Monday, April 1, 2013

Recipe: Mushroom Mataar

Mushroom Mataar - Oct 7, 2012
(from my "Catching Up" post on Jan 19)

In College Station, there is only one Indian restaurant (although I've heard about many Indian mini-marts inside gas stations and convenience stores). Coming from Berkeley, and even Southern California, I had many options for Indian food (although, sadly, I did not indulge in enough while I was there). Every now and then I get a craving for Indian food. Tikka masala, samosas, korma, jalfrezi, curry, mango lassi...

I also really like peas, and Indians know how to make peas taste awesome. I looked online for an Indian pea recipe, and I had mushrooms on hand. I came across this recipe and made this!



The flavors were good. There was a warm complexity, thanks to the melding of the mushroom umami and the spices. I served it on whole wheat couscous, which is what I had on hand, but it would be much better with naan or rice (brown or basmati). Whole wheat couscous has such a strong flavor that I would not recommend eating it with anything really. Sorry, Bob's Red Mill, even your awesome brand cannot make whole wheat couscous better. It tastes like play-doh to me...bleh.


Anyways, I really liked this. Probably not authentic and lacks some degrees of flavor depth key to Indian food, but tasty enough for me.

(Because I made this so long ago and because I did it based on the ingredients I had on hand, I can only estimate the amounts that I used, based on the recipe I referenced)
 
Matar Mushroom (4 servings)
Adapted from Khana Khazana
Ingredients
1 container of mushrooms (1/2 lb, I think), halved
1/2 bag of frozen peas (small bag)
3-4 fresh tomatoes, chopped and pureed
3-5 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 onion chopped
1/2" ginger finely chopped
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp or more of garam masala
Some chopped green chili or red pepper chili paste if you want spicy

Directions
1. Heat oil in a pan. Saute the cumin seeds and garam masala till fragrant, then add in the onion. Saute till light brown. Add ginger, and garlic and saute till light brown.
2. Add in the mushrooms, green peas, and tomato puree and saute until mushrooms have released their juices and green peas are no longer frozen.
3. Add salt and adjust spices to your liking (I think I add to add more garam masala because I could barely taste it)
4. Serve with rice or naan (avoid the whole wheat couscous!!! D: D: D: )