It's the season for mushrooms: Stir-fried chicken with mushrooms, mushroom porridge, braised sea bass with mushrooms...

nấm tràm - Ảnh 1. — Stir-fried Melaleuca mushrooms with chicken, chicken gizzards and eggs - Photo: NHA XUAN

Yet, once you have eaten it, every season you crave that distinctive bitter taste, a flavor that cannot be found in any other dish.

When the rainy season comes, people in the Melaleuca forests wait for the day to pick mushrooms, while people in the city also "watch" to buy a few kilos of Melaleuca mushrooms to keep in the refrigerator to eat gradually, eating while afraid that when the season ends, it will be difficult to buy them.

There are many ways to cook straw mushrooms, such as stir-frying meat, shrimp, making soup, porridge, cooking rice noodles, stewing with pepper...

nấm tràm - Ảnh 2. — There are many ways to prepare Melaleuca mushrooms, in the photo is Melaleuca mushrooms cooked in porridge - Photo: NHA XUAN

Chicken stir-fried with straw mushrooms, a delicious dish on a rainy day

On the weekend, on the way to the market to find ingredients for dinner, my husband and I passed by a house in the neighborhood with a sign that said “Mushrooms for sale, 100,000 VND/kg”. We quickly stopped and bought half a kilo to try. If it was delicious, we would come back the next day to buy more.

The saleswoman boasted, "I just picked it up from Dong Nai . Can you eat it right away? If you want to eat it right away, I'll give you the unfrozen kind."

Normally, after being picked, the seller will clean and boil the mushrooms, then freeze them for storage and sale. After buying the mushrooms, the couple decided on the evening menu, so they went to the market to buy a chicken and cook chicken stir-fried with mushrooms.

Delicious stir-fried chicken with mushrooms on a rainy day - Video : NHA XUAN

Wash the purchased straw mushrooms before cooking. If you can't stand the bitter taste, there are some ways that people often recommend, such as soaking them in salt water or boiling them a few times to reduce the bitterness.

In addition, from my years of experience eating straw mushrooms, I find that straw mushrooms stored in the refrigerator are less bitter than when they were first refrigerated. Mushrooms that have opened their ears are also less bitter than mushrooms that are still in buds.

nấm tràm - Ảnh 3. — Melaleuca mushrooms are small, the size of a coin. When they bloom, the upper surface is brown and the lower surface is white. They are usually cleaned, boiled, and frozen before being sold - Photo: NHA XUAN

My family does not boil the mushrooms, but marinates them with a little sugar first and then cooks them. Besides, my husband - the main chef of the family - said that the straw mushroom must be bitter to be delicious, otherwise it is no longer straw mushroom.

The cooking method is also simple: Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces, leave the bones or remove the meat as desired, season according to your family's taste, then put it in a pan and stir-fry until firm.

When the meat is cooked, add the straw mushrooms, stir well until the ingredients are cooked, the flavors are absorbed, the mushrooms are soft but still crunchy, then sprinkle with pepper, green onions, and turn off the stove. This dish is best eaten with hot rice.

nấm tràm - Ảnh 4. — When the ingredients are cooked, add green onions and cilantro, turn off the stove, and serve hot with rice - Photo: NHA XUAN

My husband’s “secret” when stir-frying straw mushrooms with chicken is to definitely include shallots. The smell of shallots rises when stir-frying on a hot pan, mixed with the smell of straw mushrooms, filling the small kitchen in our apartment with an irresistible aroma.

Pick up a piece of chicken soaked in the aroma of straw mushrooms and shallots, chew on another piece of crispy mushroom, the mushroom ears are sweet and soft, feeling a bit slippery, the mushroom stems are bitter, each flavor has its own flavor, but does not conflict but blends together perfectly.

No need for fancy ingredients, just the right season and right flavor is enough for a delicious meal on a rainy day.

In addition to chicken stir-fried with straw mushrooms, every straw mushroom season, my kitchen is filled with the aroma of all kinds of dishes from straw mushrooms stir-fried with eggs, stir-fried with beef, to straw mushrooms braised with sea bass, straw mushroom porridge...