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Reconstituting dry ingredients can sometimes pose an obstacle for the cook in a hurry. Just when you're ready to plunge into cooking something, the preparation is held up by a mushroom that can't seem to plump up fast enough. How much time does it take? Are there short cuts?

When a recipe calls for soaking a dried ingredient to reconstitute it (e.g., Chinese black/shitake and wood ear mushrooms) or soften it (e.g., glass noodles), just put the item in a bowl and cover with hot water. Wood ear mushrooms (nam meo/moc nhi) and glass noodles (mien) need about 15 minutes. Thin-capped lower-quality Chinese black mushrooms (nam dong co) may need as little as 1 hour to soften and plump up in hot water.

However, high quality Chinese black mushrooms with their thick and beautifully cracked caps deserve a long languid soak in cold water for at least 8 hours or overnight. The resulting texture is amazingly firm and velvety smooth when cut. The flavor is deeper too. Try this with low-quality cheap mushrooms and you'll be equally rewarded. Though this method may seem time consuming, consider that reconstituted mushrooms may be kept refrigerated for several days before cooking. You can soak way ahead of time!

Prepping Mushrooms and Noodles for Cooking

Before using reconstituted black mushrooms, remember to rinse out any particles of sand or dirt that may be trapped under the gills, and then to slice off the knobby stem. Similarly, remove the tough "eye" located in the center of the wood ear mushroom before proceeding. Note that some packages of wood ear mushrooms now come with the eye already removed. In this regard, you'll have to guess how many pieces would constitute a whole wood ear mushroom.

Long strands of glass noodles are difficult to manage with chopsticks when it comes to cooking them and eating them. After draining and before final cooking, use scissors to cut them into shorter lengths. In general, I find making a criss-cross cut works well.

Convenience Products

Asian market shelves now offer packages of pre-sliced dried Chinese black and wood ear mushrooms, which soften up in practically no time. The disadvantage is that you're stuck with standardized thicknesses to work with. Plus, with regard to the Chinese black mushrooms, there's no guarantee that you're getting top-notch mushrooms. I find the pre-sliced wood ear to be useful. The Chinese black mushrooms are often too thinly cut and somewhat tasteless. In a pinch, however, these may be the inpatient cook's best friends.