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Ruchik Randhap

Food & Memories of Mangalore

Mushroom Curry

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I am back to another week of blogging after a pretty hectic yet fulfilling weekend. This week I will be posting the last few vegetarian recipes I have and I hope you’ve enjoyed the collection. When I am on the hunt for veg recipes there is never a dearth of people who share their favourite recipes with me. I happened to chat with my old friend from Mangalore who was part of the same choir at the church I went to. She now lives in Mysore and over the chat she told me how she loves veg food and having been transformed into vegetarian now has a big collection of recipes. Obviously I asked her to share a few with me and within a few minutes she emailed me her hit recipes – I am so grateful to her for having shared a variety of recipes from salads to pickles and everything in between! Thank you so much Joylyn for your generosity!

When it comes to mushrooms I am still an experimental cook as I never ate them much during my growing up years. Perhaps my only tryst with them was when I ate at chinese eatouts that added mushrooms to their dishes. This was again rare as we rarely ate out. When mushrooms started being sold in Mangalore, in those days, it was only available with select vegetable vendors and most times we found them at the Horticulture outlets which brought in seasonal veggies from other parts of Karnataka, we however didn’t really experiment with them although mushrooms per se, the ones that crop up after a thunderstorm, are not new to Mangalore.
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When Joylyn shared this recipe with me I was dying to try it out immediately. I picked a pack of mushrooms and tried it out over the weekend. The taste was superb and I think its a great accompaniment to chapathis. It goes very well with rice and a simple dal as well. The calorific coconut in the masala base finds its match in these mushrooms which have zero cholesterol and are fat free and very low in sodium. This is one dish I will be making more often from now on!
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Mushroom Curry
Prep time: 20 mins | Cook time: 15 mins | Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

  • 250 grams button mushrooms
  • 1-2 green chillies, slit (deseed to reduce spice if you are using the very spicy variety)
  • 1 fat clove of garlic, minced
  • 1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
  • oil for frying
  • salt to taste
  • chopped coriander to garnish (optional)

For the masala:

  • 4 long red chillies (I used a mix of Bedgi & Kashmiri chillies, all deseeded)
  • 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon garam masala powder
  • 1 marble size ball of tamarind
  • approx 1/4 – 1/2 cup grated coconut (adjust according to the desired amount of gravy)

Method:
1. Wash the mushrooms well, remove a layer of the skin if they are discoloured. Cut them into quarters and keep aside.
2. Grind all the ingredients mentioned under ‘For the masala‘ to a fine paste using 2-3 tablespoons of water. Remove the the masala into a bowl and rinse the mixer jar with approx 1/4 cup of water and reserve this masala water
3. In a heavy, wide based wok/kadhai heat the oil and fry the slit chillies for a couple of seconds. Then add the garlic and onions and fry until the onions turn light golden. Toss in the mushrooms, salt to taste and saute on a medium heat till the colour changes from white to a musky/dull white. Cover and cook for a few minutes and then remove the contents out onto a plate.
4. In the same kadhai, heat some more oil and fry the ground masala on a medium heat till the well fried and the oil separates – this could take a few minutes but don’t skip this step as the masala needs to be fried really well to get rid of the raw taste.
5. Now add the fried mushroom mixture and mix. Add the reserved masala water in parts to achieve desired thickness of the gravy. Check salt to taste. Cover the pan and let it simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat
6. Garnish with chopped coriander and serve hot with chapathis or rice

Notes:
Instead of mushrooms you can make this dish with eggs ( hard boiled and slit) or potatoes too

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Comments

  1. Vanita says

    I am going to try this out tonite for dinner. Shireen – i think its typo error for garam masala ingredient quantity.
    Shall get back with the result 😉

    Reply

  3. Swapna says

    Hi shireen,

    I tried this mushroom curry…it came out delicious..I added some peas too as my mushrooms looked very less..it's a thumbs up from my family..keep the veg dishes coming…it's really good for a change…

    Reply

  5. Dilavez says

    I had never made mushrooms with coconut mangalorean style as u said in our childhood days it was not common. I had made mushrooms only after i came to Dubai..that too Chinese style..i wasnt sure while making this but it came out very tasty spicy ..my boys loved it.. i had paired them with your recipe for appams

    Reply