Salt and pepper fried mushroom was my favorite dinning hall dish when I was in my university. I love both the crispy shell and soft mushrooms. Those fried mushrooms are served with Sichuan pepper salt (a mixture of Sichuan Pepper powder and salt). But they can go well with other powder seasonings like Chinese five spice powder and black pepper powder.
Elaine is a big fans of all kinds of mushrooms. Sometimes, I use mushrooms in soups (oyster mushroom egg drop soup), in stir fries (kung pao mushrooms) and in braised veggies (mushroom and bok choy).
Ingredient you will need
- Around 400g oyster mushrooms, remove the tough ends
- 1 egg
- 1 cup starch (I use sweet potato starch)+1/2 cup more if necessary
- a small pinch of salt
- a small pinch of black pepper
- oil for frying
- salt as needed
- Sichuan peppercorn powder as needed
How to make fried mushrooms
Remove the tough ends of the oyster mushroom and then split into strips around 2-3 cm wide. After cleaning, squeeze the water out.
Sprinkle starch and then add egg, salt and black pepper. Mix well. After mixing, all the oyster mushroom should be coated with a thin layer of starch mixture.
Mix salt and Sichuan peppercorn powder with a similar ratio of 1:1.
Heat around 2 cups of oil in wok and then slide the mushroom strips in for deep-frying until the surface becomes golden brown.
Serve with Sichuan peppercorn and salt.
- 400 g oyster mushrooms , remove the tough ends
- 1 egg
- 1 cup starch , I use sweet potato starch
- a small pinch of salt
- a small pinch of black pepper
- oil for frying
- salt as needed
- Sichuan peppercorn powder as needed
-
Remove the tough ends of the oyster mushroom and then split into strips around 2-3 cm wide. After cleaning, slightly squeeze the water out.
-
Sprinkle starch and then add egg, salt and black pepper. Mix well.
-
Mix salt and Sichuan peppercorn powder with a similar ratio of 1:1.
-
Heat around 2 cups of oil in wok and then slide the mushroom strips in for deep-frying until the surface becomes golden brown.
-
Serve directly with Sichuan peppercorn salt.
I love sichuan food and i recently had stir fried mushrooms with duck liver sauce. I would love to try this at home but i cannot find a recipe – any suggestions?
Hi Julie,
In traditional Chinese cooking, we do not use duck liver sauce. So I am sorry that I cannot help directly.
Hi. Is there a way to maintain the crispiness of the crispy mushroom, e.g. for a week? For per experience, the crispinesa only lasts for an hour. Thank you.
Hi Mina,
If no food additives added, there is no way to keep the crispiness for a week. It is a dish need to be served after making. Sorry that I can’t help.
Hi! I am wondering if one could make this without the egg and what would you substitute it with. I am trying to avoid meat, dairy, and eggs. Thank you so much for sharing your recipe!
Hi Louise,
If you don’t want to use egg, you can skip egg in the batter and replace the egg with 30ml water.
Thank you so much for this recipe..
There is this restaurant in Rowland Heights California called “the happy veggie garden”
and they served this plate there but it was recently taken off. Thanks again!
It is very popular in China too. I hope you enjoy it. Happy cooking.
Hi Elaine,
Thanks so much for sharing the fried oyster mushroom recipe.
The mushroom tasted great. Soft and crispy at the same time.
We always have this dish at a nearby Chinese restaurant. Tried few times to copy the dish but the outcome was never like your recipe.
Yours is our choice.
Thanks Zuraida!
It is very nice to read such a lovely comment.
Hi Elaine,
I made this last night for the family, but was running short on Oyster mushrooms so prepped and used Enoki and Shimeji mushrooms in addition to the Oyster mushrooms I had, went heavy handed with the pepper, and due to the various sizes of mushrooms, just fried half at a time, was not a pretty as your photos, but amazingly delicious! Very well liked by the family, and mother in law had seconds 🙂 Thank you for a brilliant and tasty recipe. Worthy of 10 stars 🙂
Thanks Lee. Your comment makes me so happy. It has been one of my favorite dish during my university life. I love to fry enoki mushrooms too. They looks quite funny after frying, though.
Hello! I’ve had fried oyster mushrooms at a vegan restaurant nearby and was hoping to recreate this dish. Your pics look SO MUCH BETTER than other recipes I’ve seen online. I was wondering, could you just use cornstarch for this? Do you think they would hold up to being tossed in a sauce, like General Tso?
Hi Amanda,
Yes you can sue cornstarch only for coating. I prefer eating with a dry mix but not a dipping sauce so we can keep the crispy texture and original aroma.
But you can have a try and see how it goes.
Hello
Im here in philippines, i just wanna ask where i can be able to buy a sichuan peppercorn powder and also if ever there is no sichuan peppercorn powder what would be the best alternatives. Thanks
Gerold,
I am sorry that Sichuan peppercorn is so special and there is no alternatives. You can search your Chinese stores nearby and see whether you can find a Sichuan peppercorn powder or Sichuan pepper.
But for this particular dish, you can use black pepper to replace Sichuan peppercorn.
Hello, would flour work as the starch?
No, starch works better.