Sindhi Recipe-Khumbiyun Ji Bhaji -Mushroom vegetable.

I have to share this with all my readers. My love with cooking started way back when I was barely a teenager studying in 8th class. Also the first thing I ever cooked was Khumbiyun Ji Bhaji .

I was walking in my patch of the garden which I had cultivated after toiling for long hours on Sunday's, and lot of cheering and motivation from my other siblings. We used to live on  a  huge property in Ajmer , India.And my father had assigned a  patch  of land  to  each one of my siblings. We are 4 brothers and sisters,I am the youngest. We were asked to make this piece of  rocky patch fertile and ready to grow vegetables.  I wonder how we got roped in ,something as mundane as growing a vegetable patch since we were all in the age group of 12-18  I guess this is how it was in the 70's with no computers and video games and  Oh yes- Television was a novelty in those days. The doordarshan ( the only channel) would telecast," Krishi darshan ." A programme for farmers on farming techniques. LOL I am amazed how we survived that era, but we were all happy and enjoyed the little activities we did and looked forward to Sunday's when we would all work on our patches,all trying to out do each other. To cut a long story short,we all did quite well and did grow some seasonal vegetables. I converted my patch into a small garden with lawn and flowers. My school friend also helped me put some stakes around the grapevine which was always there,before I started to work on that patch. I was proud of my small garden :)


Suddenly out of the blue after a good monsoon season,I was inspecting my garden and I come across these very appetizing mushrooms. If I remember clearly there were some 4-5 almost in a clump,white and robust.I hurriedly ran to the house to get my father,he saw the mushrooms and smiled and pulled them out carefully,stem intact.He asked me if I would want to cook these,this would be my  very first brush with cooking so I felt very proud and happily accepted the offer. Dad verbally gave me the recipe and a few other tips for safety.

Here goes Khumbiyun Ji Bhaji :

Ingredient's:

For 1 pound mushroom : You can use button mushrooms.

7-10 pods of garlic

2  inch piece of ginger

3 medium sized tomatoes .
Fresh cilantro half a bunch

Salt acc: to taste

Turmeric 1/4 teaspoon

Coriander powder 1 teaspoon

Red chilly powder 1/4 teaspoon

Pinch of garam masala

Method

Take a non-stick pan or an aluminum/iron kadai,heat 2 tablespoon of oil and wait till it gets hot. Meanwhile pound garlic and ginger& cilantro( save some cilantro for garnishing) in a mortar with a pastel. Add this to the heated oil and then roughly chop tomatoes and add these to the garlic and ginger. Add all the dry masala's and cook till oil separates. Wash the mushrooms thoroughly and make sure there is no soil sticking in the crevices. Chop these roughly in any shape you desire and add this to the ginger,garlic tomato paste. I add these towards the end as my father always preferred his veggies to have that crunch. This is his recipe- Remember !  Now cover it for 3-5 minutes and let it cook on very low flame. You can keep it longer if you like the mushrooms to be tender to the bite.

Add chopped coriander and eat with phulka/roti.

Oh BTW my father loved the preparation and was so happy with my culinary start that he rewarded me with 5 Rs. My daughter calls it 5 Rs dish and this is one of her top favorites. This dish and the 5 Rs got me very motivated and thence started my love with cooking :)


I have just started my blog and  this is my first post but I promise I will put up pictures for every dish I write a post on.


Happy cooking  !!!

P.S I made this dish today and as promised earlier I am putting up pictures for this recipe.Enjoy!!!