So let’s get started. I have taken 2 large tomatoes. With your knife make an incision like a Xon the side opposite to the part that it is attached to the stem. Add hot water and let it lit sit for some time. Once it is comfortable enough to handle, take them out and peel off the skins. Then with a small paring knife cut out this top round part. This part doesn’t get soft so I always discard it.
Then chop them roughly on a plate so that you don’t lose all those lovely juices from the tomatoes. Then chop the large onion. Today I will be using just my grater to grate ginger and garlic as I am not looking for a smooth gravy for this recipe. Use the small holes of your grater and it does a pretty good job. Coming to the mushrooms. You can use any type of mushrooms but cut them into large chunky pieces. Mushrooms once cooked shrivel down to nothing so I always keep my pieces chunky. If you are using small mushrooms you can keep them whole as well. Then I need coriander leaves. Now I even use the stalks of coriander. Don’t discard the stalks, they give a wonderful flavour to the curry.
I will separate out the stalks from the leaves as I will be adding them in different stages while cooking. Just roughly chop the leaves. Coriander leaves are very delicate so please do not bruise them by chopping too fine, in that way they lose all their flavour. Heat oil over high heat. Once the oil turns hot, add the mushrooms. In the beginning, the mushrooms will render out a lot of water. See all that water, you want all that to dry up completely.
Now, all that water has dried up, at this stage add some salt and black pepper. Add salt only after all that water dries up or else the mushrooms will release more water and it will take more time to dry up that water and the more the mushrooms get cooked they tend to become rubbery. Take them out into a bowl now. In that same oil add whole cumin seeds. Let the seeds splutter, then add the grated ginger and garlic.
Stir for a few minutes till that raw smell goes away then add the chopped onions. Stir them for a few minutes then comes the chopped tomatoes. With your spoon mash, the tomatoes a bit and then cover the pan for a few minutes over medium-high heat. In the meantime, I will make a spice paste. In a bowl add Kashmiri red chilli powder if you want that milder heat as well as the colour, turmeric powder, cumin powder for that smoky earthy kind of flavour and coriander powder for that citrusy kind of flavour.
Add a few tablespoons of water and mix to make a paste. Let’s see what’s happening in that plan now. The tomatoes have softened down quite a bit. I will be adding tomato paste for more tomato flavour. You can even use tomato sauce or tomato puree. Next, I will be adding chickpea flour that brings a thickness to the curry.
You can even add besan. Next step the spice paste. And then my usual practise of rinsing out all that spiced goodness. Add some salt and little sugar to balance that acidity from those tomatoes and the coriander stalks. Add the fried mushrooms and stir everything so that all the mushrooms get well coated with all that goodness. Then I added about a cup of hot water. Once the gravy comes up to a boil, cover the pan on medium-low heat for about 8 minutes.
After 8 minutes, uncover. Do a taste test at this point and adjust the seasonings. I felt it needed a little bit of salt. At this stage add garam masala powder. people sometimes ask me why garam masala powder is added at the end and not with the other spices. Garam masala powder is always added at the end to retain its maximum flavour and smell which may get lost with the cooking process if added earlier. Cover it for 2 more minutes so that the garam masala perfumes the curry.
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