I love this dish because of how good it tastes for how little effort it takes. I first encountered this recipe at an izakaya, a type of Japanese tapas drinking establishment. "Izakaya" literally means "alcohol house", although it sounds sexier in Japanese. In the original recipe, mushrooms are wrapped in foil and cooked on the grill. Since the barbeque season is rather short in Poland, I came up with this "pan" version and added tofu.

I'm using enoki and shimeji mushrooms today, but you can do this with almost any kind. I've also done this with fresh shiitake mushrooms and oyster mushrooms and king mushrooms are marvelous in this dish.

Ingredients

• 1 bunch enoki mushrooms
• 1 box shimeji mushrooms
• 1 piece tofu
• 0.75 cups sake -- If you don't know what to do with the other quarter cup of sake, I recommend drinking it.
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 pats of butter
• 1 handful chopped green onions

Method

• Drain tofu and place in the bottom of a deep pan.
• Slice off the gritty bottom part of the shimejis, then separate and spread them across the tofu.
• Cut off the bottom part of the enoki stems. I find it easiest to do this while they're still in the package so I open the package at the same time and the enokis can slide out. It also keeps the discarded bottom parts nicely wrapped instead of getting everywhere.

• Separate the enokis and spread them over the shimejis. Generally, put mushrooms with the least cooking time on top and the ones with the longer cooking times on the bottom.
• Pour the sake over the mushrooms.
• Pour the soy sauce over the mushrooms.
• Place 3 pats of butter on top of the mushrooms.

• Cover the pan with a lid and turn heat to medium-low. Don't worry if there doesn't seem to be much liquid. Some water will come out of the tofu.
• Go kill some aliens for 15-20 minutes. You could add said aliens to the dish, but I find that they generally don't go well with tofu.
• When the mushrooms have properly shrunk, throw some green onions on top and enjoy!

You could use medium-high heat and do this quicker, but I like that I can just setup this dish and do something else while it "makes itself". I also think it gives more time for the flavours to infuse, especially with the tofu (mushrooms are sponges anyways). It also gives the tofu more time to warm up properly, especially if it just came out of the fridge.

Because this is so easy to make, it's great for when you don't feel like cooking, but still want real food instead of instant food.

But the best part of this dish is the amazingly delicious sauce that accumulates at the bottom. I could eat just that with rice and forget about everything else!