Spicy Tomato Mushroom Rice

Through the years, I haven’t seen a whole of mushroom dishes in menus across Indian homes or Indian restaurants. I didn’t grow up eating a lot of mushroomy dishes either –  my aunt actually screams and runs when she sees a mushroom as if its a snake, and ends up not talking to you for a while … well a long while … haha … Somewhere along the way I fell in love with mushrooms. I don’t remember when it all happened but I always grab of mushrooms when I am in the market. I usually toss them in my pasta dishes, but today I decided to incorporate it in a rice dish.  I am using a pressure cooker for this recipe, if you don’t have one, use a deep cooking pot that can cook rice.

Ingredients:

Rice – 2 cups of basmati rice
Water – 3.5 cups
Spring Onion – 2 chopped
Onion – 1 large diced
Tomato – 2 medium chopped
Mushrooms – 3 or 4 cups worth roughly chopped
Juice from 1 lemon
Salt – 1 tsp
Oil – 2 tbsp
Fresh mint – 1 tbsp finely chopped
Cilantro – 1 tbsp finely chopped

To grind:

Chillies – 2 or 3 (depending on how spicy you like it)
Garlic cloves – 3 cloves
Ginger – 1 inch piece
Fennel Seeds – 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon – 1 stick
Cardamom  - 3 pods
Tumeric – a pinch
Cayenne – a pinch

Rinse and soak the rice in water until it is ready to go in the pot with the rest of the ingredients

Blitz the green chillies, ginger, garlic, cinnamon stick, fennel seeds, cardamom, tumeric and cayenne into a paste.

Heat the oil in your pressure cooker or your cooking pot and saute the onion and spring onion for a few minutes. Next add the spice paste and stirfry for a minute or two.

Add the tomatoes and mushrooms and cook for a few more minutes. As this is cooking, drain the water from the rice, and add the rice to the pot and stir and fry for a few minutes. Add 3.5 cups of water, the lemon juice, and the required amount of salt and give everything a really good mix.

If you are cooking in a pressure cooker, it will take 2 whistles and then you need to turn off the heat. If you are not cooking in a pressure cooker, turn the heat to low and cook until the rice is cooked.

Once the rice is cooked, toss in the cilantro and mint and serve hot!

I made some Spicy Egg masala to go along with this. Some cucumber raita or plain yogurt will go well with this rice dish.

Filed under: Mushroom, Rice / Biryani, Vegetarian Tagged: indian, Rice, vegetarian