500gmsWild mushrooms, or cultivated button mushrooms
Salt to taste
½ tspTurmeric powder
½ Coconut,milk extracted twice from ½ coconut, (thick and thin extracts)
4-5tbspOil
2Onions,finely Chopped
2Generous teaspoons of coriander powder
½ tspRed Chilli powder
3Green chillies ,slit along the length
½tspKachampuli
½tspJuice of Lime
Instructions
Clean and pat dry the mushroom. Trim and chop button mushrooms into quarters.
Mix salt and turmeric powder into mushrooms and set aside.
Grate ½ a fresh coconut, cover in scant ¼ cup hot water for 15 mins.
Extract thick coconut milk from ½ coconut. This is the first extract. To the remaining coconut shreds, add another ¼ cup hot water, soak again for 15 mins and extract the thin milk.
Heat the oil in a pan and when hot, add chopped onions. Fry gently until they soften and turn light brown. Stir in 2 teaspoons coriander powder and cook for a minute over low heat. Add ½ teaspoon red chilli powder, or to taste, and 3 green chillies, slit.
Stir, add the mushrooms and fry over low heat for 2 minutes. Add the thin coconut milk(2nd extract) and cook uncovered, over low-medium heat for 10 minutes.
Pour in the thick coconut milk, simmer and add ½ teaspoon kachampuli. When the gravy thickens, it takes about 5 minutes —remove from heat, and squeeze the juice of ½ a lime over thecurry. Enjoy the flavours of the mushrooms with akki ottis.
Notes
In this recipe, cumin seeds, garlic and ginger are left out, all of which tend to overwhelm the delicate flavour of the mushrooms.