Aish Cooks

Mushroom (Koon) Mutta  Thoran ~ Finely cut mushrooms stir fried with scrambled eggs and shredded coconut

When Onam fell on a weekday this year, all I wanted to do was put together dinner with a few Kerala-style dishes that would appeal to a barely-mallu palette. This thoran is a perfect fit – D found it hard to believe this dish was indeed of Kerala origin.. it is a Syrian Christian dish actually. When I came across this combination across blogs online, I had to give it a try. At first, the idea of adding wet eggs to sauteed mushrooms seemed quite odd, but the final result was absolutely awesome. I went with my tried-and-tested method from the fish puttu recipe, replacing the fish with mushrooms and eggs. And we wiped off the dish in no time at all! Have made it a few times since, and it has surely become a favorite out here. In fact, so much that I have now restored to chopping up at least one pack of my button mushrooms into a fine cut and putting it away in a freezer bag to be able to fix this one up real quick when in a time crunch. With 2 of the fastest cooking ingredients out there, this can help you nail down that perfectly nutritious weeknight meal, that tastes super good, in no time at all!

Oh – and before I forget – you can even make your own burrito-style roll ups with rotis or tortillas with this one!

Mushroom (Koon) Mutta  Thoran 

Cooking Time: under 30 minutes | Serves: 4

Ingredients:

1. 8 oz white button mushrooms, finely chopped
2. 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
3. 3 – 4 eggs (more or less based on preference)
4. 1 Tbsp oil
5. 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
6. 1/2 Tbsp urad seeds
7. 2-3 cloves of fresh garlic, minced (approx. 1 tsp)
8. few curry leaves
9. 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
10. 1/2 tsp ground red chili
11. 1/2 Tbsp ground coriander
12. salt to taste
13. pepper to taste
14. 3 – 4 tbsp coconut, shredded/grated (optional)
15. few stalks of cilantro, finely chopped, for garnishing

Method:

1. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard and urad seeds and wait for the mustard to crackle.
2. Add the curry leaves, minced garlic and chopped onions.
3. Saute for a few minutes on med-heat until onions start turning golden brown. Add some salt to help onions cook faster.
4. Add the mushrooms along with dry ground spices – chili powder, turmeric, coriander.
5. Saute for a few minutes, until mushrooms are done and the water from the vegetable has almost dried up.
6. Break the eggs into the mixture and saute on high-heat for a couple of minutes until the eggs are fully scrambled and no longer wet.
7. Season with more salt and pepper if desired.
8. Add the shredded coconut and stir fry for another 1-2 minutes and turn off the heat.

Garnish with some chopped cilantro and serve hot with rice and curry of choice!