Bacon-Wrapped Enoki Mushrooms with Maple-Sake Glaze

🧂 Ingredients

• 7 oz enoki mushrooms
• 13 oz bacon
• 8 scallions

  white portions only
• 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

• 1 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.
• 2 Strain the solids and store the sauce in a sealed container. It can be
  refrigerated for up to a month.
• 3 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.
• 4 If using wooden/bamboo skewers, soak them in water for 30 minutes beforehand.
  Alternately, use metal skewers.
• 5 Gently clean and trim the base of the enoki mushrooms, then separate them into
  small bundles, about the thickness of a thumb.
• 6 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.
• 7 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.
• 8 Use a brush to baste the mushroom/bacon wraps with the maple-sake tare sauce.
• 9 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.
• 10 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 Info