Bacon-wrapped Enoki Mushrooms with a Maple-Sake Glaze - Diversivore.com

Bacon-Wrapped Enoki Mushrooms with Maple-Sake Glaze

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Bacon-wrapped Enoki Mushrooms with a Maple-Sake Glaze - Diversivore.com
Bacon-wrapped Enoki Mushrooms with a Maple-Sake Glaze - Diversivore.com

Bacon-wrapped
Enoki Mushrooms

with Maple-Sake Glaze

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The ever-popular bacon-wrapped mushroom gets a Japanese-Canadian fusion twist! Bundles of enoki mushrooms are wrapped in bacon and skewered with scallions before being basted with a scratch-made maple/shoyu tare sauce, then grilled to perfection. These make an amazing appetizer, but they'd be equally at home anchoring a bento-style meal.

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Hi! Welcome to the first Food × Fast post on Diversivore! A quick intro for new and older readers alike: these posts forego the culinary culture/history writing you'll find elsewhere on the site in order to jump right to the whole "making food" part.  While these posts are shorter and quicker than others on the site, you can still expect them to be loaded with detailed instructions and helpful tips.  You can check out more of these posts here.

When I was in Japan filming a TV show back in 2018, one subject that came up with the crew was what, exactly, constitutes Canadian food.  It's a complicated question.  Sure there's maple syrup, but it's really only produced in part of Eastern Canada.  There's also Hawaiian pizza - which everyone in Japan thought was kind of hilarious.  Because it is.  But when you really get into the details, a lot of the recipes that are unique to Canada are fusion dishes connected to immigrant communities.  There are, for example, a wide variety of Japanese-Canadian fusion foods.  Many of these feature a blend of Japanese and western cooking techniques, often adapted to the ingredients that are (or were) more easily found in North America.  These recipes are fantastic, and I highly encourage you to seek out cookbooks (and related publications) by Japanese Canadian associations.  These community-sourced books are full of fantastic stuff that you rarely see online.  If you can find a copy of the phenomenal cookbook Just Add Shoyu (from the JCCC), snap it up.  I also adore the smaller (but still excellent) Home Away from Home by the Vancouver Tonari Gumi association.

Prompted by my conversations in Japan, and by the enthusiasm for maple syrup I encountered there, I decided to put together a little fusion recipe of my own.  These grilled, bacon-wrapped mushrooms feature a combination of Japanese and Canadian ingredients, cooked yakiniku-style with a homemade tare sauce.  This is actually based on a predecessor recipe of mine, but I decided change up the mushrooms and further Canadian-ify it with the maple.  The bacon is a Canadian (or at least Western) twist as well, but I'll get into that further in the recipe notes below.  You won't need a lot of time to put this together, but it can be streamlined a bit if you make the tare sauce ahead of time, and if you've got helping hands for the bacon-wrapping and skewering.  But no matter how quickly you get these made, be prepared to watch them disappear from the plate even faster!

Bacon-wrapped Enoki Mushrooms with a Maple-Sake Glaze - Diversivore.com

Recipe Notes

While the bacon, enoki, and scallions (green onions) make up the substance of this dish, I would argue that the tare sauce is actually the most important part to get right. To that end, I'm going to use this section to break down a few key notes about the ingredients, putting the skewers together, and how to really nail that luxuriously salty-savoury-sweet sauce.

Ingredients & Substitutions

Most of the ingredients used here are fairly accessible in the English-speaking world, but it is possible to run into a few snags depending on where you are in the world (and especially what you consider to be 'bacon').

Enoki Mushrooms

Enoki mushrooms are easiest to find at Asian grocery stores, but they're also increasingly common at run-of-the-mill Western grocery stores.  Look for fresh looking, firm, enoki.  Avoid mushrooms that look overly watery, discoloured, or like they've taken a bit of a beating.  If you can't find enoki, you can try other mushrooms that can be bundled together.  Shimeji mushrooms work well (in fact, I used them in an earlier variation on this recipe), but do note that the flavour and texture of enoki is quite distinctively different from other mushrooms.

Bacon

Bacon is a surprisingly confusing thing.  This recipe uses the kind of smoked, raw, thin-cut side bacon that most North Americans would consider to be 'standard' bacon.  Japanese bacon is a pre-cooked, ham-like food, more akin to back bacon (which is known as Canadian bacon in the USA - we Canadians don't call it that).  Similarly, 'bacon' is generally used in the UK and Ireland to refer to back bacon, while the 'American' style side-cut stuff used here is referred to as streaky bacon.  I don't recommend trying to make this recipe with back bacon - you need the fat and flexibility of side cut bacon to make this really work.  The smoke flavour is a big plus too, in my opinion.  Bacon varieties with a combination of side/belly and loin can work too (rashers and Aus/NZ bacon for example), but you might do well to cut off the lean ends and save them for another purpose.  I suspect that you could also wrap these bundles up quite nicely with pancetta or speck, but do be aware that the lower moisture content might reduce your cooking time and/or require more frequent basting with the tare sauce.

Maple Syrup

Please use real maple syrup.  I try quite hard not to get too snooty about my ingredients, but this is a big part of the character of this dish, and artificially flavoured maple syrup is too one-dimensional (and, in my opinion, odd-tasting).  I like a medium/amber maple syrup, but a darker, bolder one wouldn't be out of place.  If you absolutely can't get real maple syrup, consider switching the recipe up entirely.  I would recommend swapping the syrup for good brown sugar or honey at a 1:1 ratio.
Bacon-wrapped Enoki Mushrooms with a Maple-Sake Glaze

Sake, Mirin, & Shoyu

There's enormous diversity in the character and quality of these ingredients, and learning how best to use them is an absolute game-changer when it comes to Japanese cooking. I covered these ingredients in a lot more detail in my guide to making ponzu shoyu, so if you're looking to take a deep dive into this stuff, I suggest heading there.

I highly recommend checking out the mirin Pantry Page guide here on Diversivore if you're new to using that ingredient.  Mirin is supposed to be a sweet rice wine, but the most commonly available versions outside of Japan are often little more than flavoured corn syrup.  I'm not a fan.  The good news is that you can substitute for mirin with sake plus added sugar.  Given that you're already using sake here, it's a simple swap to make.  On that note, I personally recommend using at least a moderate-quality sake to cook with.  Some consider it overkill and prefer to use the cheap stuff, but I personally take the same approach that I do with cooking wines: if I can't at least tolerate the flavour on its own, I don't want it in my food.

Shoyu (soy sauce) is a far, far more complex ingredient than many Western cooks realize.  Given that it's such a major component of the tare sauce, it's definitely something you want to look into.  At the bare minimum, I suggest using a traditionally brewed soy sauce, rather than one made using acid-hydrolysis.  Hydrolyzed soy sauces are cheap, fast, and easy to make, but they tend to taste much more brash and harsh than traditionally brewed sauces.  By law, Japanese shoyu must be at least partially traditionally brewed (some cheap versions blend in hydrolyzed soy sauce).  This means that you're making a pretty safe bet by using something like Kikkoman.

Finally, a note about salt.  Between the shoyu and the bacon, there's a lot of salt here.  If you want to cut the salt down, you can find some very good quality reduced-sodium soy sauces on the market.  Once again, look for something traditionally brewed, and trust your taste buds.  Note that 'light' soy sauce is NOT the same as 'lite' or low-sodium soy sauce.  Light soy sauce (called usukuchi shoyu in Japanese) is lighter in colour, but is actually saltier than its dark (koikuchi) cousin.  Usukuchi shoyu is great stuff, but I prefer darker, less salty varieties for making tare, as the cooking process concentrates the salt content even further.

Bacon-wrapped Enoki Mushrooms with a Maple-Sake Glaze - Diversivore.com

Tare Sauce

The word 'tare' (TA-ray) deserves to be better known in the English language. Tare sauces sweetened, thickened soy sauces used for (amongst other things) dipping or basting grilled meats. These have largely been filtered into Western culinary consciousness in the form of teriyaki sauces.  I find store-bought teriyaki sauces are rarely worth using, and after you've tried making your own tare sauce, I think you'll agree that homemade tare isn't just tastier, but wonderfully easy too.

The actual instructions for making this maple-infused tare are pretty straightforward, so I won't get into much detail here.  Don't be afraid to taste test a little as you go along - you want the tare to be thick, and to have a strong (but not over-concentrated) salty/sweet kick.  If you overthicken your tare a bit, you can rescue it by adding some water, assuming you can catch it before it burns.

Tare sauce keeps well in the fridge and can even be frozen, so don't be afraid to make larger batches if you're planning to do a lot of Japanese grilling.

Assembly

I find it easiest to wrap the bundles if you keep the bacon somewhat cold, as it tends to fall apart a little less.  Thin cut bacon makes this a lot easier; thick cut bacon is going to be a bit harder to work with, and it won't cling to itself as much.

Because the mushrooms and bacon don't really hold tight to the skewers, I find it easier to manipulate these on the grill if you run two skewers through each set of bundles (see above).  This keeps them from rotating on the skewers when you go to flip them, and also saves you from accidentally letting a skewer slip down into the spaces on your grill.

Make Ahead

You can assemble and refrigerate these bundles up to 24 hours in advance, but they don't freeze particularly well (the mushrooms tend to get soggy). The tare sauce can be made well in advance and refrigerated or frozen. If you're planning to freeze tare, I suggest making a double batch and portioning it out.
Bacon-wrapped Enoki Mushrooms with a Maple-Sake Glaze - Diversivore.com

Note: Nutritional Information is given for a single serving (1/6th portion of the total recipe), and assumes that 3/4 of the total tare/sauce recipe is consumed.

Nutrition Facts
Bacon-Wrapped Enoki Mushrooms with Maple-Sake Glaze
Amount Per Serving
Calories 325 Calories from Fat 225
% Daily Value*
Fat 25g38%
Saturated Fat 8g50%
Cholesterol 41mg14%
Sodium 1326mg58%
Potassium 374mg11%
Carbohydrates 13g4%
Fiber 1g4%
Sugar 6g7%
Protein 10g20%
Vitamin A 185IU4%
Vitamin C 3.3mg4%
Calcium 28mg3%
Iron 1.1mg6%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Nutritional Summary

Note: the sodium values are difficult to estimate, as you're not going to eat all of the sauce. I've allowed a fairly generous 3/4 of the tare sauce to be eaten, but you'll likely find that's overly generous.

GOOD NEWS:

High in protein and (realistically speaking) lower in sodium than it would first appear, given that you're not likely to use all of the tare.

BAD NEWS:

Bacon and lots of shoyu (soy sauce) means lots of salt. See below for cutting this down without sacrificing on flavour.

CUT THE SALT:

A good quality reduced-sodium shoyu/soy sauce can be substituted here to cut a lot of salt, but make sure it's a brand you like, as the flavour is very important here. You can also get away with using a bit less of the tare to baste the skewers.

Ingredient & Pantry Pages

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Bacon-wrapped Enoki Mushrooms with a Maple-Sake Glaze - Diversivore.com
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5 from 3 votes

Bacon-Wrapped Enoki Mushrooms with Maple-Sake Glaze

Bacon and mushrooms with a Japanese flair! Wonderully textural enoki mushrooms, bacon, and a made-from-scratch salty-sweet tare (teriyaki) sauce make these an appetizer or side to remember.
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time30 minutes
Total Time45 minutes
Course: Appetizer, Side Dish
Cuisine: Asian, Canadian, Japanese, North American
Keyword: bacon and mushrooms, kushiyaki, tare recipe
Servings: 6 people
Calories: 325kcal

Ingredients

Mushrooms

  • 7 oz enoki mushrooms
  • 13 oz bacon
  • 8 scallions white portions only

Maple-Sake Tare (Glaze)

  • 1/2 cup shoyu (soy sauce)
  • 1/4 cup sake
  • 2 tbsp mirin
  • 1 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 3 tbsp maple syrup separated into 2 and 1 tbsp portions
  • 1/2 inch ginger (~1 cm) unpeeled, thinly sliced
  • 1/2 oz scallion greens (~3-4)
  • 2 cloves garlic

Instructions

Maple-Sake Tare (Glaze)

  • Combine the liquid ingredients except for 1 tbsp of maple syrup in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the ginger, scallion greens and garlic cloves and simmer over medium-high heat until the sauce is reduced by about half (about 15-20 minutes). It should be glossy and relatively thick. Let stand for 5 minutes.
  • Strain the solids and store the sauce in a sealed container. It can be refrigerated for up to a month.
  • Reserve 1/2 tbsp of the tare sauce and combine with the remaining 1 tbsp of maple syrup. You'll use this to brush the cooked mushroom-bacon bundles in the final step below.

Bacon-wrapped Mushrooms

  • If using wooden/bamboo skewers, soak them in water for 30 minutes beforehand. Alternately, use metal skewers.
  • Gently clean and trim the base of the enoki mushrooms, then separate them into small bundles, about the thickness of a thumb.
  • Heat a grill/barbecue to about 350°F, assuming it has an upper rack or some other way to keep the skewers far from any flames. If you don't have an upper rack, heat the grill to a lower temperature, about 275° F, and place a tray below the grill to prevent flare-ups from the bacon fat.
  • Starting at the base, wrap a bundle of mushroom with a strip of bacon. The bacon should spiral up the stalk of mushrooms, overlapping slightly all along the way. Thread the bundle onto two skewers, then thread a scallion on in the same fashion. You can use 1 skewer only, but it makes it much more difficult to turn the mushrooms on the grill without them rotating. Repeat with all remaining mushrooms and scallions. Place 3 bundles and 2 scallions on each pair of skewers.
  • Use a brush to baste the mushroom/bacon wraps with the maple-sake tare sauce.
  • Place the mushroom skewers on the upper rack of the barbecue and cook, periodically turning and brushing on more tare sauce. Cook until the mushrooms and scallions are soft and a bit charred and the bacon is well-cooked (10-15 minutes). If you don't have an upper rack, cook directly on the grill over lower heat. Pay close attention in either case, as the rendering bacon fat can flare up on the grill considerably, especially in the final few minutes.
  • Remove the bacon-mushroom bundles from the grill and brush with the reserved tare and maple glaze from above. Serve immediately (allow for 2 per person as an appetizer).

Nutrition

Calories: 325kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 25g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 41mg | Sodium: 1326mg | Potassium: 374mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 185IU | Vitamin C: 3.3mg | Calcium: 28mg | Iron: 1.1mg

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Comments

  1. 5 stars
    As soon as I saw “bacon-wrapped” and “mushrooms” in the title, I was intrigued! Two of my favourite things! Just gets better with the delicious glaze too. What a fun and delicious appetizer to make!

    1. Author

      I mean, they’re hard words to ignore. Lol. Glad you like the recipe – thanks for commenting!

  2. You had me at bacon, then again at mushrooms! The glaze sounds amazing as well. We’ve been blessed with great grilling weather so I’m planning on giving these a go in the next week or two!

    1. Author

      I get the impression that I could probably just keep combining those ingredients over and over and win plenty of fans. Haha. I hope they work well for you – love to know your final thoughts!

  3. 5 stars
    You just can’t go wrong with bacon wrapped mushrooms! The Japanese/Canadian fusion is a deliciously creative spin on the classic. And the soy/maple glaze just takes them to the next level. Great recipe!

    1. Author

      Thanks Colleen! Honestly, as far as grilling goes, I think enoki get ignored a lot because their small size makes them difficult to work with on a grill. So… gotta wrap ’em in bacon, right? Haha.

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