Mushroom Matar

Ingredients:

5 button mushrooms cut into 6 pieces each

1/4 cup fresh green peas

1 medium sized onion

1 large tomato

1 " ginger

3 cloves of garlic

1tsp tomato ketchup

2 cloves

1 cardamom

1/2 tsp dry coriander powder

1/2 tsp kashmiri mirch powder

1/2 tsp jeera powder

pinch of garam masala

1/2 tsp sugar

1 tsp oil

salt to taste

1/2 tsp kasuri methi

1 tbsp cream

Method:

• Grind ginger, garlic and onion into a fine paste and keep aside.
• Grind the tomatoes into a puree.
• Heat a kadai on a medium flame, add oil, add cloves and whole cardamom. Stir and add the onion paste. Simmer the gas and cover the kadai with a lid. Let the onion cook well. Stir occasionally.
• Once the onions turn dark pink in colour, add the tomato paste. Stir. Cover the kadai and let it cook on sim. Stir, Add salt and green peas. Cover and let the masala cook.
• Once the tomatoes are cooked add coriander powder, jeera powder and kashmiri mirch powder. Add 2 tbsp of water. Mix well and let the masala cook well.
• Once the masala is cooked, add tomato ketchup, 1/2 cup of water and mushrooms. Let the gravy come to a good boil. Once the mushrooms are cooked, discard the cloves and cardamom and add kasuri methi, garam masala and sugar. Simmer for a minute and turn the flame off.
• Add the cream, mix and serve.

Tips:

• The onion paste should be cooked well, otherwise it will give a raw smell to the gravy.
• At any stage if the gravy sticks to the kadai keep adding 1 tsp of water at a time.
• If using frozen peas then add them along with the mushrooms as it need less time to cook.
• Peas can separately boiled and added to this recipe. In such a case just add 1/2 tsp of sugar and salt while boiling the peas, sugar will help the peas retain its green colour.
• Fresh peas can also be microwaved. Just add salt and microwave covered for 4 mins.
• Mushrooms take very less time to cook, hence add it after the masala is cooked.
• Once the tomato puree leaves the sides of the kadai, it indicated that it is cooked.
• If using readymade tomato puree, reduce the quantity to half.
• Sugar enhances the other flavours in this preparation.
• Add the cream only after turning off the flame or else it may cuddle.
• Best way to store kasuri methi is to put it in an airtight box and keep it in the freezer.
• You can retain the cloves and cardomom in the recipe given above, i discard them cause it may get difficult for the guest to eat and in any case the flavour are already absorbed in the gravy before discarding.
• I normally use less oil in my recipes, you may increase the quantity or even use mixture of ghee and oil to enhance the flavour.
• Cream can be avoided, but i feel it gives a very good flavour, colour and texture to this preparation.
• You can even replace the mushroom with paneer to get matar paneer!!!!
• The above recipe gives two servings.
• Serve mushroom matar with roti or any rice preparation.