Cashew-Mushroom Masala

A delicious side-dish to phulkas or rotis, this gravy also went well with rice ! What makes this dish extra special is that instead of using the store bought powder for the masala, i dry roasted the spices and roughly crushed them with mortar-pestle; It gave a rustic texture and an earthy taste to the dish !
You will agree that the addition of mushroom lends a certain exoticness to the everyday cooking !!

What Goes:-


For the Masala - (adjust the quantities as required)

• Black Peppercorns - 1 tbsp
• Cardamom - 2 to 3 pods
• Mace - 1/2 tsp
• Bay Leaves - 2
• Cloves - 2 to 3
• Fennel Seeds - 1 tbsp
• Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
• Cinnamon - a small piece

For the Gravy:-

• Button Mushrooms - 150 gm
• Cashewnuts - fistful - as required
• Onion - 2 (large) - pureed
• Garlic - 3 pods ( diced)
• Tomato - 1 to 2 (chopped)
• Green Chillis - 3 (slit diagonally) - to taste
• Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp - to taste/optional
• Oil - for frying cashews
• Butter - 1 tbsp
• Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
• Coriander Powder - 1/2 tsp
• Salt - to taste

How:_

The ingredients are assembled and put to work--

Dry roast the ingredients for the masala and roughly grind it using mortar pestle 

Wash the mushrooms well with hot water and keep them soaked so they don't lose colour. Slice them if you want ! 

In a pan with hot oil, fry the cashewnuts till golden brown and set aside--

In a kadai add butter and as it heats up let the sliced garlic turn golden brown (the aroma wafting from the kitchen is heavenly). Now add the green chillis and pureed onions- sautee for some time !

Add the other spices for the gravy like red chilli powder, turmeric powder and the coriander powder. Blend the mix well. Now add the roughly crushed masala and stir fry till the rawness of the spices evaporates. Add little water if the mix becomes too dry !!

Now add the chopped tomatoes and cook well. Drop in the fried cashews and stir fry for a few minutes !

Just before adding the mushrooms add salt to taste. You can deep fry the mushrooms if you want before adding them to the gravy; it made the gravy a little richer (i did it because the oil from frying the cashews was still hot)

Mix well and garnish with coriander leaves

The cashew-mushroom masala is ready to be enjoyed with rotis or rice !

Sending it to Nivedita's Only Original recipes , event announcement by Pari





Sending it to Cooking with Whole Food- Tomato by Sanyuktha event announcement by Kiran

Also to Saraswathi's Healing Food: Ginger- Garlic event announcement by Siri