Mushroom Peas Curry / Matar Khumb Curry Recipe

I love those small recipe booklets by Neeta Mehta. They are nicely themed and mostly have traditional and easy recipes. This particular one where I got this Matar Khumb recipe has Punjabi recipes that are extremely popular yet I've never tried before, except maybe the Paneer Butter Masala recipe.

I've already tried two recipes from the book and loved them both. Here's the first one.

Mushroom Peas Curry / Matar Khumb Curry

Adapted from Neeta Mehta's Punjabi Recipes

Serves 4

What I Used:

200gm/about 4 cups mushrooms, washed and chopped into 6 (I used white button mushrooms)

1 cup green peas

2 cardamoms/elaichi/elakka

2 cloves/laung/grampoo

1 tbsp dhania powder / malli podi

1 tsp red chilli powder

2 tsp garam masala

A pinch of turmeric powder

4tbsp oil

Grind together to a puree

2 large tomatoes

1 green chilli

Grind together to a paste

1 large onion

6-8 flakes garlic

1" piece ginger

How I Made It:

1. Heat oil. Add the cardamom and cloves. Fry for 1 min.

3. To this, add the onion-garlic-ginger paste. Cook stirring continuously until light brown. Remove from fire.

4. Add the masalas now - dhania powder, red chilli powder, garam masala and haldi with some salt.

5. Return to low heat and cook for a few seconds. Add 1 tbsp water.

6. Add the tomato-green chilli puree. Cook till dry and oil separates from the gravy (about 10 mins)

7. Next, add the mushrooms and peas. Stir fry for 5 min.

8. Add 2 cups water. Cook on low medium heat for about 15 min till peas turn soft and oil separates. Adjust salt.

Serve curry with rice or chappatis. I served mine with some jeera rice.