MUSHROOM PEPPER FRY

By now, you will know that Mushroom and Paneer are a staple at our house.

When we go to restaurants, I see so many dishes with mushroom in them, yet at home I’m always confused as to what to cook with the box of mushrooms and even then each week I find myself buying mushrooms again.

This time, I decided to make a batter fried dish with the mushrooms and though I had decided to pair  it with instant noodles, I made a desi style Mushroom Pepper Fry.

 I have tried to make batter coated mushrooms earlier and they’ve always ended up with the batter forming a gloopy, chunky mess and sliding off the mushroom and after a little research on the internet I realised where I was going wrong.

a.      You need to deep fry the batter coated mushrooms and not shallow fry.

b.   You need to drop the mushroom one at a time into the hot oil and not just dump everything in one shot.

c.      The batter shouldn’t be too thick.

Once the mushrooms are deep fried, you can either follow the recipe for ChillyPaneer and make Chilly Mushroom or make this simpler one instead.

The mushrooms are crunchy and peppery. The curry leaves add a great flavour to this dish. We enjoyed it with our noodles. This would be an ideal dish to serve as an appetiser.

This is my own recipe and I’ve added quantities of ingredients to suit our taste. Feel free to alter the quantities.

MUSHROOM PEPPER FRY

Ingredients:

For the marinade:

Button Mushroom  – 250 gms

Flour (Maida)- 1 heaped tbsp

Cornflour – 3 tbsps

Ginger – garlic paste – ½ tsp

Soya sauce – 1 tsp (optional)

Salt – 1 tsp

Pepper- 1 tsp

Water – enough to make a paste

For the dish

Onion (finely chopped) – 1 medium sized

Ginger-garlic paste- 1 ½ tbsps

Curry leaves – 8- 10

Pepper – about 2 tbsps

Salt – to taste

Method:

1.      Make a thin paste of the ‘marinade’ ingredients.

2.      Chop the button mushrooms and coat them in the ‘marinade’ ingredients.

3.      Deep fry the coated mushrooms and set aside.

4.      In a pan, add a little oil and fry the curry leaves for less than 30 seconds.

5.      Remove the leaves and set aside.

6.      Add onions to the pan and fry till then turn crunchy.

7.      Add the ginger garlic paste and fry till the raw smell is gone.

8.      Add the mushrooms.

9.      Add pepper and give the mushrooms a good mix.

10. Add salt to taste and curry leaves.

11. Done.

Recipe notes

·        The curry leaves will turn crisp once you take them out. Don’t wait for them to turn crisp while frying.