Wood ear mushroom salad is a very easy and popular Chinese side cold dish. It possibly enjoys the highest ordering rate in Chinese restaurants. Do you like the dark food—wood ear mushrooms?
What’s Wood Ear Mushrooms
Wood ear mushroom (木[mù]耳[ěr]), also known as black fungus is a type of edible fungus frequently used in Chinese cuisines. It is grown on wood and looks like a ear. So Chinese people give it a lovely name, wood ear mushroom. You may find it used in meat stir-fries like moo shu pork and veggie stir-fries. But the loveliest way of enjoying the wood ear mushroom in my cabinet is to make a wood ear mushrooms that only requires several minutes preparation.
There are several types of wood ear mushroom. Common black wood ear mushroom, gray wood ear mushroom and this small black wood ear mushrooms are all member of the family. Smaller ones are called as “云耳”, usually are more crunchy and thicker. 
In summer, we loves to a salad with wood ear mushrooms. They can be extremely crunchy and delicious with simple hot garlic sauce. It shares common features with louts root. When lightly cooked, they are crunchy and best for salad. If cooked for a longer time, they absorb the flavors and seasonings and turned to be extremely delicious and soft.
If wood ear mushroom is stir-fried over high fire, you should be very careful as they splash a lot and there will be pa-pa-pa sound. When I was still a child, I love the sound so much.
Cook’s Note
It is very important to remove any sandy parts of the wood ear mushroom (usually the bottom). Sand will make the dish a complete failure.
1/4 cup dried wood ear mushrooms seem to be a small amount, but you will end up with around 150g after soaking as the wood ear mushrooms will absorb lots of water during soaking. That amount should be perfect for a side dish salad.
Steps
Cut the bottom of the wood ear mushroom and wash carefully. Make sure no sand contained.
Cook soaked wood ear mushroom in boiling water for 1 minute. Transfer out and soak in cold water to cool down. It is extremely to soak the wood ear mushroom in cold water to get the crunchy texture. Then completely drain before mixing.
In a small pot, heat oil, add spring onion whites, chili pepper circles and garlic. Fry over slow fire until aromatic. Then turn off the fire, add light soy sauce, vinegar, salt, sugar and sesame oil. Mix well and set aside until cooled.
Here you are! Just mix everything and get your table a wonderful wood ear salad.
Other cold salad dish for summer
- shredded potato salad
- Chinese kelp (dried seaweed) salad
- Smashed cucumber salad
- Okra salad with black vinegar dressing
- Lotus root salad
- 1/4 cup dried wood ear mushrooms
- a small bunch of coriander
- 1/4 middle size onion
- 2 garlic clove , chopped
- 1 fresh Thai chili pepper , cut into small pieces
- 2 tbsp. vegetable cooking oil
- 3 spring onion white , cut into small sections
- 1 tbsp. Chinese black vinegar
- 2 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 1/2 tbsp. sesame oil
- pinch of salt if necessary
- 1/2 tsp. sugar
- 1 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds , optional
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Soak the dried mushrooms in warm water for 30 minutes until they absorb the water and become soft. Rinse in cold water. Tear larger pieces into bite size and remove the sandy ends. Wash carefully and make sure no sand is contained.
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Cook soaked mushrooms in boiling water for around 1 to 2 minutes. Turn off fire and place the onion slices in. Transfer out immediately and soak in cold water to cool down.
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Completely drain the wood ear mushrooms and then place in serving plate.
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Heat oil in a pot and fry garlic, spring onion and fresh thai peppers until aromatic over slowest fire. Turn off fire and add all the other seasonings. Mix well and serve.
There are lots of other versions in China, for example you can add sliced cucumber and goji berries.
I started marinating these to ensure they will last in the fridge for a few days – same blend of oil and flavours. It’s truly delicious!
Haha, I found this too when dealing with leftovers.
Hi
I enjoy wood ear mushroom but when I’ve had them the dressing is sweet and sour and light in colour no soy used very delicious
Thanks for the feedback Steve. In my hometown, lots of people also love to omit soy sauce and use the water for pickled vegetables only. It should taste good too. Happy cooking!
I made this dish this summer. Here is my picture of creating your recipe: https://tmifood.wordpress.com/2017/09/22/black-fungus-with-marinade/
Going to try for sure! I love these mushrooms ❤️😊
Hi Elaine
Thanks for the recipe! Is it really only 1/4 cup of mushrooms? It looks more than that in the video. Thanks again!
Syvs,
Maybe my description is not precise. I use smallest wood ear mushrooms and when they are still dried, they have small volumes. You can use 50 ~70 grams for a regular side dish.
I just finished trying this recipe and it was delicious! I’ve also found several more of your recipes that I’m excited to make.
I believe this must be quite impressive. Thanks for the feedback.
This was delicious! I used balsamic vinegar and it worked well too. I made it for my family and it was enjoyed by everyone. will make this again.
You get it JW. This is super healthy too.
I just bought some dried wood-ear mushrooms, but packet says one must cook them in boiling water for at least 15 minutes after soaking… is this necessary? I’d hate to over-cook them, advice appreciated! thanks ^_^
I believe there is no need to cook as long as 15 minutes for regular wood ear mushrooms. The instruction may want a real soft texture.
I’ve been making this for a while–the textures are excellent, and the sauce goes so well with it! Sometimes I add a bit of chopped century egg to this salad. Thank you for your great blog, everything I’ve made has been awesome so far, and I’ll definitely try more recipes from here 🙂
So, so, so delicious! I doubled give recipe because I had a large quantity of mushroom. Cooking time is perfect. And they tasted even better over the course of the next few days. I did leave out the onion. Thank you for the recipe- it’s going into my rotation.
Yelena,
Yes, wood ear mushrooms have totally different texture with different cooking time. For stewed longer ones, it can have a very soft and sticky texture. But fo salad, we need to keep the crunchy feature. So no need to cook them for long time.