By Christina Morales, The New York Times
For much of the year in Haiti, rain seeps into the crevices of rotting wood, sparking the growth of an island delicacy: an earthy, black mushroom named djon-djon that is the main ingredient for a rice dish made on special occasions.
The mushrooms are hand-picked throughout the rainy season and left to shrivel in the sun. Then they’re sold across the island or bagged and exported to the United States, where Haitian Americans buy the dried mushrooms online or from Caribbean grocery stores.
For holidays, family events or Sunday dinners, Haitians clean the dried mushrooms thoroughly (or separate the woody stem from the cap, which has the most flavor). They soak and boil them in chicken broth to extract their meaty flavor, then cook rice in that stock and add lima beans. The mushrooms turn the rice a dark brown or black — thus the Haitian Creole name diri djondjon, or black mushroom rice, that some call the dish. Some people also add blue crabs, shrimp or lobster.
“Itap like gold,” Alain Lemaire, a Haitian chef in Miami, said of the mushroom. When his mother visits from Haiti, she brings about five pounds with her. He vacuum-seals the mushrooms and leaves them in the refrigerator for four months or more.
This year, djon-djon has been less plentiful than usual, because some cities in Haiti received less precipitation than normal in the rainy seasons (March to June and August to December). Prices have spiked, and Haitians living in the United States have contributed to an increase in demand. In a pinch, some cooks use djon-djon bouillon cubes to make the rice.
“Itap such a prized food that there are people who buy large amounts and send them to the United States and Canada to sell in the stores that serve the diaspora,” said Josiane Hudicourt-Barnes, an educator in Vineyard Haven, on Martha’s Vineyard, in Massachusetts. The mushrooms grow in the yard of her home near Pétion-Ville, Haiti.
Two years ago, Marc Robert Jeanniton started a business on Etsy to import and sell the mushrooms online. His mother, Monique Saint-Louis Jeanniton, is from Côtes-de-Fer, a city in the countryside southwest of Port-au-Prince where many of the mushrooms are grown. She buys djon-djon from farmers in the area.
“Djon-djon defines who we are when it comes to Haitian cuisine,” Jeanniton said.
Lemaire and Natacha Gomez-Dupuy, the author of “Bak Fritay: Haitian Street Foods,” have also been experimenting with djon-djon by using it as an ingredient in foods such as fresh pasta, gnocchi, aiolis and even in a homemade Oreo. Gomez-Dupuy has finished writing a book solely about the many ways people can use the mushroom.
Gomez-Dupuy, who worked with the World Central Kitchen to enhance their culinary program to teach aspiring chefs about Haitian cooking, thinks that the island’s native ingredients, notably djon-djon, have the potential to enrich the country’s cuisine and raise awareness of it around the world.
“Djon-djon is unique in flavor and texture,” she said, “and I think itap a great product that can help Haitian gastronomy.”
Djon-Djon Rice (Black Mushroom Rice)
Recipe from Natacha Gomez-Dupuy
Adapted by Christina Morales
Throughout Haiti, djon-djon mushrooms grow in rotting wood during the island’s rainy seasons. They’re picked and dried to make this intensely flavorful black mushroom rice — called diri djon-djon by some — that is typically served on holidays and for special occasions. (In a pinch, some people also use mushroom-flavored bouillon cubes by Maggi to season their rice.) This recipe, from Natacha Gomez-Dupuy, the author of “Bak Fritay: Haitian Street Foods,” starts with soaking the mushrooms to create a broth, blending together a verdant, clove-scented epis seasoning, then cooking parboiled rice in both to make this dish, which is meaty and full of umami. Add seafood such as blue crab, lobster or shrimp, or serve the rice with something saucy, perhaps a Haitian chicken stew.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Total time: 1 hour
Ingredients
For the rice:
- 2 cups (1 1/2 ounces) dried djon-djon mushrooms
- 4 cups unsalted chicken stock (or vegetable stock, or even water)
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup frozen lima beans
- 1 cup unsalted roasted cashews (optional)
- 2 cups parboiled rice
- 1 whole green Scotch bonnet chile
- 1 tablespoon butter (or plant-based butter)
For the epis:
- 3 small shallots, roughly chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 1/2 (packed) cup chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves and stems, plus more for garnish
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground thyme (or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves, or 4 fresh thyme sprigs, leaves removed and stalks discarded)
- Salt
Preparation
1. Clean the djon-djon: Sift the mushrooms through your fingers one small handful at a time, plucking out any wood particles or other debris and transferring your mushrooms to a medium lidded saucepan. Add the stock and soak for about 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, prepare the epis: In a blender or mini food processor, process the shallots, garlic, parsley, cloves, thyme and 1/4 teaspoon salt until it forms a paste, scraping the sides as needed. (You may need 1 or 2 tablespoons of water to help it blend.)
3. Bring the soaked djon-djon mushrooms in the stock to a simmer over medium-low heat then simmer for 10 minutes. Strain the broth, squeezing the mushrooms to extract as much liquid and flavor as possible, then reserve the djon-djon broth. (You should have about 2 1/2 cups.)
4. In a chodyè (caldero) or large Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-high. Add the epis and lima beans and stir for 2-3 minutes. Add the djon-djon broth and the roasted cashews, if using. Reduce the heat to medium and bring the mixture to a boil.
5. Meanwhile, rinse the rice to remove some of the starch. Drain the rice, then add to the boiling broth, along with the Scotch bonnet chile. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, until the cooking broth has almost evaporated, about 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt, then stir in the tablespoon of butter and cover the rice. Reduce the heat to low and let cook for another 15-20 minutes or until the rice is cooked through.
6. Fluff the rice, sprinkle with chopped parsley to garnish and serve hot.
This article originally appeared in .
