Vegetarian Mock Fried Clams with Oyster Mushrooms

Snowmageddon 2021 has passed through Texas, leaving many without power, water or heat, or others with frozen and broken pipes. 

I thank everyone who has reached out to inquire as to our safety, it means so very much. 

We are quite well, and very lucky. We never lost power, though we only just got our internet back. We did have the pool and some pipes freeze, as our temperatures inside the house dropped below 50. Apparently our gas meter's regulator was not set for that kind of prolonged cold, but the gas company did come out and get it tweaked for us to the point were it could keep up. 

Our street was never plowed, nor were neighboring streets, throughout the entirety of the situation. We hadn't really hit up the grocery stores (which were packed and sold out) before the snow started, as honestly, we didn't think it would be that bad. So we have been making do with what's in the pantry for the past week. 

Before I get into the post, I wanted to again thank all my readers who continually reach out even through my long disappearances. I'm back because of you. 

Our pantry has dried wild mushrooms. LOTS of dried wild mushrooms. The canister here is one of FOUR that I had in storage after this season's harvest, mostly winter oysters in December, but some summer oysters as well. 

We've eaten through 2 of these canisters so far. This week without groceries took one more or less on its own. 

I've seen plenty of oyster mushroom fried clam recipes online, and I didn't think the world needed ANOTHER one. I've made them before myself, but these were something new, and I felt I needed to share. 

I used DRIED oyster mushrooms this time, and it made a huge difference!!

Dried oyster mushrooms, when reconstituted, have a kind of chewiness, even sometimes a stringiness, and a bit of a toughness. 

Ordinarily, these make dried oyster mushroom less appetizing then they are when fresh, and they are best served puree'd in soups or patties. But clams are also chewy and kinda stringy, and a little tough. I've used oyster mushrooms as a clam substitute before, but this was even better. 

This is definitely my new favorite way to eat dried oyster mushrooms. It also received double thumbs-up from my husband. 

Summer oyster mushrooms in our back yard.

A couple of years ago, the Dallas area had a huge thunderstorm, lasting nearly a weekend. Many people lost trees, or tree limbs.

My husband and I circled the neighborhood, looking for logs out by the street for garbage collection. We wanted to get to them first. 

We were looking for hardwoods primarily, 4-6 inches in diameter. We were looking for logs to inoculate with wild mushroom spawn. 

We tried four types of mushroom spawn: two kinds of oyster mushrooms (supposedly very easy), shiitake (medium easy), and lion's made (difficult). 

After a year of no growth, we tossed the logs into the woody green space behind our fence in the back yard. 

This past summer and fall, that area had oyster mushrooms. The oyster mushrooms were NOT on the logs we inoculated, but they WERE on many of the surrounding logs. 

Did our inoculation somehow spread? Was it a simple coincidence and these oysters were a different strain? No way to tell 100% for sure, but there were oysters on our back neighbors trees, across the creek, for the past few years, so chances are these are a wild strain. 

We gathered them cheerfully for a few weeks. That plus our usual haul of winter oysters lead to an extreme bumper crop this year. 

On a related note, we had to take down a tree of our own this year, a fabulous green ash that unfortunately grew nearly horizontal at the top, dangerously low over our neighbor's roof, and brushing against it in a storm. 

Stump of a green ash in our front yard. 
Though hard to tell in the picture, it's more than 2 feet across.

We took this opportunity to inoculate the stump with still more oysters, and I'll keep you posted on how that goes. Ideally we will have a harvest next fall, though it's more likely to be the fall after. . . if we get anything at all!

Ok I keep getting distracted with catch-up information. 

As always when reconstituting oyster mushrooms, I recommend that you have some laver or nori (both kinds of dried seaweed) on hand. 

Crumbling up the seaweed into the reconstituting liquid is one of the best vegan ways to impart and enhance an ocean taste to wild mushrooms--from the inside out!

If you aren't trying to keep vegan or vegetarian, I also highly recommend some fish sauce in the water. As with the seaweed, this will really enhance the mushroom's natural seafood qualities. 

There are also vegan fish sauces, if you look for one of those, make sure you get one that incorporates both soy and kelp or other seaweeds. I find these have the most effective flavors. 

If you have any dried oyster mushrooms I strongly encourage you to make these mock clam strips. The texture is damn near identical to clams. The ingredients used to reconstitute the clams add a ton of ocean flavor, and the Southern Po'Boy seasoning mix adds to the illusion. While not quite a perfect clam imitation, this is far and away the closest I've had anywhere. 

Moreover, the mushroom gills really catch the seasonings, locking in the fabulous flavors once breaded. 

Kind of even looks like clam strips inside

Vegetarian Mock Fried Clams with Oyster Mushrooms

Serves 4 as a main course, can be used as appetizers. Can be doubled or tripled. 

3 cups of dried oyster mushrooms, use pieces at least clam strip size

1 large sheet of nori or laver, or 3 small "snack" size ones

3 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons fish sauce or vegan fish sauce (optional)

1 cup flour

1 cup cornmeal (I used fine ground, white cornmeal)

3 tablespoons paprika

3 tablespoons garlic powder

1 1/2 tablespoon dried ground celery

1 teaspoon dried onion powder

1/2 teaspoon allspice

pinch of cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon of cayenne powder (optional) 

Freshly ground black pepper

Sea salt

2 eggs, or vegan alternative

1/4 cup milk, soy milk, almond milk or alternative

Oil for frying

1. Add your oysters to a lidded container, large enough to hold them. 

I've been really digging this small 1960s casserole dish I got at an estate sale. When you put the lid on upside down, it presses into the water, keeping the mushrooms fully submerged. It's really quite perfect for this purpose. 

2. Prepare the reconstituting liquid by breaking up the nori or laver sheets into small pieces, adding in the soy sauce, fish sauce (if using), and 1 tbs of sea salt to the water. 

3. Fill the rest of the container with tepid water, and cover. Press the cover down to keep the mushrooms submerged. Set aside for at least 20 minutes, 40-60 is better for a stronger flavor. 

4. Mix all of the dried seasonings together in a small container and set aside.

5. Mix the eggs and milk (or alternatives) together in a shallow bowl for dredging. Mix the flower and cornmeal together in another. 

6. After the oyster mushrooms have reconstituted for enough time, remove them from the reconstituting water. Drain completely--press or squeeze them to make sure all the water is out. Do not pat dry, they should be damp. 

7. If pieces are large, cut into clam strip size. Spread them out and sprinkle lightly with the seasoning mixture, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add the remaining seasoning to your cornmeal/flour mixture and stir. 

8. Heat the oil very hot in a sauté pan. A smaller pan is better here, as the mushrooms cook very quickly and working in smaller batches is easier. Reduce the heat to medium-high. 

9. When the oil is hot, begin dredging the mushroom strips in the egg mixture first, followed by the breading. Coat each piece evenly, but make sure to not be too rough, especially in the breading stage. You don't want to break off the gills on your mushroom strips. 

10. Flip each strip once the side in the oil is nicely browned. When both sides are done, remove to plates covered in paper towels to drain the oil.

11. Serve immediately, with malt vinegar for dipping. If I could get out of my house to shop, fried potatoes and a nice slaw or green salad would have been perfect accompaniments. 

The weirdest thing, for me, about eating these mock clam strips during an snowpocolypse was that I personally associate clam strips with summer and the beach. Eating them while huddled up in a slanket and watching the snowfall created a bit of a mental short circuit.