Schezwan Mushrooms - A Cheater's Dinner

I had originally planned to make Garlic Mushrooms, one of the easiest recipes in my repertoire - except for the part where you have to peel and chop about an entire pod of garlic. As I stared at the mushrooms and tried to get enthusiastic about peeling garlic I suddenly remembered the container of Schezwan sauce that Chef Raunak of Soy Street. Vashi, had given me a few days back. It was the absolute answer to my prayers!

The Cheater's Schezwan Mushrooms

Button mushrooms
1 large onion, roughly chopped
Schezwan Sauce from your favourite Chinese restaurant or ready made from a jar
cooking oil
salt

Wash the mushrooms thoroughly and get off all the mud and grit that's on them. Chop into quarters.

Heat a tablespoon or so of any neutral oil in your wok. Once it's hot chuck in the chopped onions and fry for a couple of minutes till they turn translucent. Now add the mushrooms and fry for a while. Reduce the heat and let the mushrooms cook for a bit. They will release a decent bit of water so you won't need to add any. Once the mushrooms are nearly done and the water has dried up put in at least 2 - 3 tablespoons of the Schezwan sauce. Add some of the oil too.  Turn up the heat and mix the sauce and the mushrooms really well.

Serve with hakka noodles or a simple fried rice.


29 December 2013
Marathon Bloggers

Roast Chicken with Foil baked Bacon Potatoes

Facebook throws up a number of interesting posts and the ones about food always catch my eye. Today I saw a picture of  sliced potatoes and crisp bacon that had been baked in a foil parcel with a few additional ingredients. It looked superb, I had all the ingredients and it was ridiculously easy to make.

The hubby also had a holiday today and he'd gone off to the market and retuned with a lot of goodies including a tray of plump chicken drumsticks and a tray of fresh white mushrooms. Lunch was looking good!

We had Lemon and Garlic roasted Chicken with Foil Baked Bacon and Potatoes, and Garlicky Mushrooms.

Here's how I made it all. It took me an hour including marinating time.

Roast Chicken

6 drumsticks, poked all over with a sharp knife
Mama Africa's Zulu Jalapeno Lemon Garlic Sauce
salt

Marinate the chicken in a generous amount of the sauce and salt.

15 minutes before you're ready to serve grill the chicken on a non stick pan with a splash of any neutral oil.

If you don't have this particular sauce use any other barbecue or grilling sauce or a ready marinade. Or make up your own marinade. Just tweak as you go and make up the combinations as I did :)

Foil Grilled Bacon Potatoes

3 potatoes, sliced into thin discs
4-5 rashers bacon, lightly fried, drained and cut into pieces
2 onions thickly sliced, grilled in the bacon fat.
salt
pepper
A generous dash of Cajun spice mix (optional)
olive oil
Thick Aluminium foil

Place the foil in a pyrex or metal baking dish. Put the sliced potatoes in a pile in the centre and add salt and a generous amount of freshly cracked pepper. Sprinkle the spice mix if you're using it. A crumbled stock cube will also work wonders here. Put in the bacon pieces and the grilled onions and mix it all up.

Drizzle the oil over the potatoes and then seal the foil over to make a tightly closed parcel. Put it in a preheated oven and bake at 160- 180 degrees for around 40 minutes. You can parboil the potatoes and thus reduce the baking time significantly and also ensure that you get fully cooked potatoes. But I prefer to bake them from scratch.

Garlicky Mushrooms

1 tray/packet button mushrooms
4 -5 cloves garlic
salt
oil

Wash the mushrooms really well and then slice thickly. Heat oil in a pan and throw in the sliced mushrooms. Add a teaspoon or more of chopped garlic, add salt and give it a good stir. I cook it covered for a few minutes and then uncover it and let the water evaporate fully.

Once you've got all three elements cooked and ready just plate up and enjoy. We sure did!

Easy Pasta with Tuna and Vegetables

This is a dish that I made often in the hostel in Pune while we were doing MA and PhD... it is fairly simple and very flexible depending on what you have available in your pantry.

Any medium sized pasta- macaroni, fusili, etc
1 can Tuna in oil
2 or 3 eggs, boiled, peeled and chopped roughly
1 bunch spring onions, chopped
200 gms, mushrooms, washed and sliced
garlic, as required, chopped
capsicums,green or coloured, cut into small pieces
1 zucchini, chopped into small cubes
olive oil
1 or 2 flavour cubes, as required
dried oregano
cheese slices
salt
fresh cracked pepper

Cook the pasta till al dente and keep aside. Toss in a tsp of olive oil.
Flake the tuna in a saucer. Reserve the liquid.
In a pan or wok heat a tbsp of olive oil and fry the garlic and spring onions for a couple of minutes. Add the mushrooms and the zucchini. Cook till the water from the mushrooms has dried up but not completely. Add the flavour cube(s) and salt and pepper as required. Add the chopped capsicums and toss on heat for a minute.

In a large bowl mix the warm cooked pasta with the mushroom mix. Toss in the chopped boiled eggs, flaked tuna and mix gently. Tear the cheese slices into largeish shreds and add to the pasta. Pour in some of the reserved tuna oil and toss with the dried oregano. Ensure that the pastas is still warm when you toss in the cheese...it melts a bit and is just great!!

You can chuck in some sliced black or green olives for an added zing.

Just leave out the tuna and the eggs to make it vegetarian....the pasta still tastes quite yummy.

This makes a nice light lunch especially in the summer.

This is more of a 'salad' type of a pasta preparation.

Garlic Mushrooms

My love affair with mushrooms started just as I began college. My cousin Bipasha and I shared a great love for mushrooms and we discovered many recipes using the button mushrooms that were available in the market.

This is a very easy way of doing mushrooms and it is somethig I often serve when I'm having guests over...

250 gms Button mushrooms, washed thoroughly
garlic, finely minced or sliced
1 cube Maggi seasoning
fresh black pepper
1 tbsp soya sauce
olive oil

Slice the mushrooms, not too thin. Make sure they have been washed really well and all the mud is off. In a pan heat some olive oil and toss in the sliced garlic. Fry for a minute and then add the mushrooms. Once they release water crumble in the flavour cube. Add a good grinding of fresh black pepper. Let it cook covered till the mushrooms are done. Remove lid and dry out the excess liquid. Splash in the soya sauce and coat the mushrooms well.

Remove onto a serving plate and serve.