Rifling through a book at work landed me on a page with a recipe for garam masala, the classic Indian spice mix. Seeing those ingredients got my wrinklepatch whirring like mad! What if I were to combine flavors from two disparate cuisines?
There’s nothing new about the idea – afterall, there’s surf-n-turf, East/West fusion, and the wonderful explosion of Mediterranean dishes whose origins are often debated, and passionately at that.
So what’s different? Maybe not much, but when I think of the cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves, nutmeg, and cumin in garam masala … I immediately think: India. Sautéed mushrooms with onions isn’t as clear – but they certainly are traditional in French, Italian, and American cuisine. I’d never really thought about combining the two – but figured it couldn’t hurt.
The recipe is simple – rough measurements if any, so use your discretion. Lightly toast some cardamom pods, cloves, and whole black pepper corns in a hot pan. I also added some very roughly chopped chiles. Then add a little butter and oil to the pan. Once the fat is nice and hot, brown the rice. Add the water to the pan as well as a stick of cinnamon and wait till it simmers. Turn to low and cover for 18-20 minutes, or according to how you normally cook rice.
While the rice was cooking, I chopped three medium portobello mushrooms into a large dice, and did the same with a large onion. I sautéed both in a medium pan with butter, adding salt and pepper to taste. The sautéed stuff finished about the same time as the rice. I simply removed all the spices from the rice, and served the sautéed mushroom and onions on top, heavily garnished with roughly chopped parsley.
I really enjoyed using fridge and pantry stuff to try something I’d never done before – which was infusing the rice with the aforementioned spices. If oil was used rather than butter, this would be entirely vegan! You could even drizzle a little lemon juice on top for a nice acidic bite. If you come up with some other ideas, let me know by posting a comment. Thanks for reading!