Mushroom Thoran

Today was my first time with Mushrooms in my kitchen, and since its not something on the first few pages of my hubby's favs, I decided to make do with Mushroom Thoran.

I started with watching a few videos on how to clean them. One of them was particularly useful. It said about mushroom's affinity to water and how it will retain water in it making the recipe go bad. Its best to wipe it clean with wet and dry paper napkins instead of leaving it under running water.

Ingredients:
Mushroom  - Finely cut, 1 cup
Coconut     - Grated, 1/2 cup
Curry leaves- 6-7 leaves
Pepper        - 1/4 tsp
Green Chillies - 2(spicy)
Coriander powder - 1/4 tsp
Garlic           - 1 clove
Ginger          - 1" piece
Salt              - As per taste

Mix together all the ingredients except mushrooms, and crush them. If you have very finely grated coconut, then the crushing part applies only for ginger and garlic.
Pop some mustard seeds, and thrown in a little Jeera too if you like the flavour.
Add the mushrooms and saute for a minute.
Add the grated coconut mixture, and mix well.
Cook closed with a little stirring every now and then until done.
This makes a wonderful thoran as an accompaniment to rice.

Meen Thoran

I had a few canned boxes of Tuna at home, with which I wanted to experiment making thoran. I have heard that it tastes better with Sardines, but for today, tuna will have to do. Till date, hubby has been the tuna expert with the curry he makes. I will post his recipe one of these days.

Ingredients 
Canned tuna in water - 2
Turmeric powder       - 1/2 tsp
Coconut                    - 3/4 cup
Green Chillies            - 4
Shallots(Cheriyulli)     - 5-10 nos
Ginger                       - 1" piece
Heing(kayam)            - small piece
Curry leaves              - 5 leaves
Mustard seeds
Salt

Cook the tuna with just turmeric powder and salt. Meanwhile, crush the coconut, green chillies, shallots, ginger, heing and curry leaves without adding water. Once the tuna is cooked, add the ground coconut, and mix well. Adjust salt. Once it's well cooked, add tadka with mustard seeds and curry leaves. You may also saute some shallots and add them along with the tadka.

Alteration:
If using some other fish instead of tuna, add kudampuli or plain puli while cooking the fish in the first step. Most people do not like the taste of puli in tuna which is why I have not added it here. But if you prefer it that way, feel free to go ahead and add a little.

(As always, I apologize for the pic :(  )