Recipe- Make You Sunday Dinner Special With Kadai Mushroom

Kadai in Hindi literally means “a thick, circular, and deep wok” widely used in Indian cooking so the word “kadai” in Indian recipes is used when a dish is cooked in kadai and it almost always involves bell peppers. You can see I used a mini kadai in the 1st pic, the ones in which we cook are obviously larger than this!

So the story goes like this, ever since I can remember I have always loved mushroom. Even though growing up, it was not a veggie that mom would make often still whenever she made it, I ate 1 big bowl full. I love mushroom in my pizzas, burgers and just about everything. And then I got married. And then I realized that my husband hates it and that was the end of my love affair with mushroom. No he never asked me to not cook it but it seemed like a lot of work to cook something exclusively for myself.

Is this vegan? No because I added 1 tablespoon of cream to it. Just skip that and then it’s all vegan! Give this flavorful dish a try, it’s the perfect side dish for naan, paratha or roti. I ate it with some vegetable biryani and loved it!

A tip to make this dish more flavorful, use fresh ginger garlic paste rather than store bought. It makes a lot of difference. To make fresh ginger garlic paste simply chop garlic and ginger very finely and then crush the two together using your mortar and pestle. It’s a little extra work but it’s so worth it.

Ingredients

170 gm white button mushrooms sliced
1 green bell pepper cut into cubes
1 onion medium, chopped finely
2 medium tomatoes pureed
1.5 teaspoons fresh ginger-garlic paste
1 tablespoon heavy cream
¾ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon vinegar
½ teaspoon kashmiri red chili powder
garam masala to sprinkle
4 teaspoons oil
½ cup water
salt to taste
1 teaspoon crushed kasuri methi [dried fenugreek leaves]
cilantro chopped, to garnish
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
1 whole dried red chili

Method

* Heat 1/2 teaspoon of oil in a pan on medium heat.

* Once hot, add cubed bell pepper and saute for 1-2 minutes or till the sides start to get very light brown. Set aside.

* In the same pan, heat 1 teaspoon of oil and add sliced white mushrooms.

* Saute till mushrooms turns golden brown in color. This will take few minutes as mushrooms first release a lot of moisture and then start getting brown. Set aside.

* In a pan dry roast coriander seeds and whole dry red chili for 2-3 minutes or till you get a nice aroma.

* Transfer roasted spices to a spice grinder and grind to a fine powder. Set aside.

* In a pan, heat 2 teaspoons of oil on medium heat. Once oil is hot, add chopped red onions.

* Cook the onions till they they start turning light golden in color, then add ginger garlic paste and cook for 2-3 minutes or till the raw smell goes away. [Tip: use fresh ginger-garlic paste for better taste and flavor]

* Add tomato puree and cook for 5-6 minutes on medium heat.

* Then add the roasted spice powder and cook 1-2 minutes. If you the spices can burn, add little water.

* Add water, kashmiri red chili powder, sugar, vinegar and salt and let it all come to a boil.

* Add cream and mix and finally add in the sauteed bell pepper (capsicum) and mushrooms and mix. Add crushed kasuri methi & mix.

* Sprinkle garam masala on top, garnish with chopped cilantro and serve kadai mushroom hot with naan or roti.