Shimeji

Japanese popular mushrooms, clockwise from left, enokitake, buna-shimeji, bunapi-shimeji, king oyster mushroom and shiitake (front).
Lyophyllum shimeji
Bunapi (developed by Hokuto Corporation)

Shimeji (Japanese languageシメジ, 占地) is a group of edible mushrooms native to East Asia, but also found in northern Europe.[1] Hon-shimeji (Lyophyllum shimeji) is a mycorrhizal fungus and difficult to cultivate. Other species are saprotrophs, and buna-shimeji is now widely cultivated. Shimeji is rich in umami tasting compounds such as guanylic acid, glutamic acid, and aspartic acid.[2]

Species

There are several species sold as shimeji mushrooms. All are saprotroph except Lyophyllum shimeji.

Mycorrhiza
The cultivation methods have been patented by several groups, such as Takara Bio[3] and Yamasa,[4] and the cultivated hon-shimeji is available from several manufacturers in Japan.[5][6]
Saprotroph
Hypsizygus marmoreus is a synonym of Hypsizigus tessellatus. Cultivation of Buna-shimeji was first patented by Takara Shuzo Co.,Ltd. in 1972 as hon-shimeji and the production started in 1973 in Japan.[7] Now, several breeds are widely cultivated and sold fresh in markets.
Bunapi was selected from UV-irradiated buna-shimeji ('hokuto #8' x 'hokuto #12') and the breed was registered as 'hokuto shiro #1' by Hokuto Corporation.[8][9]
These two species had been also sold as hon-shimeji.

Cooking

Shimeji should always be cooked: it is not a good mushroom to serve raw due to a somewhat bitter taste, but the bitterness disappears completely upon cooking. The cooked mushroom has a pleasant, firm, slightly crunchy texture and a slightly nutty flavor. Cooking also makes this mushroom easier to digest. It works well in stir-fried foods, as well as with wild game or seafood. Also it can be used in soups, stews and in sauces. When cooked alone, Shimeji mushrooms can be sautéed whole, including the stem or stalk (only the very end cut off), using a higher temperature or they can be slow roasted on a low temperature with a small amount of butter or cooking oil. Shimeji is used in soups, nabe and takikomi gohan.

Desktop buddies

Shimeji can also be anime or manga characters that roam around the screen. They're given this name because they multiply, just like the mushroom. They can also interact with windows. They are available on Windows, Mac OS, and GNU/Linux-based operating systems.

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hypsizygus.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lyophyllum.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, February 03, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.