple perilla.

My parents had it growin' at their house

and I seem my dad weed wackin' it and I was like ah!

And this was years ago and I was like dad stop,

they sell these leaves at farmers markets

for like six dollars a bundle.

He's like I don't give a [bleep] it's a weed!

[laughs] And I go no no no, hold on,

and so I took some, tune in, this summer we're gonna do

some red perilla fermenting big time bud.

Over some barbecue, little red perilla tacos, ahm!

All right, see ya later.

[lively music]