Tuesday 13 January 2015

Maldivian Mushroom Roast/Curry

Friends and I landed into Malay airport at the wee hours of a cool morning. This was quite a few years ago. The husband came to pick us up on a boat wearing a white linen shirt and a hat looking quite like the iconic Hindi cinema villain 'Ajit' from a distance.Then started this amazing four days of tranquility and magic.

The most magical part of this travel experience was that on our island the mandate was 'no shoes'. So all the guests and the hosts would walk around the island bare-feet. I remember being dressed for dinner in a skirt and being barefoot in the evenings. As one treads onto different well rounded stones and pebbles, the feelings were absolutely sublime.

I picked up a cook book from the hotel boutique and since then I've been dabbling with some of their awesome recipes. This was originally a squid based recipe; well, Maldivian cuisine is based on three main items or their derivatives -  coconut, fish and starches. This mushroom recipe borrows from the squid roast recipe with a twist. 


Firstly we need to make a marinade. Take one about 2 inch piece of ginger, 4 whole green chillies, 2 slit thin 'cocum' pieces, 2 sprigs of curry leaves, 1 tsp turmeric powder and salt to taste. In a small blender jar, make a coarse paste. The recipe is for about 3 packets, about 40 odd buttons, of white mushroom. Clean the mushroom well and pluck the stem out. Now gently rub the marinade all over the buttons and set aside for at least a half hour. 

In a warm wok, pour in 2-3 tbsp oil. Once the oil is warm, allow half a tsp of mustard seeds to sputter. Next add finely chopped onions, I used 2 big ones, 2 chopped green chillies, finely chopped 1 inch ginger and 4-5 pods of garlic and also finely chopped curry leaves. Saute well until the onions are transparent. Add 1/2 tsp chilli powder and 1 and a 1/2 tsp coriander powder. Fry well. Now added the marinated mushrooms. Mix well and cover the wok. In about 5 minutes, add 3 tbsp grated coconut, a dash of pepper powder, 1 level tsp garam masala and salt to taste. Transfer to a serving dish.

I have made this a few times, the first few times I did not cover the mushroom with a lid and this left the dish dry, quite like a roast. I must say, both variations are pretty delectable. 

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