I made this Indian mushroom curry for an important party recently. What a great recipe!
I remember eating a lot of wonderful food in India, but I don’t remember mushrooms. So it was with some surprise I found Mushroom Masala Curry on the buffet at Costa Mesa’s renowned Royal Khyber restaurant. Then, as I was developing my menu for Friendsgiving this year, I came across this recipe made in an Instant Pot. It is a pretty easy recipe and I was pleasantly surprised how good it was.
Apparently, cooking with mushrooms has become more popular in India in recent years. You can find a lot of Indian mushroom recipes online and some general articles about the mushrooms available to cooks in India. This recipe uses regular white or brown mushrooms but India is also the source of some exotic varieties.
If you have a moment, here is a beautiful short video about morel mushroom hunting in Kashmir, India, in the Himalayas. Not only can you learn about “hunting” the morels in the mountains but you can see some of the beautiful Kashmiri forests. The mushroom gatherer in this video, Shareef, appears to be a delightfully gentle man like many of the people we came to know in Kashmir when we visited. Here’s the link: Rare Mushrooms of Kashmir.
Here is a link to the original online recipe here. Archana Mundhe also has a cookbook, The Essential Indian Instant Pot. The cookbook is available on Amazon here.
Masala Mushrooms
Ingredients
- 1 pound mushrooms (white or brown--sliced)
- 2 T. ghee (or neutral oil)
- 1 large yellow onion (finely chopped)
- 2 t. grated fresh ginger
- 2 t. minced garlic
- 3/4 C. tomato puree
- 1/2 t. turmeric (ground)
- 1/2 T.Kashmiri red chili powder
- 1/2 to 1 t. garam masala
- 1 t. kosher salt
- 1/3 C. cashews and 1/4 C. water
- 1/2 T. dried fenugreek leaves
- Cilantro leaves (chopped--for garnish)
Directions
- Step 1 Soak cashews in 1/2 C. warm water for 10 minutes.Drain water and blend cashews with 1/4 C. water to make a smooth paste. Set aside.
- Step 2 Turn Instant Pot on to sauté. Heat ghee (or oil) in Instant Pot. Sauté onions in ghee until they soften and begin to brown. This will take about 5 minutes. Add ginger and garlic. Sauté for 30 seconds. Turn Instant Pot off.
- Step 3 Add tomato puree, turmeric, Kashmiri chili powder, garam masala, salt and mushrooms to the Instant Pot. Stir. Put the lid on the Instant Pot and pressure cook for 4 minutes. Do a quick release of the pressure after the 4 minutes.
- Step 4 Stir in fenugreek leaves, cashew paste and chopped cilantro. Stir and serve with rice and/or naan. A dollop of cream swirled into the mushrooms at the time of serving is a good addition to give the dish a bit more creaminess. This dish is better on day two when the flavors have had time to meld.
- Step 5 Cook’s Note: I made my dish with brown mushrooms. Also, I used 1 T. Kashmiri red chili powder. My Mushroom Masala was pretty spicy. It was just as I like it, but you may want to tone it down to your taste. Also, if you don’t have an Instant Pot, this recipe would be very easy to convert to a conventional stove-top preparation.
