Moist Mushroom Biryani

 

Many a times on weekends after cooking elaborate meals or when am back tired from grocery shopping a quick pressure cooker biryani is really something I look forward to. Warm moist and satiating and if there are mushrooms in it then yum.

What is nice is the tomatoes give it a nice tang and juiciness. If using basmati presoak for 0.5 hr and drain  it before cooking. This makes the rice nice n fluffy.

Ingredients

1 cup Basmati rice

8-10 Mushrooms

2 tomatoes chopped

2 onions sliced

1 teaspoon Everest Birayani Masala

2 green chilies slit

1 tablespoon oil

Heat oil in a pressure cooker. Fry the onions till pink. Add the green chilies, Mushrooms, chopped tomatoes and Everest Biryani Masala. Add the pre soaked and drained Basmati rice. Mix well to give it a coat of oil. Pour water, about 2 glasses. Close the lid. Allow 2 whistles. Let it cool completely and only after all the steam has subsided open the lid and mix.

Fluff up the rice with a fork and serve. We had some corn and paneer gravy to go along with this biryani however even a raita is good.

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Mushroom Dhansak On Brown Rice

A Parsi meal: Mushroom Dhansak on Brown rice and Caramel custard

There are many Dhansak recipe out there on the internet but this time I cooked from my most dependable source, "Annapoorna" by Mangala Barve.

The age tells it all, this is the only cook book in my possession and that too was gifted to me on my 14th Birthday.

Today's post is Not a recipe. Just wanted to share pictures of the year end meal of 2009 and my source of inspiration to cook in all these years.

I don't buy cook books. At one time I had a load of Femina issues which I found needed to be disposed for lack of space, their food photos were stylish. There are still a lot of e-cookbook which I don't even look at but keep hoarding. My go to place for recipes almost everyday is the blogs generously shared by ordinary people like me and you. That is the kind of food I like, mostly home-style sometimes flamboyant restaraunt style.

I hope to bring to you some really interesting posts this year about my Koli community. Wish me luck and keep visiting.

Chubble Bread

I had seen this bread on Fig's with Bri a long time ago. Today I went over to Mrs. Marv mentioned in that post to look for the recipe.

First thing that struck me is it asked for Parmesan cheese. I was not going to go hunting for it. I'm in South India and I was going to use what ever cheese is available easily.

This bread got baked for a dear friend. She is experiencing the pangs of an empty nest. She has singlehandedly brought up her daughter. The daughter got married recently and has flown off to a distant land. Though they talk to each other almost daily, She still feels low.

I have been rushing to be with her whenever I get one of those messages indicative of loneliness. She enjoys eating but is a non vegetarian. When we go out to eat she prefers to order veg even though I don't mind eating at the same table.

To make something vegetarian for her and something that she'd love was a challenge. Then I remembered Bri's comment in her post "Being vegetarian, it’s a little disconcerting (and bordering on scandalous) that the flavor was quite similar to bacon." So this was a perfect recipe for her.

For all the procedure go over to the link added above.

My twist

I caramelized the onions. Used 8 mushrooms, chopped and cooked for 5 mins. The stuff became more like a bhaaji. Cilantro replaced the parsley. I used dried Basil. The cheese was Amul's mozzarella. Made this in the morning while making lunch.

The bread went through the kneading & proofing cycle during the day. Finally baked the bread for dinner.

We, Dad n me had half of it with ketchup and washed it down with watermelon juice. The other half I had frozen for my friend and she warmed it up for dinner the following day. Next morning I got a mail thanking me and it said "It was good!"

Next I want to treat her to a sweet baked goody, Chirstmas is coming up so its the right time for her. I'll go see her at home then...

Hasa Al-Khadr Maa Hummus

I was looking for a middle eastern stew recipe. When I chanced upon this site. This stew/ soup is created by combining Chickpea soup with the vegetable soup and creating a new name too!

This stew or soup you decide, is traditionally cooked in a Tajine pot over an olive wood fire. I however made in on a gas and then served it in a glazed clay pot.

It is one hearty stew, I prefer to call it that. A medley of vegetable cooked in the juices of caramelized onion and chickpeas is spiced with cumin and coriander powders is usually eaten like a curry with couscous or the middle eastern flat breads. I made Falafels to go with it instead. I have studied a couple of recipes and then done my own thing. So here it is for you.

Ingredients

1 cup White Chickpeas
1 onion chopped fine
2 garlic pods
2 cups chopped vegetables (carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms, potatoes etc.)
1/2 cilantro chopped
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper powder
1/2 teaspoon red chili powder
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt to taste
1/2 lemon juice

Heat the oil in a small pressure cooker. Fry the onions and garlic till caramelized. Add the chickpeas and top with water. Cook for 3 whistle. Cool till you are able to open the cooker safely. Then add the rest of the ingredients, chopped veggies, all the spice powders and salt. Cook for another 3 whistles. Open the cooker once cooled and mash the chickpeas with the back of the spoon. This will give the gravy a bit of thickness. Squeeze the lemon juice into the entire dish and give it a stir.

Serve it in a pot with a lid with a flat bread or couscous on a platter. I deviated though from this as you see.

I would be making this with different beans and veggies combinations more often. It is simple, healthy and tasty perfect for people on protein diets.

Taher & Gucchi Olu

After drooling at Anita's post and it being a weekend was I going to stop at just that!

Taher & Gucchi Olu for me and Tava Gobhi for Dad.
I did not touch the Gobi but he did taste from my bowl.

Anita I went all out and did exactly the sausage thing.
I am hooked lady.

Take a closer look. The baby potatoes and mushrooms is an enticing combo with the Kashmiri spicing.
Yum! sounds childish is there an adult word for that expression?

I used Milky Mushrooms for the Gucchi Olu

I was smitten by the pictures in that post. Yesterday I started cooking at 12.00 noon and was done at 12.30 with this absolutely fragrant, spicy and out of the world experience of true Kashmiri Cuisine.

I had bought the Milky mushrooms for a french style stir fry as per plan on Friday. Good I used them in this way.

The things that I did differently purely because of the unavailability of the ingredients and as this is a veg version:

1. Milky mushrooms to substitute. These are not Kashmiri Gucchi or Morel mushrooms but I guess Gucchi is a generic term for mushrooms.

2. I used baby potatoes as that is what I had. I was out of stock of the regular ones. I am on an use up-clean up before I go home to Mumbai. The baby potatoes and mushrooms were so tender that I think it made the dish very Non vegetarian yet vegetarian! Must make it for P Bhauji a diehard NV!

3. I used fresh ginger garlic paste as I did not have sonth/ ginger powder. I had made the ginger garlic paste for Dad's Tava Gobhi.

The things that I did exactly as adviced

1. I was no chicken I did use smoking mustard oil for the tempering. It gives the necessary dimension of flavor and fragrance to the otherwise simple yellow rice. The heating of the mustard oil to smoking point makes it a little milder is smell.

2. I mixed the Gucchi Olu well with rice and made sausages to pop in. The mixing itself sends those wonderful signals of anticipatory bliss to the brain.

Go over to Anita's and check out the amazing post if you haven't yet with the Kashmiri traditions elaborately digitized.

Taher and Gucchi Olu is a classy combo. Looks simple, easy to make yet will engrave the tastes of Kashmir on your mind forever. I am simply overwhelmed by this meal and am not hiding it!

God Bless Anita for sharing her traditions and recipes with the world :) !

Updated: 6th Sep 2013

I have made this recipe many times when I craved for it and each time I go back to Anita's for the recipe. So today after enjoying a completely religious experience I am finally noting down the adaptation of the recipe for me and for my other vegetarian friends.

Ingredients

For Gucchi Olu

1 pack of Gucchi/ mushrooms Morel or button, chopped
6 baby potatoes/ Olu, deskinned
2 cloves
1 tejpatta/ Indian bay leaf
4 cloves of garlic pounded
1 teaspoon Kashmiri chili powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon dried ginger powder
2 teaspoon fennel powder
1/4 teaspoon garam masala
2 tablespoon mustard oil
salt to taste

In a kadhai, heat the mustard oil to smoking point. Add the tej patta and cloves to it. Once its fragrant add the pounded garlic and fry till golden. Now let in the baby potatoes. Mix well to coat with oil. Cover and cook for 5 mins. Then add the chopped mushrooms.

Now in a cup put all the powders together, chili, turmeric, ginger, fennel, garam masala and salt. Make a paste with water. Pour it over the Gucchi and Olu. Cover and cook till potato is completely done.

This is a dry dish with just a coat of masala on the Gucchi Olu.

For Taher

1 cup rice
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
salt
1 tablespoon mustard oil

Pressure cook rice with 1.5 cup of water, turmeric powder and salt.

Cool and fluff up the rice.

Heat Mustard oil till smoking point and drizzle over the yellow rice.

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And this time round I got the perfect Pindi Chole! Check out the picture I've added at the end of the post.

Mushroom Max Meal Plus Deepa's Gift For The Blog

At work I am a complete professional people would say in my past roles. However since April 2007 that changed. I moved into a team with more ladies. I changed quite a bit. I have been most times working with men and used to being the sole lady around. I surprised myself by opening on personal matters with Nimmy, Manasa and Deepa in the first few weeks itself. I was experiencing the female bonding theory here !!!

The friendship with Deepa took time to grow and is one of mutual trust. Her beliefs are almost similar to mine when it comes to family. She is someone I can talk to without worrying about being judged. She tells me point blank when I am wrong and there are very few people whom I allow that. Deepa is a good listener and is very caring. She is my support and I value her much more than she knows! I see her blushing as she reads this.

Now I am not very easy at accepting gifts and always discourage anyone trying to gift me. Yet when last week we met and were on our way to see Preeti's baby she handed me a big and heavy packet saying she wanted to off load it. I took it thinking, "Oh let me hold it for her, how many things will she carry?!" her second one is on the way you see. Then she told me it's a gift for me, for the blog! She surprised me with it.

I loved the gift Deepa! I felt like a kid playing with lego bricks and shapes. So here are lots of pictures today.

The bowls are colorful, lego brick like and stackable!

To put together this meal for two:

Ingredients

15 Mushrooms
Olive oil

Clean and wash the mushrooms. Separate the caps and stems. The caps will be used for stuffing and stems for separate spiced bake.

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Stuffed Mushrooms

15 Mushroom caps
1/4 teaspoon dry Oregano
1/4 teaspoon dry Basil
1/4 teaspoon Garlic powder
15 nos. 1 inch bits of Mozarella cheese
salt to taste


In a baking tray spray some olive oil. Line up the mushroom caps hollow side up. Fill one cap with one mozarella cheese bit. Complete all 15. In a small bowl mix together the herbs and garlic powder with salt. Sprinkle this mix on the stuffed mushroom caps. Spray olive oil just a bit.

Roasted Peppers

1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
2-3 garlic pods
salt

In the same tray. Halve the red and yellow peppers and arrange them in the baking tray such that the hollow side is down. Spray them with olive oil. Slice the garlic thin and sprinkle on the peppers. Sprinkle salt.

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Spiced Mushroom Bake

15 mushroom stems diced
1 teaspoon Chili flakes
4-5 garlic pods
1/4 teaspoon Thyme
2 teaspoon vinegar ( I used from my pickled onion and chilies)
1 teaspoon olive oil
salt

In a aluminium foil put the diced mushroom stems. Slice garlic over it. Sprinkle the chili flakes. Add the vinegar. I used vinegar from my pickled onions and chilies. If you have any pickled veggies in vinegar use that as it adds a nice dimension to the flavors but if you don't then use plain. Top with 1 teaspoon olive oil. Make a packet of the foil by folding at the edges.

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Preheat oven for 10 mins at 250 deg Celsius.

Put the baking tray into the oven and the packet of Spiced Mushrooms. Keep them in for 20 mins or till you see burn spots on the skin of the peppers. Remove from the oven. Let it cool.

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Deskin the peppers and cut into strips. Save in a bowl.

Remove the stuffed mushroom into a serving dish.

Open the foil packet and empty into a serving dish. It will have some liquid from the baking keep it. Bread dipped in it tastes wonderful.

In a bowl I sliced some tomatoes and kept some pickled baby onions.

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Arranging the sandwich.

I warmed the bread in the oven. Sliced it in the median. Layered with tomato slices, roasted bell peppers both red and yellow. Sliced the pickled onions over it. Then topped with spiced mushroom bake. Closed the sandwich with the other half of the bread and it was ready to bite into. Quite a mouthful !

The stuffed mushrooms were a nice accompaniment too.

Mushrooms in Tomato Sauce with Basil

This recipe is a easy and tasty snack on its own and a great filling for a sandwich. I make this just for myself as Dad does not like mushrooms.

Ingredients

12 -14 Button Mushrooms
2 tablespoons Tomato sauce
1/2 teaspoon dry Basil
1 teaspoon Olive Oil
salt to taste


Clean and Wash the Mushrooms. Quarter them and keep aside. In a skillet add Olive oil. Keep high heat. Add the mushrooms saute till water dries up. Add the tomato sauce and saute further till coats the mushroom. Now sprinkle the dry basil and mix well. Adjust salt to your taste. I did not need any as the tomato sauce had enough for my requirements. Cover and cook for 2 mins. Put off the heat. Serve hot on a platter.

Nibble on the lovely snack or fill it between fresh baked bread. I enjoyed it both ways and filled it in sliced garlic bread.

Simple snack for the soul.

Foodscapes

My Rock garden Foodscape with Mushrooms and Baby potatoes is ready to go to
Click @ Jugalbandi

Foodscapes was for me was a new word until last week. My dear friend Sangeeta sent me a pps. showing the work of British photographer Carl Warner. I was simply awestruck. The word is a derivative of food+landscape.

This post has to go to Click for Au Naturel this month before 30th April. So we still got 2 days to decide. Help me, won't you?

Vote for this picture if you think it is a better one to go to Au Naturel

Bee said I have to send her pictures of food in natural form and should be easily identified in natural form. On this basis my previous post is withdrawn. She and Jai get to vote first.

Updated: 30th April 08

Now that it is the last day of sending the entry. I can now let the secret out.

Bee and Jai are smart they created a tie, but did they guess what was up?

Arundhati is the only one who voted for the first picture but for a good reason.

With this post I conclude the Fool's month started off by Manisha and Anita.

All those who voted for the second picture, do think think it fits the Au Naturel theme?

You didn't have a clue, didn't you?

Observe carefully, the women is selling toy fruits made of Papier-mâché!

April Fool on the last day of the month!

Mushroom Cashew Tomato Curry

Mushrooms~~~~ I Love~~~~ them says my little nephew.

He can eat mushrooms at anytime in any form. This is the closest non-veg look alike he can get at my home. Until he was 5 yrs he ate only bland moong dal khichdi. My sis would carry a box of home cooked khichdi when visiting anyone or even restaraunts when Pranav tagged along. Poor thing she carried a huge baby bag for almost 5 years with the whole world in it. So it was a big relief for all of us when he started eating other things too. He announced it to me with a great sense of accomplishment, "Maushi now I eat everything!"

On this day he woke up fussy and was demanding a pizza for breakfast. I had made idlis his other favorite but he refused to eat. Well he did get one but of a different style. You think I can fool a 8 yr old nah they come real smart these days. I made a Tate idli/ Idli in a pan turned it upside down and spread the previous nights Mushroom Cashew Tomato Curry. He was thrilled. Immediately he cut it into bits ate one and held out one for me. Maushi its yummy. "Chew slowly and enjoy the smell, you will be stronger" said the gyani (know aller) with the halo.

Needless to say what my reaction was. I got up and gave him a tight squeeze and a peck which he wiped off immediately even though it wasn't wet.

So here you go

Ingredients

1 cup chopped mushrooms
1 cup quartered tomatoes
1/4 cashew nuts
1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
2 teaspoons oil
2 cups water
salt to taste

For masala

1 onion
1/2 cup grated dry coconut
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon chili
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1-2 green chillies
1 cup chopped cilantro

First soak the split cashew nuts in water for atleast an hour and save.

To prepare masala:

Roast the onion on a direct flame. Discard the charred peel and keep the clean roasted pink onion aside.

Heat a kadhai/ wok dry roast the dry grated coconut along with all the powders adding one at a time and frying intermittently except the garam masala. Before removing from heat mix in the green chillies and cilantro.

Grind together with the roasted onion and garam masala. Save.

Now in the same kadhai heat oil. Keep heat high. Fry the ginger garlic paste. Then add in the ground masala and fry till the oil separates. At this point add the mushroom and tomatoes and add the salt. Cook till thick gravy is formed. Then add the cashews along with the water and adjust the thickness with more water to your choice. I used 2 cups water.

This gravy is ideal with rice, any type of rotis, lacy appams and even Tate idli like I did.

Some more Pranav Uvacha:

He demands tea so we color his milk with a little. He gloats, the boy on the TV grew up drinking milk and boost, I grew drinking tea!

I order him to put away his toys, he lines them up near the wall. I am told they are in the garage and not move them.

We go to a restaurant everyone orders veg though He and my sis eat non-veg my sis opts for veg. He wonders why and still orders for Chicken lollipop. Then very maturely tells us its OK I'll give it a miss just for you. Not that it mattered to us. But he wanted to fit in with the adults! Yet he wanted his frooti and sundae. That's a must he informs us.

When Dad returned from Southeast Asia-PAC tour back in the Tsunami days he was the first one to ask if G'pa had any problems there. He said he was following the news and he was just 5 yrs then.

This time he came home with a huge packet of munchies telling me he picked it up for me and that his mom had got sweets too. At dinner I saw the half finished packet and wondered aloud I thought that packet was for me. Sheepishly he said yeah it was for you but I could not stop its really good. I made a deal with a messy pout planted on my cheek.

I mentioned to his G'ma that he is a fibber after which she started teasing him that his Maushi called him names. This half ticket called me up to sort out things and asked me if I called him a fibber and told me that he just wanted me too have a laugh so the doings.

Like all parents snooping on their adult kids Dad asks Pranav do your parents fight. He retorts back Mom and Dad said not to tell anyone but since you asked I am telling you. Mom is katti with Dad right now.