Recipe Mushroom Curry

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This is (will be) a review of the recipe for Mushroom Curry from The Silk Road Vegetarian cookbook by Dahlia Abraham-Klein.

There's a long list of ingredients here, but most of them are spices. Some I have had to grind myself because I simply didn't have or couldn't find them already ground. I made one or two substitutions. I didn't have any small brown onions, so used the red onions that needed using up. I didn't have a green apple and tbh, can't see why you need one. I probably wouldn't peel it next time round either.
I didn't have a jalapeño pepper, so used a frozen cayenne peppery defrosted. I don't even know what baby Bella mushrooms are, flat brown Portobello mushrooms were used instead and halved them sliced. Finally the coconut milk. I only buy coconut cream that is 100% coconut kernel extract. I just used that. The rest of the tin was frozen in a suitable container.

Finally the almonds. Nothing was going to get ½ cup of almonds to weigh 25g. Not slivered or anything. They came in at 75g. I just settled for that. I have to make my own here, blanching them myself then slicing them so mine are not roughly chopped!

Ingredients
4 tbsp canola oil
75g blanched slivered almonds (½ cup)
4 tbsp raisins or sultanas
1 apple, peeled, cored and diced
2 or 3 small (red or brown) onions, halved and sliced thinly
2-4 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 inch ginger, peeled and grated (1 tbsp roughly)
1 cayenne pepper, seeded, and diced
1 tsp coriander seeds
1-2 bay leaves
500g mushrooms, sliced
2 stalls of celery, diced
1-2 large tomatoes, diced
1 tsp sea salt
2-3 hot curry powder
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
¼ tsp ground (green) cardamom
⅛ tsp ground cloves
125-175ml coconut cream (to taste)
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves

Method
  1. Heat 2 tbsp of canola oil to very hot over a medium heat, before adding the almonds, raisins/sultanas and apples. Cook until the almonds are going nicely brown but not burnt. Remember nuts will contribute to cook after removed from heat, so better underdone than overdone. Remove from the skillet to a plate.
  2. In the same pan, heat the other 2tbsp oil to very hot and add the onions. Fry until they start to soften and go translucent, stirring frequently. Add the ginger, garlic, cayenne pepper, coriander seeds and bay leaf and cook for a minute. if the pan is starting to catch, add a little water carefully. Don't let them burn.
  3. Add the mushrooms and celery and cook over a medium heat foreign the lid on for around 5 minutes, stirring frequently and watching to ensure the garlic and ginger do not burn. Add water if they are catching the bottom of the pan.
  4. Next add the tomatoes through to the ground cloves, stir well and reduce three heat so that three mushrooms simmer in a covered pan for roughly 10 minutes until softened and cooked thoroughly.
  5. Before serving, remove the bay leaves and carefully add the coconut cream, stirring constantly. Bring back to a simmer but not boil (else the coconut cream will split) just before serving.
  6. Reheat the apple mixture (in the microwave, 1 minutes job), serve the curry over rice topped off with the apple mixture and chopped coriander leaves.
Mushroom Curry

Mushroom Curry

 
We used to get a mushroom sabji curry from a place that closed after the earthquakes, it was so yummy. With a creamy sauce and peas. I've saved your recipe and will try it after cup week. It's crazy here at the moment.

Russ
 
I must admit I find this recipe rather odd - dried fruit, nuts, tomatoes, mushrooms, apples and coconut cream. It doesn't sing to me - it sounds confused with too many ingredients which don't naturally work well together. Of course, I could be surprised...
 
morning glory said:
I must admit I find this recipe rather odd - dried fruit, nuts, tomatoes, mushrooms, apples and coconut cream. It doesn't sing to me - it sounds confused with too many ingredients which don't naturally work well together. Of course, I could be surprised...
Click to expand...
I was very surprised. It works really well. And somehow the coconut milk (I only use coconut cream because the only difference between the 2 of the brand I use, is added water!) brings the whole thing together.
We have had it 3 times now (the final time we added a tin of chickpeas to it to make enough for 2, that works really well as well). There that little tomato that it is hardly noticeable except for adding to the red flecks in the curry (my chilli was red). And sultanas/raisins are often found in curries, so that is hardly an odd ingredient to add.
 
Ok, my thoughts on the recipe.

Hubby thought it was too spicy which is unusual for him. I thought it was ok but close to what we manage but I was also aware that my substitute chilli may have been to blame. It was very tasty and one hubby said he would have again. The apple, almond and sultanas mix reminded me of the smell of homemade Christmas puddings, what with the mix of everything going on and although the spice mix was lengthy, it wasn't actually difficult even if one or two had to be ground especially for this recipe.

I needed to add water whilst the ginger chilli and garlic was cooking because they started to catch on the bottom of the pan. I didn't have the heat that high, but do have a thick stainless steel bottomed casserole pan which could have been the problem but water quickly resolved that issue. However, this would possibly be the cause of hubby thinking the sauce was too thin. It would easily be thickened.

Overall it was a really tasty dish that worked well over rice or jacket potatoes. It is most certainly one I'd make again and one we enjoyed.
 
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