Mushroom Fried Rice

The Mushroom looks strange as it shares striking similarities with an umbrella. It hails from the fungus
family and it is considered by many as a meat supplement for the
vegetarians. However few of us don't like this even though it is good in
tasty and nutritious. There are quite a lot of mushroom varieties among
which button mushrooms are widely used in cooking.The same variety I
used here for preparing this fried rice. I remove the the outer skin of the mushrooms and wipe the upper part
using a damp cloth for cleaning them. Also whenever I buy them, I tend
to use them as soon as possible, because they easily get spoilt and once
they are in that stage it is difficult to differentiate the good from
the bad mushrooms.

Ingredients:



Mushroom - 1 cup, cleaned & sliced

Rice - 1.5 cup

Carrot - 1, finely chopped

Beans - 5 nos, finely chopped

Peas - 1/4 cup

Onion - 1 small size

Soy sauce - 1 tablespoonRed/green chilli sauce - 1 teaspoon

Salt - to taste

Pepper powder - 1 teaspoon

Oil - 3 teaspoons

Coriander leaves - 1 string, for garnishing

Spring onions - 2 nos, for garnishing



Method:



1) Clean the rice once or twice using water.

2) With one cup of rice, a teaspoon oil and salt. Pressure cook / boil the rice by adding 3 cups of water.

3) When rice is cooked, remove it from the cooker / pan and mix it gently.

4) Spread on wide plate to cool them. Instead you can also go for cold rice/left over rice for preparing fried rice.

5) Remove the stem of the mushoom and clean them using a wet towel.

6) Cut them into medium slices.

7) Meanwhile, take a pan and heat oil in it.8) Add finely chopped onion. Saute well. When they are half sauteed, add vegetables and sprinkle little water. Toss on high heat to cook the vegetables.

9) Add mushrooms to the pan.

10) Add salt, soya sauce, chilli sauce and pepper powder. Mix them well.

11) Toss for few minutes in low flame.

12) Mix the cooked rice with this and toss gently. Make sure the soy sauce is coated well with rice.

13) Garnish with coriander or chopped spring onions and serve the rice hot.

Note:

1) You can use either coriander leaves or spring onions for garnishing.

2) If you prefer washing mushrooms, then (pat)dry them well before adding to the pan. 

3) Increase or decrease the pepper quantity according to your taste.

Sambharam /Spiced Buttermilk - Ultimate Thirst Quencher and Summer Cooler

Sambharam/Morum Vellam is buttermilk thinned with water spiced with curry leaves, limes leaves, hing, chilly and salt. In the olden days when fridge was not part of the kitchen, buttermilk was stored in the china pot/bharani. This will ensure that the buttermilk doesn't turn sour faster. Buttermilk and curd are different. Buttermilk is obtained after churning the curd and the butter is removed. Buttermilk is healthier than curd, with the butter removed. Buttermilk has many healing properties and Ayurveda always recommends the use buttermilk . You can read here to know more.

During the summer months, most homes in Kerala, will prepare the sambharam in large quantities and will be offered to any guests who drop in. In some homes, you can find an earthen pot filled with sambharam in their courtyard. Any passerby can partake the sambharam. In Kerala, summer is the period which the annual temple festivals (pooram/vela)  is celebrated. The celebrations will be through the day and participation of people will be in huge numbers, despite the scorching heat. And you can definitely find at least  one outlet where sambharam will be distributed free to the people. 

A glass of sambharam will instantly quench the thirst and can give a run for the money to any of the bottled drinks, available in the market. A sambharam need not be chilled. The inherent cooling effect of buttermilk is enough to cool your body. The chilled bottled drinks may cool your senses while drinking it, it may not cool the body. The buttermilk cools the senses and the body too.

Each house has their way of making this sambharam and there is no standard recipe for this. You can just go by your taste and availability of ingredients.

You need

• Buttermilk -1 cup
• Water - 3 cups
• Green chilly - 2 nos, slit
• Curry leaves - few sprigs
• Lime leaves/Narakathila - 2 nos
• Hing - few shakes
• Salt to taste

Method

Take all the ingredients in a bowl. Crush the leaves and chilly between your fingers. This will release the flavors into the buttermilk. Enjoy the spicy, flavorful buttermilk. You can't stop with one glass. 

Check out the Blogging Marathoners doing BM#5 along with me 

Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Aarthi, Divya, Jayashree, Kaveri, Pavani,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets:Gayathri, Priya Suresh,
Seven Days of Microwave Meals: Monika,
Seven Days of Regional Specials:Harini, Vaishali, Suma, PJ
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Kalyani
Summer Coolers: Jayasree, Kamalika, Srivalli

Onion Vatha Kuzhambu (Onion cooked in spicy tamarind gravy)

This is a tangy and spicy gravy that goes well with rice and curry. Vegetables like ladies finger, capsicum, sweet potato, drumstick, brinjal can be used instead of onions. Some call it Kaara kuzhambu.

Ingredients:
1 medium sized onion sliced
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp thur dal or channa dal
A few curry leaves
3 tsp sambar powder
Salt
1/4 tsp hing
3.5 cups tamarind extract from small lime size tamarind
1/2 tsp jaggery
1 tsp rice flour

Method:
Heat oil. Add mustard seeds, fenugreek, channa dal or thur dal, curry leaves.
When mustard seeds crackle and dal turns brown, add sliced onion and fry till it turns soft.
Soak tamarind in warm water for 10 minutes and extract 3.5 cups of juice from the same.
Add this juice to the cooked onion.
Add salt, sambar powder, hing and allow the mixture to boil for 20 minutes or until oil starts to float on top.
Add jaggery if you like the gravy to be slightly sweet.
Mix rice flour in 1 tsp water and make a thick paste.
Add this paste to the tamarind gravy and stir continuously until the mixture becomes little thick.
Serve with rice, ghee and curry.