Looking at cooking methods to add some variety to mushrooms, I know I can count on my rich cultural cooking heritage 
– this recipe is based on a traditional Indian recipe similar to my Chicken Korma recipe but cooked with a subtler spice blend, and without coconut cream or coconut milk, but, with tempering to suit individual tastes. This blend of raw cashews ground into paste, with the hint of chilli, stir fried and blended to create a creamy cashew sauce presents an amazing tasting mushroom dish. A kind of dinner party fare, this veggie dish serves well as a side to a protein based meal or on it’s own for an opulent meal difference that the cashew sauce offers.
Cooked for a special lunch meal for a dear friend visiting the day after Christmas, this dish is one that I know she will be making soon and so will I. Blanching of the mushrooms by a quick boil in salted water aids the quick cooking of this dish. The ingredients in its simplicity deliver a superb “not every day” mushroom meal and at the same time not a totally extraordinary one.
I have omitted the use of traditional seeds in this recipe to gauge the taste difference of this cashew masala mix…and I’m glad that this simple recipe hit just the right spot in the way it was cooked. Another fabulous recipe emulating the resplendence of Mogul era cuisine!
Ingredients
500g button or mixed mushrooms, roughly chopped
1/2 to 1 cup raw cashew nuts (soaked in water for about an hour and ground to a fine paste in a blender or food processor)
1 tblsp ground ginger and garlic paste
2 onions, peeled and roughly chopped
1-3 fresh green chillies (dependent on your taste – you could omit)
salt to taste
1/4 tsp tumeric powder
1/4 tsp chilli powder
1-2 tblsp ghee or extra virgin olive oil
Here’s How
- Clean and cut mushrooms into 2 halves and blanch for 1omins in boiling salted water.
- Blend the onions and green chillies to a paste in a blender or food processor and the add to a non-stick pot and cook in the ghee/olive oil until the onion mix has softened.
- Add the ginger-garlic paste, chilli powder, tumeric powder and allow to cook for 5mins .
- Now add in the cashew paste and a cup of water and cook for a further 10 minutes to allow the spices to blend with the cashew paste.
- Then add the mushrooms and salt to taste and cook on low stove-top heat for about 10 minutes.
- Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve hot.
