Sunday, December 10, 2000		What's cooking?

Mouth-watering mushrooms
By Geetu

Mushrooms, another versatile vegetable that is available in plenty during winter months, is basically fungi.These edible fungi, however, bridge the gap between vegetarian and non-vegetarian cuisine.Though they are actually vegetables but the protein content in these is very high and can be compared to non-vegetarian items like fish and poultry. Mushrooms are also a rich source of vitamins.These can be consumed in raw form in salads. This nutritious fungus gives a distinct flavour to soups and biryani and also taste great when grilled or marinated.these can also be enjoyed in the following ways:

400 gm button mushrooms

1/2 cup boiled macaroni

6 potatoes

1/4 cup fresh bread crumbs

2 tbsp tomato sauce

1 tbsp chilli sauce

Boil peel and mash potatoes. Season with salt and pepper.Wash and clean mushrooms and boil these in salted water.

Heat butter in a pan on a slow fire. Add maida. Keep stirring but don't let the flour become brown. Gradually add milk, stirring all the while. Add sugar, salt and pepper. Cook on slow fire till the sauce thickens. Add grated cheese.

Add boiled mushrooms and macaroni in white sauce.

Line a baking dish with a portion of the mashed potatoes. Put mushrooms and macaroni in white sauce on the mashed potatoes.

Sprinkle tomato sauce and chilli sauce. Fill the remaining part of mashed potatoes in an icing bag and pipe it on top of the mushrooms covering these completely. Pierce

lightly with a fork and sprinkle grated cheese and bread crumbs on top. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 250 C. Serve hot.

Mushroom in Pea Sauce:

250 gm button mushrooms

2 cups shelled peas

2 tbsp refined oil

2-3 onions

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp garlic paste

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tbsp poppy seed paste

1/2 cup tomato puree

1/2 cup cream

salt to taste

Method:

Boil peas in salted water and make a fine paste in the grinder.

Heat oil in a karahi and add finely-chopped onions. Fry till soft. Add ginger garlic paste, coriander and chilli powder and poppy seed paste one by one. Fry till specks of oil appear. Add the pea paste, 2 cups of water, tomato puree and salt. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes or till it becomes thick.

Remove the stems of the mushrooms and saute in butter. Add these to the pea sauce. Cover and let these simmer for some time on medium heat. Stir in the cream and cook for 2-3 minutes.

250 gm button mushrooms

250 gm minced mutton

1/2 cup peas

4-5 tomatoes

2 tbsp ginger garlic paste

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp chilli powder

salt to taste

3-4 green chillies

Remove the stems from the mushrooms, leaving the centre portion hollow. Put these in hot water for at least 10 minutes.

Heat oil in a pan, add onion paste and fry till it becomes golden brown. Add ginger garlic paste, chopped green chillies and coriander powder. Stir for 2-3 minutes. Make tomato paste in a mixer and add it to the masala. Fry for 5 minutes. Add 2 cups of water and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Pressure cook minced mutton after adding 1 tsp of oil and salt. Boil shelled peas and add these to the minced mutton. Cook till the water evaporates.

Fill this in the mushrooms and arrange the stuffed mushrooms in a dish and pour the gravy on these. Decorate with boiled noodles and fresh coriander.

400 gm potatoes

400 gm mushrooms

100 gm shelled peas

20 gm kishmish

20 gm ginger

4 eggs

4 big bread slices

200 gm besan

2 green chillies

1 tbsp bread crumbs

2 tsp salt

Boil potatoes and mash these. Pressure cook fresh mushrooms in salted water along with the peas. Mash these and keep aside.

Soak bread slices in beaten eggs. Mash thoroughly and mix besan in it. Add salt, garam masala powder, grated ginger and kishmish.

Keep oil for heating on slow fire.Take a small ball of mashed potatoes and a small ball of mushroom mixture. Mix these, flatten in palms and dip in the egg-besan paste and fry on slow fire. Repeat till all the paste is used. Serve hot with mint chutney.