Piquant Oyster Mushroom Curry with Bamboo Shoots and Bell Peppers
I admit that ever since I started blogging, I have started experimenting with my food ingredients even more! There is a Taiwan Food Festival going on in my nearby mall, from where I got some interesting ingredients for this post’s recipe, one of which being the chilli bamboo shoots.
I wanted to create something new with these. I came back home and looked at my stock of food in the refrigerator. I found two Korean ingredients lying there for my experiment: a pack of baby oyster mushrooms and four kinds of bell peppers, as colourful as those could be! There is the orange-coloured bell pepper too (along with the usual green, yellow and red ones), which I had never seen in the superstores or wet markets in India. I thought, what a colourful match it would be: the white, baby oyster mushrooms with little brown heads, the tangy and crunchy bamboo shoots and last but not the least, those colourful bell peppers! So, I decided to make something vivid and piquant out of these. But I decided to add an Indian touch to it as well. Voilà! What I panned out with all these raw materials in my kitchen was a winner at my dining table!
My family loves mushrooms and, therefore, I experiment a lot with different kinds of them available here. So far, I have experimented with the wild mushrooms, Swiss brown mushrooms, Chinese brown mushrooms, Enoki mushrooms (click here to take a look at my Enoki dish), and now is the turn for the lovely oyster mushrooms. Every kind of mushroom has its own flavour, but these “vegetarian oysters” are a hit with my kids too because of their unusual shape!
The red bell pepper is considered more nutritious that the regular, green ones, with higher levels of antioxidants, carotene and vitamin C in them. Several Korean studies have found that consumption of bell pepper lowers the incidence of breast cancer. There is an interesting difference between a green pepper and a green bell pepper. Well, for that you have to compare the diameters of the upper and the lower portions: if you measure identical diameters, it is a bell pepper. A green pepper has the upper diameter greater than the lower! If one compares the taste, bell pepper is much sweeter and juicy than green pepper.
This is my creation of a fusion dish involving Indian, Taiwanese, Chinese and Korean ingredients. Hope you’ll enjoy going through this colourful treat!
Piquant Oyster Mushroom Curry with Bamboo Shoots and Bell Peppers
Ingredients:
- Bell peppers (orange, green, red and yellow—cut into long strips): 1 each
- Korean baby oyster mushrooms: 2 cups
- Pickled chilli bamboo shoots, cut into long strips: 8
- Onion, chopped: 1 cup
- Garlic cloves (big ones), chopped: 6
- Cumin seeds: ¾ tsp
- Cumin powder: 1 tsp
- Maggi chilli-garlic sauce: 2 tbsp
- Thick tomato paste: 2 tbsp
- Chinese plum tomatoes, vertically halved: 3
- Salt: 1½ tsp
- Sugar: ½ tsp
- Water: 1 cup
- Oil: 3 tbsp
Method of Preparation:
Heat the skillet and add oil. Let it smoke. Add the cumin seeds and wait for them to change their colour to light brown.
Now add the chopped onions and the garlic. Sauté for 5 min.
Add the bell peppers and continue to sauté for 5 more min.
Now add the plum tomatoes, sprinkle a little water, add the salt and cover the lid, the flame being low.
Open the lid after 10 min, add the thick tomato paste and mix well.
Add the cumin powder now.
Sprinkle some water again and increase the flame to medium. Cook for 5 min and then add the baby oyster mushrooms and the sugar.
Add the chilli bamboo shoots and the chilli-garlic sauce. Mix well.
Add the water and let the contents boil till a saucy consistency is reached, which takes nearly 10 min more. Serve with fried rice or rice vermicelli.
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June 4, 2011 @ 7:36 pm
Sounds so exotic and delicious! I’ve never had anything like it … now I’m curious. 🙂
June 4, 2011 @ 9:59 pm
Sounds wonderful! Isn’t it fun to experiment!
June 5, 2011 @ 1:40 am
Experimenting is definitely the way to go. Can’t say I cook bamboo much…but this I would love to try!
June 5, 2011 @ 5:42 am
Hey dear first time here..u hv a bful blog with stunning pics..hope to hear a word from u too…
n this looks deliciousssssss ..any leftovers pls.?..so colorful n Yummo..
Sanyukta
http://creativesanyukta.blogspot.com/
June 5, 2011 @ 10:58 am
Oh what a beautiful dish! I just love when a meal comes together like this =)
June 5, 2011 @ 11:33 am
It’s a very delicious and beautiful dish that I would love to try. I’m a new follower from Italy.
June 5, 2011 @ 12:29 pm
Great dish! Way to whip up a cool, interesting and tasty fusion dinner 🙂 Orange bell peppers are my favorite. I think they have the best flavor of the four colors. You can serve them with your enchilada!
June 5, 2011 @ 3:08 pm
Your experiment turned out scrumptious, and I love the “Indian touch”. Thanks for sharing!
June 5, 2011 @ 5:00 pm
Vegetarian oysters – I love it! Really interesting snippet on the health benefits of bell peppers too. This sounds like a dish I need to try.
June 5, 2011 @ 8:39 pm
Sounds good! Yummy!
June 5, 2011 @ 10:43 pm
looks scrumptious
June 5, 2011 @ 10:55 pm
Your dish sounds so flavorful! I love all the ingredients! Very nice meal!
June 6, 2011 @ 7:16 am
How colorful it is! I use bamboo shoot in my cooking and I just made bamboo shoot rice. This package is from Hong Kong, so it’s spicy one (Japanese don’t have spicy kind)! This curry looks so delicious Purabi!
June 6, 2011 @ 12:53 pm
Very interesting ingredients and very healthy and tasty meal! I love how you experiment with new ingredients!
June 6, 2011 @ 2:44 pm
This looks wonderful. I have never tried any dish like this and would like to find the ingredients to try it. Yum. 🙂
June 6, 2011 @ 4:51 pm
Colorful food.. looks too good.
New to ur space and Happy to follow u 🙂
Do visit me as time permits
http://comeletseat.blogspot.com
June 6, 2011 @ 5:27 pm
I love bamboo shoot and I miss it! too bad I can’t find that bamboo shoot here in Turkey 🙁
June 6, 2011 @ 10:18 pm
What a colorful and flavorful dish. Your curry looks simply mouth watering. It’s lovely!
June 7, 2011 @ 12:52 am
I’ve never had chili bamboo shoots… sound delish!
June 7, 2011 @ 5:31 am
My husband is from Taiwan and this dish is right up his alley, plus I love love love mushrooms!
June 7, 2011 @ 3:32 pm
Thanks, Belinda@Zomppa, for liking my experiment! Bamboo shoots really have a nice taste!!
June 7, 2011 @ 3:37 pm
Nami, yes, you are right. Although the package said that chilli has been added to these bamboo shoots, I think those were in traces, as when I tasted them, those were not spicy at all! Thanks for the comment, Nami.
June 7, 2011 @ 3:40 pm
Manu, so nice of you! Thanks for supporting this experiment.
June 7, 2011 @ 3:44 pm
Sarah, so happy to know that you and your husband would consider cooking this dish!! Thanks for stopping by, hoping that we’ll meet here again.
June 7, 2011 @ 3:46 pm
Mehejabeen, thank you for following my blog. Hope you’ll keep visiting my space and looking forward to sharing a lot of views on food!
June 8, 2011 @ 1:13 am
That’s the fun of blogging .. trying out new cuisines 🙂 This looks nice and I think i ate bamboo shoots .. can’t remember the taste though. Your post is motivating me!
June 8, 2011 @ 3:11 am
hi purabi, many thanks for visiting mehjabeen as my guest blogger. she is great and so are you.
Lots of delicious looking dishes.
decided to follow you and hope to visit you again.
have a wonderful day
June 8, 2011 @ 8:20 pm
What amazing colors you have in this dish! We love mushrooms, too, and this is a tempting preparation. Yummy!
June 8, 2011 @ 8:41 pm
This curry looks rather yummy! Quite a spicy curry – nice! reminds me of a nice Indo-Chinese dish – which I totally adore! I must give this a try – love bamboo shoots too…they have such a unique and beautiful texture…
Shilpa
June 9, 2011 @ 3:45 am
Hi Purabi,
You’re one amazing cook! I like how you took photo of the cooking process and your recipe looks really delicious. Wish I could taste them.
June 9, 2011 @ 8:27 am
I’m so happy you’re blogging, too, since all these experiments are fabulous! What an amazing looking fusion curry – full of interesting flavours and gorgeous colours.
June 9, 2011 @ 11:12 am
Great asian fusion dish, it looks so colourful, flavourful and healthy!
June 9, 2011 @ 11:13 am
Hi Purabi! There is an award waiting for you, you can find it here: http://www.manusmenu.com/banana-pear-and-ginger-smoothie
June 9, 2011 @ 12:48 pm
Thank you so much, Manu, for the wonderful award! So thoughtful of you to pass the award to me. Thanks for appreciating my blog.
June 9, 2011 @ 12:51 pm
Jill, I am happy that you are loving my experiments. Your comment was so motivating! Thanks!!
June 9, 2011 @ 4:29 pm
Dear Purabi
I feel good that you liked pat sag BaDa recipe. If you have a bangladeshi market, you will get Pat saag in HK. Now I will be able to learn few Hong Kong dishes ( Not Indo-chinese ones ha ha ). I like this dish and will give a try if I get the ingredients,
I used to work for a HK company till March and visited HK. I enjoyed the food there and the place too.
Let me see what great dishes you have here.
Have a great weekend and happy cooking
June 9, 2011 @ 6:42 pm
Hi Purabi,
Love you blog! So bright and cheerful ~ full of delicious recipes too.
Will be trying this one out for sure, I love mushrooms;-))
June 10, 2011 @ 4:13 am
ive been experimenting with ingredients quite a bit since i’ve started blogging, too!
i’m glad i found your site through foodbuzz and thanks for the comment! 🙂
this recipe looks delicious.
June 11, 2011 @ 11:40 am
awesome recipe…neat presentation..:P
Tasty Appetite
June 11, 2011 @ 11:46 am
Am your happy follower now..:)
do stop by mine sometime..
Tasty Appetite
June 11, 2011 @ 12:14 pm
Looks yummy and delicious
South Indian Recipes
June 11, 2011 @ 1:51 pm
Thanks so much for stopping by my blog and leaving your sweet comment. This dish turned out wonderful using ingredients from various countries with Indian touch. Will be back to see your next yummy creation …
June 11, 2011 @ 1:57 pm
This one looks interesting. The best part is your detailed step-by-step breakup which will make it easy for fellow cooks…looks a nice innovative recipe.
June 11, 2011 @ 2:17 pm
Very innovative! Looks so colourful.
Thanks a lot Purabi for stopping by my space and leaving a wonderful comment.
Will keep coming back to see more of those yummy recipes.
June 11, 2011 @ 6:11 pm
M definitely gonna make it tomorrow ..looks tempting..following u back
http://fashionquotient.blogspot.com/
June 11, 2011 @ 6:37 pm
Hi purabi,
Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a nice comment.U r a gr8 cook in deed..Lots of delicious looking dishes…happy to follow you and hope to c u n my blog again.
have a wonderful day…:)
June 12, 2011 @ 12:02 am
Hi Purabi,
This is a wonderful recipe. I like your blog. I’m now your new follower. Keep in touch!
June 12, 2011 @ 2:53 am
Wow..this is indeed a fusion recipe, very interesting dish, looks great. Thanx for the visit to my space. Glad to follow u 🙂
June 12, 2011 @ 5:22 am
First time here…
U have a wonderful space with interesting recipes, glad to follow u 🙂
visit my space when u find time
June 12, 2011 @ 6:50 am
Thanks for visiting my blog Purabi, nice to meet another Bengali,even though it is virtual, will visit again.
June 12, 2011 @ 10:34 am
Hi Purabi..nice blog and i loved this recipe with mushrooms n bamboo shoots particularly…
I have never cooked with bamboo shoots but now i think i can get a packet and get going 🙂
June 13, 2011 @ 2:48 pm
Have to try this! And thanks for visiting my blog. Bamboo shoots…will think about it.