Dhingri Josh (Mushroom Curry)

Mushrooms were on sale this week, so I decided to give this delicious-sounding mushroom curry a try. It looked and smelled absolutely delicious as it was cooking. TF and I were both stoked to try it.

Sadly, I think the black cumin and black cardamom were a bit overpowering for us. It was still a good curry, but it came out much more dark and bitter than I ideally would have liked. Drizzling a bit of sonth on top did help balance out the flavours, but I think I'd like it better with a bit less of the dark stuff in next time. The recipe below reflects this.

Dhingri Josh

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. mustard oil
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp. black cumin seeds
• 2 black cardamom pods
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 cinnamon sticks (~7cm long)
• 2 dried red Thai, arbol, or cayenne chilies
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 1 Tbsp. garlic paste
• 1 small (~400mL) can diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp. ground Kashmiri chilies
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 c. water, divided
• 225g cremini mushrooms, quartered
• 1/2 tsp. Punjabi garam masala
• 1 c. chopped fresh chives

Directoins

1. Heat the oil over medium-high heat.
2. Add the cumin, black cumin, cardamom, bay leaves, cinnamon, and whole dried chilies and sizzle for 15-30 seconds.
3. Add the onion and stir-fry for 5 minutes.
4. Add the ginger paste and garlic paste and stir-fry for another 30-60 seconds.
5. Add the tomatoes, ground chilies, and salt.
6. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has been cooked off (~10 minutes).
7. Add 1/2 c. of the water and cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has been absorbed/cooked off again (~10 more minutes).
8. Add the mushrooms and the remaining 1/2 c. water and cover, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are tender (~10 minutes again).
9. Remove from heat and stir in the garam masala and chives.