I’ve been posting a lot of meat based recipes lately, so time to post something pure vegetarian. Yep, trust me, I didn’t sneak anything in, no fish sauce, no minced meat, no shrimp paste, nothing. It is a Tamil recipe, I think. Siv gave me the recipe, but he has never made it before. He makes a great mushroom dish - a thick gravy, which is very tasty, and I know that is his mom’s recipe. When I wanted to make a quick side dish with mushrooms, he told me how to do this, and swore that it is the way his mom makes it. I have my doubts though, because how-many-ever times he has made a dish, he still calls up his mom to confirm the recipe just before cooking. Since he didn’t need any external help on this one, I am thinking he made this up, but that is fine, because this turned out quite awesome, if I say so myself. But any Tamilians out there, let me know if it really is an authentic Tamil recipe.

Ingredients

Method

In a stir fry pan, heat 1/2 tbsp oil and add the sliced mushrooms. Sprinkle some salt on the mushrooms and saute on high heat till the excess moisture is dried up. Remove the mushrooms from the pan and keep aside.

In the same pan, add 1 tbsp oil and add the cinnamon, fennel, cumin and fenugreek seeds. Saute till the spices start to brown. Reduce the heat all the way, and add the red chilli powder. Keep stirring till the mixture turns brown, taking care not to burn the spices.

Add the onions , bell peppers and curry leaves to the pan, and stir well to combine. When the ingredients stops smoking, increase the heat, and stir fry till the onions are soft. Add the sauteed mushrooms and mix well and stir fry on high heat till the ingredients are well combined.

Serve hot with rice.



Comments

33 Responses to “Spicy Mushroom Stir Fry”

  1. Anh on October 7th, 2007 4:03 pm

    Sig, this dish sounds like a spicy kick indeed! Lovely with rice!

    Anh… yep it was really spicy… I love my food hot… :)

  2. kalva on October 7th, 2007 4:03 pm

    Wow, i love mushrooms would try this recipe soon!

    Thanks Kalva!

  3. musy on October 7th, 2007 5:00 pm

    Hey Sig, you are such a sweetie :) :party:
    Love the look of this dish. I make a dish woth similar ingredients, with the exception of fennel and curry leaves. I am pretty sure that fennel would add an extra zing to the whole dish, next time i’ll add these two spices for sure :) and plz do share the other mushroom recipe too :-D

    I add curry leaves to pretty much everything :) . yep, the other mushroom recipe will be out soon… :)

  4. Bharathy on October 7th, 2007 5:52 pm

    Wwaaw!!!the time here now is 6:09am…buttn mushrooms waitng in the chiller..2 kids to be packed off with lunch to school(soonsince the tags support my kids…(veg mushroom…side dish..tamilnadu)and I am keeping this page open till I finish trying this fine recipe now..:)..

    I havent tried with the tamil authentics with mushrooms(kaalaan in Tamil)..but have tasted the same in few of Chettinad authentic restaurants..They call the dish KAALAAN MASALA..which is again semi gravy(with a touch of tomatoes and minus bell peppers).When it comes to authentic tamil recipes, tamilians avoid bell pepper or Kudamilagai(which they look upon as “English kai”)..otherwise the recipe is perfect Tamil!!!!:)

    Sorry dear,dint receive ur (precious) reply mail..thought u were busy and waitin..
    Id again
    bharathyvasu@yahoo.com

    :) That is soo cool, you tried it today! The bellpepper was my addition actually… thanks for confirming the authenticity :)

  5. sharmi on October 7th, 2007 6:06 pm

    sure it sounds authentic Sig!! very simple and nice to try out as mushrooms get cooked soon.

    That’s why I love this recipe Sharmi, with the pre-sliced mushrooms, the cooking took hardly 10 mins total! :)

  6. sandeepa on October 7th, 2007 7:56 pm

    Those red chillies confirmed that I am going to make it next time I get mushrooms. Looks suitable spicy.

    oh yeah, this was spicy indeed…i love whole red chillies in dishes, looks like you do too… :)

  7. richa on October 7th, 2007 8:04 pm

    mushroom+pepper+onion, has to be good! that full bowl is really making me drool & it’s way past dinner time :smile:
    hope u get the gravy recipe as well :wink:

    :) gravy recipe coming up soon..if I can get Siv to make it…

  8. Bharathy on October 7th, 2007 9:12 pm

    I am done with the stirfry..packed off with curd rice in their lunch boxes..kids loved sampling it suggested that I should make with the powdered version of fennel,fenugreek etc so that they wont have to pick out the whole spices from the fry.My thanks to Siv too for sharing this nice dish!!:)..I think the thicker version he makes is the Tamil authetic Kaalan masala!!Looking forward to it ;)

    Thanks for the feedback bharathy…. :) I think the powder will work too, but the amount has to be reduced way down, otherwise the dish could get too strong, I think…

  9. Mansi on October 7th, 2007 9:52 pm

    Hey Sig,

    lovely dish! the color is fabulous…and love your new WP look:)

    PS: hope you get some time to send in something for AFAM-Peach this month!

    Thanks Mansi.. I will try and come with something peachy…

  10. Kaykat on October 7th, 2007 10:10 pm

    Honestly, I don’t know any tamil mushroom recipes, I’ve eaten them only a handful of times in India. But I’ve heard that they’re popular in chettinad recipes.

    I love the “mom’s recipe” story. That sounds like how I was when I started cooking - I would be running for the phone everytime I tried something new :)

    This looks really delicious, I’ll be trying it soon :)

  11. Raaga on October 7th, 2007 10:11 pm

    Something I can with no substitutions :-) Love you Sig :-)

    :) love you too sweetie…

  12. sra on October 7th, 2007 10:22 pm

    Hmm … The spices sound South Indian alright, and Tamil cooking does use fennel …

    I guess I can give Siv a break now… lot of confirmation on the authenticity :)

  13. Meeta on October 7th, 2007 11:12 pm

    Looks lovely. We love mushrooms and this dish shows just how versatile these little veggies are! :(Martini):

    yay, you used my fav icon… :) mushroom truly is a versatile veggie…

  14. Jyothsna on October 7th, 2007 11:36 pm

    I like the combo of ingredients here, but after the lizard and tarantula, I strongly suspect you sneaked in something here :razz:

    :D , I had a lizard overdose… so didn’t add any in here ;)

  15. Nags on October 8th, 2007 12:00 am

    lovely! i stay with a mushroom hater so never make it at home.. looks simple and yummy :)

    mushroom hater?? try this recipe on her, she might just become a convert… :)

  16. Rachna on October 8th, 2007 12:43 am

    there’s only one or two mushroom dishes I like and I’m wiling to try this one out…

    sig, your blog looks so neat … love the whole layout…. im so tempted to switch too… for all the reasons you stated at dining hall… yurs looks great

    Thanks Rachna… I am so glad I switched… i am discovering new features everyday… :)

  17. Happy Cook on October 8th, 2007 1:15 am

    I love mushroom dishes but have never made them like this. Should try them once.
    It looks really good

    do try HC, it is very simple… easy breezy… :)

  18. sia on October 8th, 2007 1:18 am

    let me double check the ingredients list to make sure u have not sneaked any non-veg ingredient :evil: :wink:
    my compliments to master chef :(Yes):

    :D I told you… didn’t want to alienate all my dear veggie friends… with my scary dishes :)

  19. bhags on October 8th, 2007 2:13 am

    Spicy indeed !!!

    :)

  20. Mamatha on October 8th, 2007 4:33 am

    Sig,
    I’m not sure if this is an authentic Tamil dish or not but going by the ingredients, it looks like a Chettinad dish. I love how dry the dish looks - everytime I try to make a mushroom stir-fry, it exudes so much water.

    The first step of sauteing the mushrooms is the key to keeping the dish dry… try it next time, that will make sure the other ingredients don’t get mushy from the water…

  21. Asha on October 8th, 2007 4:53 am

    Somebody has gone soft and into Ghaasphoos eating!!;D
    Looks great Sig, enjoy the meatless!:))

    :) thought I will give my poor tummy a rest … :)

  22. Rajitha on October 8th, 2007 5:04 am

    why do guys always tell…it’s my mom’s recipe for everything yummy they cook :wink: …the recipe looks great :mrgreen:

    :) i know… they are so proud of their mom’s cooking i guess… :)

  23. indosungod on October 8th, 2007 5:18 am

    Sig, authentic Tamil or not it looks truly delicious, have not had mushroom in a while but by the looks of this one I am heading to the store.

    :) looks like it is authentic… not that it matters… :) do try, you’d love it…

  24. Laavanya on October 8th, 2007 6:02 am

    This looks most excellent :smile: Waiting for the gravy recipe as well.

    thanks :), gravy recipe will be published as soon as we cook it… :)

  25. shilpa on October 8th, 2007 7:04 am

    That looks great Sig. Yup, bit surprised to see a veggie dish when your mom is not here ;).

    Siv at least makes up a great recipe and says it is his mom’s recipe. V does not know ABC of cooking, his grandmom is a good cook. So sometimes he remembers some dishes that she used to cook when he was a kid. When I ask him what are ingredients used, he gives a list as if he knows it for sure. When I ask grandmom, I realize he is almost always wrong :(.

    :) That’s funny… at least you can just take the name of the dish and get it from grandma :) … Siv is pretty good with his cooking, 90% of his recipes are his mom’s though… :)

  26. Padma on October 8th, 2007 7:38 am

    Sig, that sounds awesome. Would love to taste mushrooms this way. I can imagine them with hot rice. But i request you to also post Siv’s mushroom thick gravy recipe too. I have very few recipes for mushroom and would love to have variations, lately!

    Sure, due to popular demand, we will be making the mushroom gravy pretty soon…. :)

  27. Mishmash! on October 8th, 2007 7:39 am

    My friend, ignore the question of authenticity as long as hubby can whip up such good for you :))I have not tried mushroom at home as my hubby has the habit of placing orders for food, at restaurants,”with no mushroom, please”!! :)

    Shn

    :) Actually I made the dish this time, he just gave me the recipe… but he did make Shilpa’s chettinadu chicken for me, so I didn’t care… :) … You have to teach the hubby to eat mushrooms shn… the only “vegetable” i really like :)

  28. neelam on October 8th, 2007 7:27 pm

    This is a lovely mushroom recipe, Sig. Beautiful picture too!

    Thanks Neelam!

  29. Rina on October 9th, 2007 9:19 am

    I’m not a fan of mushrooms, but this looks great for me to try.

  30. Pintoo on October 9th, 2007 10:14 pm

    At last Sig, I have been waiting for this. Finally got a vegetarian dish from you. And just in case you don’t know, I love mushrooms. Thanks for giving me one more way to cook it. lovely picture and looks like the mushroom has a spicy kick to it.

    Good to see you Pintoo… :) Hope you give it a try…

  31. Resmi on October 11th, 2007 8:51 am

    Deluriking to say, that I tried this recipe yesterday and it turned out great.. Eventhough I have been reading your blog for some time now, this was my first attempt at trying out one of your recipe.
    By theway , I am also a mallu from kottyam, living in the east coast now.

  32. chithra on December 3rd, 2007 11:17 am

    :razz: mouth watering dish…looks very tasty…sure i will try it soon…

  33. Priya on January 31st, 2008 2:35 pm

    Finally learned how to make mushroom.. :(Yes):
    The recipe is very good …All your recipes are really good.. Good job..
    Great for people like me :smile:

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