Lights, action, mushrooms



The aim, inspired by the World Kitchen in Leith, is to celebrate  good home cooking from many cultures.

Here is fresh and spicy food to revive your appetite after Christmas and New Year.  In our first World Kitchen film, Mridu Thanki welcomes us into her kitchen to show us how to cook mushrooms in cream with red peppers and fresh green coriander.  It’s delicious, doesn’t cost much, takes only a few minutes to prepare and cook – and you can probably get all or most of the ingredients at the corner shop. (See below for the recipe).

Mridu generously gave up her lunch hour to let us film the dish adapted from her cookery book, Feasts of India, just a few days before the launch in McDonald Road library (complete with poetry by her partner Gordon Peters).

Even better, we got to eat it.  Mridu demonstrated how traditional Indian vegetarian cookery provides a balanced meal,  serving the vegetable dish along with lentils for proteins, rice or bread (traditional Scottish potato bread works well too) for  carbohydrates and fresh salad for vitamins. The spices bring their own nutritional values as well as delicious aromas and flavours. “Just smell that coriander,” she says finally stirring the chopped green herb into the creamy mushrooms.  And although it is just a film, we think you can!

Thanks to Dougal Perman at Inner Ear for editing the film. And thanks to Mridu for a delicious lunch.  We hope cookery films may become an occasional series on the blog. The aim, inspired by the World Kitchen in Leith, is to celebrate  good home cooking from many cultures. Right, now we are off to try a few more Feasts of India. Meanwhile here is that recipe (serves four):

Creamy mushrooms with pepper and coriander

250 grams mushroom, 100 ml single cream, 1 red pepper, 1/4 cup fresh coriander, large chopped onion, 2 cloves garlic, 3/4 teaspoon salt, tablespoon oil.

Spices: teaspoon (ish) each of cumin seeds, coriander, garam masala, and pinch crushed dried chillies.

For more information about Feasts of India contact:
jaggnath.recipes@googlemail.com