Mushroom Rice

This recipe is my husband's. He brings home groceries and sometimes decides that a certain vegetable needs to be cooked a certain way.  This time it was mushrooms. He requested a kalasidanna (translates to mixed rice) with mushrooms, onions, garlic and no other spices other than salt and pepper. Turmeric was explicitly to be left out.

A's Mushroom rice - Feeds 4 to 6  hungry people

White Basmati rice cooked - 4 cups
Button Mushrooms cleaned and quartered  - 1.5 to 2 lbs
Yellow onion sliced thinly into rings -1
Garlic smashed and chopped coarsely - 5 cloves
salt and pepper to taste
Extra virgin Olive oil - 6 tablespoons
Juice of 1 lime 

Take a large wok or a skillet with high sides. Heat the olive oil on medium.
Add the onions and garlic to it.  Cook on medium low heat , stirring often until the onions have wilted completely and are beginning to brown at the edges. Take care not to burn.

Add the mushrooms now and cook to brown slightly. Add salt and pepper. Cook until the mushrooms soften and begin to release some liquid.
Turn off the heat. Spread the cooked rice over the mushroom mixture and stir gently to mix. Add the lime juice. Taste and adjust with more olive oil, salt and pepper.
Serve hot or warm. Leftovers reheat well.

Ethiopian style khichdi...

Has it happened to you - you see a recipe and you know you have need  to make it NOW. I was all excited, fortune seemed to have smiled on me, I had the key ingredient sitting in my pantry.
But alas when I got home, all I really had in the pantry was the key ingredient. No tofu, no tempeh, no mushrooms no tomato paste and no time. But I had to have that Doro Wat, it was beckoning.
So I did what they call a SAM in Banglooru.. (Swalpa adjust maadkoli)


So I slow roasted the onions, using some Riesling to deglaze the pan, stir fired with Berbere and some other spices, added a couple of tomatoes, and then added some rice and lentils to the mix and cooked it all together.
The result was a fabulously flavored khicdi, mujadara whatever you want to call it.

And here is the recipe.

Source: Adapted from Vegan Doro Wat on Holy Cow


1/2 yellow onion
Riesling to de glaze the pan
3 tsps berbere
2 tomatoes quartered
1 inch piece of ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 c rice (washed and drained)
1.5 c french lentils(washed and drained)
4 3/4 c H20
salt to taste
2 tblsp of  olive oil

Slow roast the onions without any oil. For this put the onions in the pan you are planning to cook the rice. Keep the pan on medium heat. When the onions dry up  add a little bit of the wine and de glaze the pan. Repeat the process until the onions are a nice amber color.
Add the Berbere  and fry with the onions.
Add the quartered tomatoes, ginger and garlic  and cook until the tomatoes release water and start to get mushed up.
Add the rice and the lentils and stir to coat. Add the water and salt to taste.
Bring  the water to a boil and then close lid,, simmer for 20 mins. Leave to stand for 10. fluff with a fork .

We ate this with a simple chopped salad of tomatoes and cucumbers.