If you have been to the states of South India and had the pleasure of savouring food in the restaurants there, you would have then most certainly come across a menu item that involves pepper and mushroom in some combination. In most restaurants Mushroom Pepper Varuval/ Mushroom Pepper Fry is a usual offering. This spicy and aromatic preparation is unsurprisingly a crowd pleaser.
This delicious dish is one of my go-to curries when I have to put together something spicy and quick. If you’re put off by the thought of how spicy this may be, I assure you it is not that repulsive kind of spicy that hits you in throat and shoots it up your nostril. A comforting spicy, if I may. 🙂
It’s amazing how mushroom adapts to the flavours you give it. Pepper, in my opinion, really complements the unique flavour of mushroom making this one hellva delectable curry.
This curry is quick, delicious and incredible when consumed with hot rice or flat breads.
Ingredients
- Button mushrooms – 400g, cleaned thoroughly and sliced
- Onion – ½ cup chopped
- Tomato – 1/3 cup chopped
- Ginger garlic paste – 1 heaped spoon
- Fennel seeds – 2 tsps.
- Whole black pepper corns – ½ tblspn
- Oil – 1 tblspn.
- Curry leaves – 1 sprig
- Turmeric powder – ¼ tspn
- Coriander powder – 1 tspn
- Salt – As required
- Coriander – To garnish
Directions
Prep:
Grind peppercorns and fennel seeds into a coarse powder.
Method:
- Heat oil in a pan.
- Add curry leaves and let it splutter.
- Now add the onion and ginger garlic paste and cook until onion is soft.
- Add the chopped tomatoes and cook for 3 to 5 minutes.
- Using the back of the ladle, gently crush the tomatoes. If required, deglaze with a small amount of water.
- Toss in the coriander powder, turmeric powder and salt. Give it all a mix.
- Allow the mixture to cook for another 2 minutes.
- Add 1 teaspoon of the fennel and pepper powder and mix until combined.
- Toss in the mushrooms and stir gently to coat them in the mixture.
- Stir through and allow the mushroom to cook.
- Add more of the ground fennel and pepper powder and mix well.
- Once the mushroom has softened remove from the stove.
- Garnish with chopped coriander.
- Serve hot with rice or flat breads.
Tips:
- I didn’t use a lot of water because mushroom tends to release a lot of water upon cooking. Use water if you want to thin the curry.
- I ended up with some leftover fennel and pepper powder. I sometimes add more if to this curry if I feel like an extra dose of spice or I use it for other curries to season them.
- A splash of coconut milk renders a creamy flavour. Yumm!
- This is a spicy curry, adjust spice levels to suit your taste.
- Add other vegetables like baby corn or capsicum to make it bulkier.
- Use ghee in place of oil if you prefer.
Pingback: Puli Kuzhambu Kitchening About
I’m one crazy’fan of mushrooms. They are part of my meal at least twice a week. Me expecting my second child has grown craving for this dish right the minute I read it! Soon it will be part of my lunch box!
Thank you for slurping dish!
A tip though, you could try this recipe by adding extra mushy tomatoes to add up to the tangy flavour with some sprinkle of garam masala to finish 🙂
Congrats on you baby! Fortunately, this dish will be easy to put together with minimal effort. 🙂
Your variation with more tomatoes sounds good; when I am not on low-carb/keto, I will try it. Also I wanted to keep spice powders minimum and wanted pepper and fennel to shine, which is why I did not add garam masala. 🙂
Mouth watering
Looks super yumm 🙂