Mushroom curry

I almost forgot that we have some split gill mushrooms in the fridge. This morning I found them almost completely dried due to the cold refrigerator temperature. I decided to cook two dishes with these mushrooms, 1 for lunch and 1 for dinner. 

I remembered that my dad said that split gill mushrooms can be cooked as curry so I decided to cook mushroom curry. I have adjusted this curry recipe to suit the mushroom dried condition and lack of flavor after sitting in refrigerator for more than a week. I added some stock to cover up the lack of mushroom flavor. Being a homemade cook also require us to be creative and adjustable sometimes, in order to save time, and save some ingredients which almost go bad. 

Difference in taste between gulai and curry

Lots of people mistakenly called gulai as curry when they came to Malaysia and maybe Indonesia. Actually there are some difference between gulai and curry. I am not very knowledgeable in spices mix but I try to explain a bit here. 

Gulai is a dish you can find in lots of countries in Southeast Asia. In my opinion Gulai taste milder than curry, contain less spices in it and sometimes less spicy. It mixes well with the meat in term of creaminess and mildness. Gulai is best cooked with fatty meat like fatty beef, fatty and tender chicken, and fatty fish like catfish. It also goes well with sweet fish like tuna. And clams and other seafood. Prawn gulai, crab gulai, chicken gulai are some types of gulai. Smoked and cured meat also can be used. 

Curry on the other hand have sharper and stronger taste and sometimes more spicy. It dominates the meat with the flavor of its spices. In my opinion the curry strength is the spices flavor used in it. Various types of meat and vegetables can be used to cook curry. Chicken curry, fish curry, mutton curry are some of the types of curry which are usually available in restaurants. Usually good and delicious curry leaves the curry smell on your hand (if you are eating using hand) even after you washed your hand. 

Ready in around 1 hour. 

Ingredients

7 finely diced shallots

3 cloves garlic finely sliced

1/2 tomato diced

1 bird eye chili (sliced thinly)

2 cups tamarind juice from 1 tablespoon tamarind

3 tablespoon beef or mutton curry mix

1 tablespoon chili powder

1/3 cup cooking oil (palm oil/coconut oil/ghee/ vegetable oil)

3 to 4 cups mushroom of choice

1 palm sugar/ 2 tablespoons of brown sugar

3 teaspoons salt

1 cube beef stock/ chicken stock / vegetable stock

1 to 2 cups of water

1/2 cup coconut milk

Method

Saute the shallots and garlic until a bit golden.

Then add in diced tomato and chili.

Mix curry and chili powder and add water to form curry paste. When tomato become paste, add in the curry paste. 

Cook for 1 minute and add in tamarind juice. 

Add in mushroom  and stock and cook 1 minute. 

Add in palm sugar and salt. Add in water.

When the curry boils add in coconut milk. Taste test.

When curry boils again and the coconut milk does not taste raw, turn off the heat. The curry is ready to be served. 

Cilantro stem and leaves are also often added in curry. It adds flavor in the curry. But today I don't have cilantro in the kitchen so I skipped it. One more ingredient that can be added is carrot. The mushroom I am using is split gill mushroom so I did not add carrot to preserve and concentrate it's unique earthy umami-like flavor in the curry. But if you like you can add carrot in it.

Okay that is all for now and happy cooking.