Recipe: Shumaila Chauhan's Stuffed Mushrooms

Shumaila Chauhan's Bharwan Mushrooms have a tickle-your-tastebuds salty-sweet-spicy stuffing with intriguing ingredients like walnuts, milk powder, black pepper and pomegranate.

Baked till they sizzle, they are nutrient-rich too.

Make these mushrooms part of your fabulous Raksha Bandhan feast -- pair them in the first course with Ramapriya Suresh's Katori Chaat or Maharaj Ganga Singh's mixed-lentil Dahi Vada..

Then for the main course, try Chef Varun Inamdar's Paneer Dum Biryani or Bethica Das' Raw Jackfruit Dum Biryani.

Finish with Manjula Nair's Sweet Aval or Chef Ranveer Brar's caramel-flavoured Shrikhand.  

Chandigarh-raised, Chauhan says she belongs to a family of foodies and the home-cooked meals were the best. Her dad doesn't cook much 'but when he does he makes a mean spaghetti sauce and some pretty juicy and flavorful chicken kebabs'. 

Bharwan Mushrooms 

Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 200 gm mushrooms
• 1 tbsp oil
• 2 green chillies, chopped
• 2 small onions, chopped
• 3 tbsp ground walnut powder
• 2 tbsp milk powder
• ½-inch piece ginger, grated
• 1 tbsp crushed walnuts
• 3 tbsp pomegranate dana or arils
• 4 tbsp fresh green dhania or coriander or cilantro, chopped
• ½ tsp black pepper powder
• ½ tsp roasted jeera or cumin powder
• ½ tsp garam masala

Method

• Remove the stalks of the mushrooms.
  Keep the mushroom caps aside.
  Finely chop the stalks 
• Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed kadhai or frying pan. 
  Add the onions and saute for 4-5 minutes. 
  Add the ground walnuts, the milk powder.
  Mix well. 
  Add in the grated ginger, crushed walnuts, chopped mushroom stalks, pomegranate, green chillies, coriander leaves, ground spices. 
  Season with salt and mix well. 
  Take off heat, and stuff each mushroom with the filling. 
• Preheat oven to 180°C.
  Line a baking pan with a greased parchment paper and place the stuffed mushrooms on it. 
  Drizzle oil and bake it for 20-25 minutes or till the mushroom are roasted. 
  Serve warm.

Editor's Note: For vegan stuffed mushrooms, replace the milk powder with grated vegan cheese.

For a Jain version, skip the onions and replace the grated ginger with saunth or ginger powder.

Shumaila Chauhan is the creator of the food blog Novice Housewife.

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