You know, I am really bored! Like, really bored!!! When I am bored I put on my armour Huh… I wear my apron! And I cook a dish that… Excites almost everybody! Hmm… There’s this one dish that excites everyone! Mushroom Masala! Yaa… So to get rid of my boredom And… For your excitement Let’s cook some Mushroom Masala! Rolling &… Action!!! Another common misconception that we have in India is… That mushrooms are not an Indian ingredient Uhh…. That the ‘West’ taught us to eat mushrooms Which is not true For the longest time ‘Gucchi’ (Morels) are found in Kashmir Gucchi Pulav is an age-old Kashmiri delicacy Dried Morels would be ‘exported’ to Amritsar, Lahore Morels are famous in entire North India, Punjab Dhingri (Mushrooms) would come to Punjab from Kashmir and Afghanistan Dhingri Mattar (Mushrooms and Green Peas) is a very famous recipe It is way more older than You know…Uhh…than…just the twentieth century, When cultivated mushrooms arrived on the scene We have always been eating mushrooms For a long time. It’s just that, we don’t know it as well! The recipe is very simple Hmm… And this same recipe, you can just take it any place Next time you are doing a Alu (Potato) Masala, Or you are doing any other gravy-based ‘Masala’ Then… you can use the same recipe All the new cooks Especially those cooks, Who are worried about cooking after marriage Actually…the boys should be worried Because gone are the days when only girls were expected to cook But still The girls who are still worried about cooking after marriage They should invest in a good mixer-blender Half the job is done! And the day they start making silent mixies That’s it! All work will be done without anyone even knowing that a mixer was used So here I am cooking the base of the ‘Masala Gravy’ The ones worried about cooking after marriage, Please pay attention! This is an infallible recipe Ranveer Brar’s tested, infallible recipe I always say that if one wants to understand Indian cuisine, one needs to understand the nature of onions How to cook onions To what stage the onions have to be cooked The cut of onions to be used You know… because… Everything depends on onions The onions need to be sautéed till light brown Not beyond this stage After this… We add all these ingredients Mix everything together Don’t waste too much time. Else, the spices will burn As soon as you smell the aroma of sautéed spices, And then add water Which means we are introducing moisture by adding tomatoes Once the spices are cooked and turn fragrant, Add water and salt The water is only for the tomatoes to cook Hmm… Once the tomatoes are cooked, there should be no water left before blending into a paste Ideally…Ideally, after this masala base is cooked, During the last boil, I will add half teaspoon white vinegar to it Without revealing this By doing so, this will last in the refrigerator for at least a week Hmm… And then, you can just take it out, Add whatever you want to add And make it… Uhh… Bhindi (Okra) Masala, Gobhi (Cauliflower) Masala, Alu (Potato) Masala, Mushroom Masala As simple as that! Let us solve this mystery of the mushroom See, mushrooms; often, a lot of us do not use We get very confused about which part of the mushroom can be used And about mushrooms not being clean How to clean them? Right? I am going to solve that mystery You don’t have to waste the whole stem You just need to cut the base of the stem Just a little bit of the stem You can keep this much We are cutting the base of the stem because it tends to become a little woody Most of the mushrooms that are available today All these Are usually grown on newspaper stacks Very few varieties of mushrooms grow in the soil But still… Sometimes there may be some dirt or something black on the mushrooms For removing it, sprinkle some flour on the mushroom Alright? Not refined flour… whole wheat flour! After that, you just have to rub it All you are doing is, You are scrubbing the mushrooms And the wheat flour is helping you scrub Look at this See that? Nice! If I had added half the amount of water, So it would have become a paste Right? And that would have stayed in the fridge forever! A tiny bit of vinegar. Don’t forget that! Beautiful! Now we have a kind of ‘Masala Gravy’ ready Alright? We have a ‘Masala’ ready, so as to say Now just add the mushrooms and…finish! All these dishes; Bhindi (Okra) Masala, Mushroom Masala Alu (Potato) Masala All these dishes have their origins in the post-partition period Post-partition when a lot of people migrated to Delhi They were habituated to cooking in a ‘Kadhai’ And… The style of cooking in Lahore involved adding a masala in a ‘Kadhai’ And then tossing it with other ingredients It was called ‘Balti Cooking’ or ‘Kadhai Cooking’ What they did was…They made that same ‘Masala’ And started serving things stir-fried in it And that came to be known as ‘Bhindi Masala’, ‘Dhingri Masala’ That ‘Masala’ was common It is therefore important to understand this ‘Masala’ ‘Punjabi-Style Masala’ is very important to understand to cook Any ‘Masala’ dish As a shortcut! First and foremost, And obviously…some Ghee Because Ranveer is cooking! Lightly sweat the whole spices The onions are only for chunkiness Add some red chilli powder after the onions And mushrooms Now we’ll just add a little bit of salt So the mushrooms can lose water Nice! Some more ‘gravy’, then cover with a lid and leave to cook. There you go! And this is done! Just roughly torn coriander Now this looks like that typical ‘Impressing your in-laws’ kind of platter
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