Enoki mushrooms are almost an essential dish for hot pot. With their beautiful shape and smooth, tender caps, enoki mushrooms are not only rich in essential substances for the human body such as protein, crude fiber, and vitamins, but the lysine and zinc in them can also promote children's intellectual development and growth, earning them the reputation of "smart mushrooms."
Some consumers like to eat semi-cooked enoki mushrooms, enjoying their crunchy texture. This is actually an incorrect way to eat them. Experts from the China Cuisine Association remind us that enoki mushrooms must be thoroughly cooked before consumption, as eating them raw can easily lead to food poisoning.
Stir-fried Enoki Mushrooms
Fresh enoki mushrooms contain colchicine, which can easily be oxidized into toxic colchicine dioxide after consumption. This substance has a strong irritant effect on the gastrointestinal and respiratory mucous membranes. Symptoms such as a dry throat, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea usually appear within 30 minutes to 4 hours after consumption. In severe cases of large consumption, it may also lead to fever, water and electrolyte imbalance, and even bloody stools or urine.
Colchicine is easily soluble in water and its components can be destroyed by sufficient heating. Therefore, before consuming fresh enoki mushrooms, they should be soaked in cold water for 2 hours. When cooking, boil them until they are soft and thoroughly cooked to allow the colchicine to decompose from the heat. For cold salads, in addition to soaking in cold water, they should also be blanched in boiling water to ensure they are completely cooked through.
Currently, there are two common colors of enoki mushrooms on the market: white and yellow. High-quality white enoki mushrooms should have a pure white or milky white color, while yellow enoki mushrooms should be light yellow to yellowish-brown, with the color of the stem being lighter at the top and darker at the bottom. Regardless of the color, fresh enoki mushrooms suitable for selection and consumption should have a pure color, round, tight caps that have not opened, and no white aerial mycelium at the base.
Experts remind that if the enoki mushrooms have an unusually uniform and bright color, lack their original fresh aroma, and have a strange smell, they may have been treated with bleaching, dyeing, or additives. Pay attention to whether the chemicals used could affect your health and if the residue levels exceed the standard. If canned enoki mushrooms are brightly colored, have a pungent odor, and have cloudy soup with suspended particles, they may have been specially treated and should not be purchased.
If you are concerned that the enoki mushrooms have been treated with bleaching or dyeing during sale, you can blanch them in boiling water before cooking, adding a small spoonful of salt to the water. This can remove residual sulfur and also has a sterilizing effect.
When eating enoki mushrooms, you should also pay attention to the following points:
Some substances in enoki mushrooms can stimulate and induce lupus nephritis. Additionally, enoki mushrooms are high in purines, and gout is a symptom caused by abnormal purine metabolism. Therefore, patients with gout and lupus should be cautious when consuming them to avoid worsening their condition. Furthermore, enoki mushrooms are considered "cold" in nature, so people with a weak spleen and stomach or chronic diarrhea should try to eat them in moderation.