Simple and easy Mushroom fry recipe

Mushroom is not a very favourite veg of mine. However, I do believe in eating a variety of food so that you don't miss out on nutrients supplied by them. With this in mind, I recently bought a packet of mushrooms. Every website I read for a mushroom dish I saw them recommending not to wash mushroom with water since it absorbs water quickly. Instead, they ask it to be cleaned with a wet towel.But looking at the mushrooms in the packet I felt it better to eat clean and slightly less tasty mushrooms rather than unhygienic but tasty ones. So I washed the mushrooms well with water and squeezed them out. Don't forget to cut the edge of the stems (attached to the ground).The dish that follows is a simple one to make. Trust me I even went ahead and liked it. I was pleasantly surprised.Here's how I made it.

Ingredients:
Margarine/ Butter, Oil, Onion ( finely chopped) , Tomato (Finely chopped), Garlic ( ginger garlic paste could also be used), pepper powder, turmeric powder, chilli powder, garam masala , salt , cloves , cinnamon, fennel seeds (saunf)- very few, green chillies (optional since chilli powder is being used)

How to make?

• Add a mixture of (Margarine/ butter ) and oil in a kadaai and heat
• Add cloves, cinnamon. Once they start to spurt, add the fennel seeds.( only few seeds else it will make the dish sweet)
• Add onion and saute.Add garlic. Saute till the onion turns transparent
• Add the squeezed mushroom and saute for 2 min
• Now add chopped tomato
• Add a pinch of turmeric powder, chilli powder,a little over a pinch of garam masala, pepper powder, salt to taste.Saute for 2 min. Add some water ( Control the amount depending on how thick you want the gravy to be). Use a lid to close the kadaai. Allow it to fry for 3 - 4 min
• Remove the kadaai from the stove and garnish the dish with coriander leaves and fried cashews if u like it

You could also add 2-3 drops of lemon juice to bring out the sour taste in the dish.Goes well with chapathi.

Simple as I promised :)

My newly found interest in cooking

Disclaimer: The recipes you see in my blog are not my own. I have checked for these at various sites and tried them at home. These posts will also help me in checking for the dish at a later point.

Paneer Butter Masala

Ingredients:

Butter / Margarine Paneer (slightly big pieces), Tomato (grind / chop finely such that cooks quick), Onions (grind / chop finely such that cooks quick), Chilli powder (Plain chilli powder + Dhania powder), Turmeric powder ( a pinch ), Ginger garlic paste, Cloves, Cashews (optional), Cinnamon, Garam masala powder, 3 - 4 Tsp Yogurt, coriander leaves, Salt, Methi leaves (few)

Preparation:

1. Heat oil/butter/margarine, fry the paneer cubes golden brown. Keep this aside

2. Slightly fry the methi leaves. Keep it aside.These will be added at the end of the preparation.Remember too many of these could make the dish bitter in taste.

3. Grate 3 cubes of paneer and keep it aside

4. Heat oil and/or [butter/Margarine], add cinnamon and cloves. Fry onions, ginger garlic paste, till the odour goes off the paste

5. Add tomato and simmer for 5 minutes.DO NOT ADD WATER. Try to fry these with butter/oil itself

6. Add cashews, garam masala powder, salt ( Add cautiously since butter/Margarine is in use, you don't want the dish get too salty),chilli powder, turmeric powder, extra butter

7. Add yogurt and stir until gravy becomes thick. Add grated paneer and mix well. Then add fried paneer cubes, add 1/2 -1 cup water and simmer for 5 minutes , until all the flavour is absorbed into paneer

8. Finally add coriander and fried methi from step 2

Things that I did wrong:

1. Added too much of grated paneer which thickened my gravy
2. Added very little water at the end. A good half cup should do
3. Did not fry the ginger garlic paste properly in oil, so the odour kind of remained
4. Forgot to add Methi

While speaking to my aunt I got to know another set of ingredients that could be used in making this dish. That is, use milk instead of curd. And use heavy cream to thicken the curry. This is a good variant of doing this dish too. In fact she reminded me that Paneer butter masala is incomplete without the Methi leaves at the end :). Thanks aunty. I am going to try this the next time :)
I have already made a quick mention to my husband that this dish is not going to be prepared often. We can't afford to intake this amount of fat into our system at a regular basis :)