Shiitake Mushroom Rice Cakes

Ingredients

1 oz. dried shiitake mushrooms, chopped 2 cups fresh shiitake mushroom caps, diced 3 tbsps. olive oil 1/4 cup minced shallots 1 cup uncooked sushi rice 3/4 cup sake 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce 1/4 cup green onions, thinly sliced cooking spray 1/2 cup panko(Japanese breadcrumbs) 2 tbsps. black sesame seeds 1 1/2 cups boiling water 1 cup room temperature water

Directions

Put the boiling water in a small bowl and place the dried mushrooms in it to rehydrate and let it sit for 30 minutes. Then drain the liquid into another container and keep both the mushrooms and the liquid.
In a large saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil on medium heat and the shallots. Saute them for 2 minutes or until they're tender. Next add the fresh shiitake mushrooms as well as the rehydrated ones to the pan and cook them together for 5 minutes. Then add the uncooked sushi rice to the pan and cook 2 minutes stirring the entire time.
Mix in the sake and cook it for 3 minutes or until it is almost completely absorbed, all the while stirring constantly. Stir in 1/2 a cup of the liquid you saved from rehydrating the shiitakes as well as the soy sauce and cook that also for 3 minutes or until it is almost completely absorbed.
Keep adding 1/2 cups of the mushroom liquid until it's almost completely absorbed. When you run out start using water 1/4 cup at a time, all the while you must be stirring constantly. After around 15 minutes the rice should be absorbing less water, at which point stop with the water and add the green onions.
Let the mixture cool and then form cakes out of it, typically around 9-10 cakes per batch. Coat the cakes with cooking spray and then put them on a covered platter and chill them for 3 hours.
Take them out of the refrigerator after the 3 hours and then prepare a shallow bowl with panko and sesame seeds. Then take each cake and flip it around inside the bowl to coat it with the panko and sesame seeds.
Finally, heat 1 tbsp. of oil in a large skillet on medium heat and put about half of the cakes in the pan. Cook them for 3 minutes on each side until they're lightly browned. Repeat that for the last half of the cakes and you're done!