Last week we had a pre-Independence day party at home. The night before the party, since I was already busy with all preparations, I was in no mood for any elaborate cooking. We generally do not have rice on a week night, because we both prefer to have rotis or pasta / noodles. Rice comes to rescue when I want to get out of the kitchen in 15 minutes and my tiny Hawkins pressure cooker helps me to do just that. Mushrooms, apart from the few extra minutes it takes to clean them, are a breeze to cut and cook. Chunky and full of taste, they are one of my favourite vegetables (not calling them Fungi, because I really don’t care for any other fungi than the edible ones).
This meal is one such perfect hurried meal, where when you sit down to eat, you forget that it was made in a hurry. The rich flavours of the curry balanced by the delicately flavoured rice makes it a perfect weekday curry-in-a-hurry meal!!
Instant Mushroom Methi Curry with Onion Rice
Ingredients
For Instant Mushroom Methi Curry
- (12-15 pieces) 1 pack button mushrooms
- 1 tbsp kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves)
- 1 tsp cooking oil
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
For curry paste:
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 3 cloves garlic , peeled and mashed
- 1/2 ginger " piece of , sliced
- 4 - 5 shallots , sliced
- 1 onion or small sliced
- 1 tomato medium sliced
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 2 chillies dried red
- 1 tbsp besan heaped (gram flour)
- 2 tbsps buttermilk yogurt or (whisked with water to make 1/2 cup) or 1/2 cups
- 1/2 tsp salt
For Quick onion rice
- 1 cup Basmati rice or any other fragrant
- 1 tsp ghee
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 cinnamon piece (small)
- 1 star anise
- 3 - 4 cloves
- 1 onion small , thinly sliced
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Recipe forInstant Mushroom Methi Curry:
- Scrub the mushrooms clean and chop them into bite sized pieces. In a wok, heat 1 tsp oil, splutter mustard seeds, add the chopped mushrooms and dried methi leaves. Saute till the mushrooms are nearly cooked - this takes about 3-4 minutes. Remove from wok and keep aside.
- In the same wok, heat 1 tsp oil. Put in all ingredients for curry paste except tomatoes and saute till shallots are soft. Towards the end put in the tomato slices and stir till they are almost soft. Remove and cool for 5 minutes. Grind to a fine paste.
- Whisk the besan (gram flour) in buttermilk and keep aside.
- Place the sauteed mushrooms in the same wok you started with. Put in the curry paste along with the buttermilk mix. Let this simmer for 3-5 minutes till thick. Add the salt at this stage, simmer for a minute more and remove from flame. Garnish with fresh coriander (optional).
- Recipe for Quick onion rice:
- Wash the rice in plenty of water, drain and keep aside.
- In a pressure cooker, heat 1 tsp ghee. Add all the whole spices. Stir for 30 seconds. Add the sliced onions, stir for a minute till somewhat soft. I do not brown the onions, but you can do so if you like the taste.
- Add the washed rice with 1 1/2 -2 cups of water, depending on the instructions that come along with the brand of rice you use. Since pressure cooking is very fast, adding more water will make the rice soggy. Salt the water and pressure cook on medium flame till you get one whistle. Switch off the cooker and let it cool for the next 15 minutes or so and the excess water will be absorbed by the rice making it fluffy. Open the cooker after it has cooled and remove the pilaf into a bowl. Fluff with a fork if necessary and serve with any curry or dal.
Looks yummy Nandita
The thali with onion rice and mushroom curry looks excellent.
Looks delicious!!!
Another super duper express meal from you! Rice is so quick and foe me, it touches that spot of satiation too.North finally meets South on your platter with mustard oil!
Express meal indeed! Isin’t ur onion rice the same as Jeera rice? The curry looks rich but knowing you, i am sure it is super healthy.
Wow, now thats called a comforting food…
he he, curry in hurry is a fantastic one :). i just love mushrooms-and i love that you’ve added dahi here! i made a baingan-mushroom curry too with dahi! call it telepathy :-D.
Mushroom methi curry looks really good. I love mushroom but don’t buy them often enough coz I hate cleaning them:-(
Nandita,nice never made mushrooms in yogurt based gravy.nice recipe will try it next time when i get mushrooms
I was searching for onions in the pic. You have managed to keep them whitey-white.
Nandita, I love curried mushrooms. When I can get a mixture of wild types of mushrooms, curry is the first dish I think of.Adding methi would make it all even better.
nice combo – mushrooms and methi. my theory is that dirty mushrooms taste less earthy. so cleaning is not mandatory. 😉
Thanks for this recipe! I’ll be making this dish for sure this week.
Nandita looks yumm and I love your rich red header
Now this is my kind of fast food 🙂
Raaga, Roopa, Cinnamon- Thanks lovely ladies.Anita- your pickle is a hot favourite dearie, hubby likes it with anything and everything and my friends have already put in requests…may be i shall try the milder version with peanut oil and the one in mustard oil for the brave souls :)Shaheen – It is kinda jeera rice but there are many other whole spices, hence did not call it jeera rice. This is another express cooking meal for you just in time for the deadline.Padma – Thanks!Musical – I must try your baingan mushroom curry now that I am getting over my fear/dislike for eggplant – it seems like a unusual combination and Im always game for such.
Suganya- you got it right, they are whitey-white here , you can brown them if you like it so 🙂
TBC- It hardly takes two minutes – come on, mushrooms are too yummy to be let alone like that!Barbara, Sandeepa, Cynthia-Thanks!Lisa, Sreelu- Do let me know if you liked it.Bee- you meant ‘more earthy’ didn’t you LOL!!! We do get one variety here grown the hydroponic way (hope i got the word down), so there are clean and white and need no cleaning.
ooh, mushrooms… i love them, but D can’t stand them – so, naturally, not wanting to indulge just myself, I haven’t made it in a long while now… your dish looks so yummy, I have to – even if it is just for me and Ana 🙂 I like the besan + buttermilk thickener!
Nandita, thanx fr this one. i love soy nuggets, will try it for sure, then. And that green chili pickle, wow, looks like the one i usually buy at the store. Mustard oil, I just bought a bottle last week. Never cooked with it. Is it strong and sourish? Can I use it just like regular oil ? Or more into salads and cold cuisine..thanx
Sheela- Glad you like it!Z-Mustard oil is quite pungent, may be 20% as pungent as good wasabi, but if you make this pickle with mustard powder plus mustard oil, it can be quite pungent, but its not very spicy (if you choose the right chillies) and very high on flavour.You can use it like regular oil to make some of the recipes from East of India, such as Bengali recipes.
I tried the recipe, with a few slight variations, and it was delicious! I make a few different mushroom curries, and I will be making this one again. Thank you again for a lovely meal suggestion!
Hello NanditaTried the recipe with the following variations :- Since I dont like mushrooms I made it with green pepper , fresh methi and soy chunks(Nutrela-like you suggested).-Devoured it with some brown rice.Healthy, spicy, tasty and just yummm!:)Thanks for the recipe-altoid
perfect recipie, i tried and it became everybody s fav. ……..i dared to added stir-fried capsicums and some onions apart from those i put in gravy……..turned out to be very tasty ……….
Thanks you for a totally delicious recipe, Nandita! My two changes: I skipped the mustard seeds in the tempering, and I added a pinch of my a garam masala (cardamom, cinnamon and cloves) at the end. We loved this.
Hi Nandita,Made it exactly like this 2 days back and turned out very yummy !!Planning to make it when I invite some guests for dinner….I tried dudhee sabji also, I liked it but next time I will reduce amt of til and peanuts a little and make it.And oh yes, Dhansak !! wonderful, wonderful.I have never tasted dhansak before so I cannot comment abt authentic taste, but it was really very yumm.. and so much healthy tooo.. it will repeat in my kitchen always for sure.Thanks a lot for all the efforts u put in to post these recipes. I am in US now (came here around 5 months back) and blogs like yours are great help in otherwise mundane life here.Keep posting :)Take care,Archanap.s. : I am the same one who BORED you with SOOO many questions abt brownies :-PMade them again after coming here and this time in gas oven, and had all the measuring devices at hand, so was much easier :-))
This curry was very unique. I was bored of the usual ginger garlic paste, coriander powder type curry. Using actual coriander seeds and methi gave it a great taste.I tried it and loved it. Thanks for sharing the recipe.Girija
Dear Nandita,I just made this curry, and it is truly quick and delicious.I forgot to put in mustard seeds, and I used cashews, which I roasted in the oven, powdered, and mixed with water, instead of the yogurt / water / besan combination. (I prefer to make my dishes without dairy.) Very yummy, and I can’t wait to have it with my fiancee for dinner tonight!Thanks very much for the wonderful recipe!!!
Who pinched from whom?Here’s another almost identical recipe from another site:http://foodandspice.blogspot.com/2007/08/mushroom-methi-curry-with-basmati-onion.html
Hi Nandita…just needed to know how many people this recipe serves? Need to cook for around 10 people for tonight so just wanted to know about the proportions. Thank you!