Casual beech mushroom-sweet brown rice substrate experiment

[applestar]

When I made mochi for new years, I had about 2 cups of extra soaked and drained sweet brown rice that I forgot about. Then when I used a package of Buna-shimeji (beech mushrooms) the stem/root end (can't remember what that's called) looked really fresh, growing little baby shroomies and all.

...it seemed a reasonable thing to do to bury the pieces and some extra caps (with possibly some spores) in the brown rice and see what happens...

I thought I saw some signs of growth a few days ago. I also noticed that the brown rice grains had started to germinate....
Today, I'm SURE I'm seeing what appear to be hyphae and mycelia



-- strictly speaking, this is not the usually outlined method -- I obviously didn't pressure cook or pasteurize the substrate, etc. So it's a casual experiment with no expectations. Mostly, it seemed a shame to just toss them out in the compost, and I had the sealed bowl of soaked rice handy. (Oh! I did put about 1/2 teaspoon or so of molasses in there.)

[applestar]

I used another package of the beech mushrooms yesterday -- it wasn't as fresh as the other one, but I put the scraps in a dry-wax paper bag with UCG's from cut-open used K-cups. Then in a ziplock sandwich bag. Heh.

BTW I found the grower's info page on this mushroom-

Bunashimeji, Brown Beech mushroom | Hokto Kinoko Company
https://www.hokto-kinoko.com/whats-kinoko/bunashimeji/

[applestar]

Followed some links and found out bunashimeji mycelia grow well on millet substrate. Since I had some, I'm soaking them right now and plan on pateurizing them this time. I'm just going to add to the brown rice and coffee to top them off and see what happens.

[pomerinke]

You actually made mochi?! Haha I haven't quite figured out why I don't like it. I usually enjoy rice.

I've seen some mushroom kits online for purchase, but I've never really looked into them too deep. From what I have seen, they take a few years to pop up. I would absolutely love to grow some morels! They're impossible to get here, and I've sorely missed mushroom hunting back home.

Do you think it would be worth a try?

If yours are growing, would they be edible? Or is this for fun?

[applestar]

You really have to find a reputable supplier and I would try to find a source close to you that would not require shipping in extreme temperatures. The kits of bagged substrate are usually fully colonized or nearly filled with mycelia in appropriate temperatures. Better supplier would have set it up so they ships ones that, when placed in home environment, would readily finish by covering the outer surface with white then fruiting -- growing mushrooms. Oyster mushrooms might take a month or less, shiitake two months at most. These indoor kits with small volume can only flush maybe twice.

Outdoor shiitake logs will take longer -- a year to fully colonize from plugs -- unless maybe you bought already inoculated logs. Are there strains of shiitake that grows in Okinawa? I have the severe freezing winter so shiitake can only grow during the above freezing months (my current strain had spring and fall flushes... I want to also get a summer flushing strain) and are dormant in winter.

I bet you could grow eringi -- King Oyster -- which is probably not possible for me, though I'm researching possibilities. Also the tropical pink/coral oyster looks intriguing.

I reported my experiences with pearl oyster mushrooms and shiitake growing in a couple of threads -- you may find them interesting.
Subject: Growing Edible Mushrooms - from kits, spawns, and plugs
Subject: Mushroom Gardening?

With the bunashimeji, what I hope to accomplish is to fully colonize the media -- rice/ucg/milletntil they form a solid mass. If they do this, they will be strong enough to inoculate a larger volume substrate and grow them outside -- I'm thinking packed pasteurized straw or maybe straight to oak logs (I would use a sandwich/stump method). If I can keep them pure and uncontaminated, mushrooms that grow will be edible.


...mochi... what kind of recipe's have you tried? -- my dds favorite is to toast them until puffed, dunk in hot water, then roll in kinako (roasted soybean flour)/sugar/bit of sea salt mixture. Younger dd also likes toast until puffed then roll up in strip of nori/seaweed.veg with melting kind of cheese (aged gruyere, cheddar, Colby-jack, muenster). For me, zenzai (toasted until puffed mochi in soupy sweet soft-cooked adzuki beans -- hot or warm or cold) is a special treat. I recently tried putting some in monja-yaki, but this was my first time making it, snd I lost the mochi in the mixture -- couldn't identify them in the cooked monja.

[pomerinke]

Thanks for the links. I'll definitely check them out.
I'm not sure what grows in Okinawa, except for the trippy ones. They seem to be the only mushrooms any one around here talks about, so I just stay away from all of them. Even an extensive google search only turns up the psychedelic variety.

I haven't really looked into any suppliers either. I don't have space at the moment, and was reserving something like that until I find a house with a yard. Unfortunately, I'm rather sure no supplier would be able to import morels to me here in Japan. Do you have morels in New Jersey?

As for mochi, I've tried it a few times over the last few years, never really being able to finish the serving. My mother-in-law makes a soup where she toasts it, then puts it into the soup and it ends up getting really soggy. She has stopped serving it to me recently because she doesn't like wasting food. Instead I basically get a bowl of broth, which isn't bad at all! I love nori, I usually keep a plastic pack of smaller strips for soup so I can snack on a piece every now and then. I've never tried it with mochi. I think a big part of it is the texture. Like I said, I just can't finish it whenever someone offers it to me.

[applestar]

Hmmm.... texture-wise, I know white mochi (and white rice) with perfectly smooth texture is the main-stream, but for a long time, I've switched over to whole grain everything. I dislike white bread that to me have texture like playdough and white rice which although sweet, has no substantial mouthfeel and nutty flavor of genmai/brown rice, though I accept that sushi is mostly better made with white rice and make an exception.

In the health-food grocery store (Whole Foods) refrigerated dairy case, I can buy vacuum packed brown sweet rice mochi. And when I made my mochi this time, I made three kinds -- all white uruchi sweet/mochi rice which was not too difficult to make into mochi by steaming and pounding, 3:1 mixed with whole grain/brown uruchi sweet/mochi rice, and all whole grain. For the whole grain, I used the blender method -- pulverized the soaked grains with 2x water in the blender, then steamed the slurry before pounding.

Point is, even the white pounded mochi wasn't completely smooth (and to me glue-like and gummy) like the commercially available or even typically hand-pounded mochi making event mochi. I preferred them that way.

...just a thought...

[pomerinke]

I'm not really sure of all the names of the different rices. I know Japanese rice is much better than anything I've ever had in the states. It's not uncommon to have it served by itself or as an additional side order option at restaurants. And it has a much nuttier flavor than anything I've ever tasted before. My wife told me some time ago something happened to the rice crop in Japan, and most stores compensated with rice from other countries. From my understanding, the vast majority of Japanese went without or substituted potatoes where possible because it simply wasn't as good.

The mochi here is either the commercially available variety, or made by hand in what looks like a large mortar and pestle. They always have them displayed on sale at the local home and garden store around the end of the year.
I'm sure my mother-in-law buys the commercially available style. They live in a small apartment and neither of them move very well anymore.

I have a similar reaction to tofu. I don't mind the taste, it just isn't appetizing because of the texture.

[applestar]

Ha! You are correct! I had it wrong -- I always get those mixed up "uruchi" rice sounds different so I keep thinking that's the term for "mochi" rice, but it's actually the term used to describe the regular eating rice. And they just straight up call rice for mochi ... "mochi" rice. Sorry for the confusion

I'll edit and fix my post now.

[pomerinke]

No problem! Like I said, I'm not very familiar with the names of the rice, so I hadn't even considered so much that you were wrong, just that we were discussing different types of rice!

Also, when you mentioned sushi, were you talking about traditional sushi? or California rolls? I know they use a sushi vinegar in Japan with the rice to preserve it. Sushi used to be a common part of a bento (lunchbox) before refrigeration, and the vinegar of course is what kept it tasting fresh. I'm not sure if the same is used in California rolls or not.

[applestar]

Yep sushi rice with rice vinegar/sugar/salt (sushi vinegar).

The way I see it, in addition to the preservative qualities youmentioned, the white sushi rice is the mild, foil/common background, serving to mute the sometimes beachy aroma and enhance the seafood flavor, and a comparatively even texture for distributing in the mouth and experiencing the fresh sushi elements. So excess chewey/grainy texture and nutty assertiveness of the brown rice would sometimes ruin the tender overall texture and sometimes overwhelm the delicate flavors.

There ARE some sushi toppings and roll ingredients that work with brown rice, though. Pressed vinegared saba mackerel for instance.

[pomerinke]

Good job, the descriptive paragraph is making my mouth water. Now I'm going to have to get some sushi.