Make room for mushroom

LIVING IN THE KITCHEN

Is mushroom a vegetable or fruit? A leaf, root or shoot? It is none of these. It is a fungus and a tasty one at that. Mushroom has been introduced in Indian menus in recent times. It may seem to be a foreign food, but it is very much Indian going by the number of agencies that are promoting it. In Karnataka alone it is being popularised by Mushroom Division, Bio-centre in Hulimavu on the outskirts of Bangalore; Indian Institute of Horticulture Research, Hesaraghatta; Department of Microbiology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore; and Department of Horticulture in Belgaum.

Most people know only one or two ways of cooking mushrooms, but it is such a versatile food item that you can make a wide variety of dishes.

 It can be eaten raw (in salads) or cooked. With mushroom as the main ingredient you can make soup — both vegetarian and non-vegetarian (chicken-mushroom soup). It can be used to make snacks like cutlets and pakodas. It can be curried, marinated or pickled. You can used it as stuffing for sandwich or added to pulao or biryani. You can even make desserts out of mushroom like mushroom kheer.

Mushrooms have a unique quality of retaining their texture on cooking without melting into the gravy. A single steam pressure is enough to cook mushrooms as well as retain their nutrients.

Mushrooms are a low-calorie food. Raw dietary mushrooms are a good source of B vitamins, such as riboflavin, niacin and pantothenic acid, and the essential minerals, selenium, copper and potassium. Fat, carbohydrate and calorie content are low, with absence of vitamin C and sodium.

 The following recipes demonstrate the versatility of the mushroom. Try them.

Mushroom soup

Ingredients: Mushrooms 50 gm, 1 small onion, 10 gm ginger, 5 cloves garlic, 1 tbsp refined flour, 1 cup milk, 1 tbsp butter, salt, pepper and sugar to taste.

Method: Boil the mushrooms, chopped onions, grated ginger and garlic in 750 ml water. Slightly fry refined flour in melted butter and add milk. Add sieved decocotion of boiled mixture. Boil for 5 to 10 minutes. Add spices to taste.

Mushroom cutlets

Ingredients: Mushrooms 100 gm,  horsegram dal 50 gm, 1 clove, 2 small pieces cinnamon, 2 cardamoms, 4 onions, 1 tbsp green chillies, 3 tbsp ghee, salt and pepper to taste.

Method: Soak horsegram dal overnight. Boil it with all ingredients for 10 minutes to leave no free water and grind. Add green chillies, coriander, salt and pepper to form a paste. Flatten into rounds. Cook the cutlets with ghee on a slow fire.

Mushroom kheer

Ingredients: Mushrooms 50 gm, 2 litres milk, 1 tbsp refined flour, sugar to taste, dry fruits for garnish.

Method: Slice mushrooms into thick slices. Cook in milk and refined flour till the milk thickens. Add sugar. Add dry fruits to garnish.

Mushroom pakodas

Ingredients: Mushrooms 250 gm, 2 small onions, 4 green chillies, 6 slices of bread, 2 tbsp shelled peas, 1 small piece ginger, 2 large spoons gram flour, ghee for frying, and raw mango powder and salt to taste.

Method: Cut mushrooms into vertical halves. Grate onions and ginger. Dip the bread in water and squeeze out excess water. Mix mushrooms with bread, onion and ginger. Coat it in gram flour and fry in hot oil.

Mushroom curry

Ingredients: Mushrooms 200 gm, onions 2 nos, garlic 6 cloves, ginger 1 piece, tomato 2 large, turmeric 1 tsp, curd/ milk 1 cup, ghee 1 tbsp, chillies and salt to taste.

Method: Wash and cut mushrooms and tomatoes. Chop onions, grind garlic and ginger.
Heat ghee. Add cumin seeds to crackle. Fry garlic and onion to golden brown. Add spices and salt to taste, followed by chopped tomatoes. Leave to simmer. Add curd/ milk. Add mushrooms and more water if necessary.

Marinated mushrooms

Ingredients: Mushrooms 200 gm, green chillies 6 nos, garlic 6 flakes, gram flour 2 tbsp, ghee for frying, salt to taste, curd 1 cup, vinegar 1 tbsp.

Method: Add salt to whole mushrooms and leave for 1 – 2 hours to remove excess water. Dip in a mixture of curd and vinegar. Store in fridge for 48 hours. Prepare a thick paste of gram flour. Add ground garlic and chopped chillies. Dip mushrooms into this mixture and deep fry.  Serve with mint chutney.