This time, I'm going to post a vegetarian dish. A recipe that is close to my heart, and friendly to my tummy. It's one of my favorite dishes that my mother makes. Of course when she makes it, she would always include shrimps or fish, but this time I'm just going to rely on the herbs and spices for flavors and make this dish meat free (complete recipe is available at the bottom of this post).
I'm going to share with you my mother's recipe for making 'gulai jamur' or mushrooms in coconut gravy. As I have mentioned before in my earlier post on cooking jumbo shrimps, I think my mother is a gifted cook. She has excellent taste buds, as most people who have tried her cooking would agree. That is why she can come up with the tastiest dishes. This one is no exception, it is my second favorite dish of hers, very wonderful (the first one being her battered fried shrimps which unfortunately to this day, she will not reveal to me the exact recipe).
And what's more exceptional about it is, it is very simple and easy to make, as all the recipes I share here :).
So the mushrooms that are used in this recipe is the oyster mushrooms. I don't normally use this type of mushrooms for any other recipe. To tell you the truth, I don't really like the taste of it. I do love mushrooms though, any kind of mushrooms except for this one. Somehow this one tastes a little bit too heavy, too meaty, the aroma makes me dizzy.
However, every time I see these mushrooms, I'm overjoyed. It is all thanks to my mother's gulai jamur, the only way that I can enjoy eating oyster mushrooms (well of course there's deep frying, but anything tastes good deep fried). In fact, this type of mushrooms is the only type that is able to be paired perfectly with the spices and herbs used in this recipe, in my opinion. No other mushrooms will do :).
So what are the spices used here? Shallots, garlic, blue ginger, young ginger, yellow ginger, bay leaf and lemongrass, these spices combined is my mother's core ingredient (bumbu inti) in a lot of her cooking. Variations between one recipe to the next is small adjustments in the herbs used, but these core spices are often included. So I can safely say that the taste is uniquely her, I would always be reminded of her cooking style when I use this combination.
I love my gravy to be rich, so I decided to use one whole box of coconut cream, instead of half a box as how my mother's original recipe would instruct. But the joy of cooking for yourself is you can pretty much improvise according to your taste, and invent an entirely new recipe :).
I also used big red chili and palm sugar in this recipe. I believe my mother used palm sugar in her recipe as well-although she didn't tell me this straight forwardly (she always does that -_-). However, I know for a fact she didn't use big red chili here, this is a something I went with on my own, just because I thought it'd taste good, and turned out it did!!
Let's go through the steps:
1. I washed and shredded the mushrooms into bite size pieces. There's some debate about whether or not to wash the mushrooms, I don't quite follow it closely. It has something to do about easy process and flavor. Those who oppose on washing mushrooms, instruct us to just wipe the mushrooms with damp cloth, I forgot the exact reason as to why washing them is prohibited, but isn't it safer to wash them? But one of my favorite celebrity chef, Chef Michael Smith, I hope you have heard of him, advises us to just wash the mushrooms instead as he believes the flavors will not be affected and they will still be easy to process.
2. I ground all the spices except for the bay leaf, lemongrass and red chili into a somewhat smooth consistency like the one below to be incorporated into the sauce.
I used my old spice blender to do this, but using a traditional mortar and pestle is preferable as the aroma of the spices really come through when you ground them traditionally. But, since I wanted to save time, I didn't do that. The taste is still acceptable, but it's not the best this recipe can do.
3. Heat up a little bit of vegetable oil on medium heat and saute the spices including the bay leaf and lemon grass, until they start to smell fragrant and you can see the paste soften a little. Then add in some water and some salt, let the whole thing come to a simmer.
4. Let the spices simmer for about 15 minutes to let the flavors come through. When the soup tastes quite strongly of the spices, it't time to include the coconut cream, the palm sugar and the chili. Adjust the taste according to your taste buds. You can add in more palm sugar or more salt, as how you like it.
5. Lastly, throw in the mushrooms and let it cook. Mushrooms cook pretty fast, in 5 minutes they're pretty much done.
Enjoy! That was really easy wasn't it? And believe me they taste wonderful. I mean, how often can you go wrong with coconut cream??
I have prepared a video to also show how simple all the steps were, I hope you find it useful.
The complete recipe for mushrooms in coconut gravy:
Oysters mushrooms
4 cloves shallots
4 cloves garlic
1 cm young ginger
1 cm blue ginger
1 cm yellow ginger
1 bay leaf
1 stalk lemon grass
1 big red chili
1 tsp palm sugar
200 ml coconut cream
1 L water
Vegetable oil to saute spices
Salt to taste
Thank you for taking the time to tune in.
I'm going to share with you my mother's recipe for making 'gulai jamur' or mushrooms in coconut gravy. As I have mentioned before in my earlier post on cooking jumbo shrimps, I think my mother is a gifted cook. She has excellent taste buds, as most people who have tried her cooking would agree. That is why she can come up with the tastiest dishes. This one is no exception, it is my second favorite dish of hers, very wonderful (the first one being her battered fried shrimps which unfortunately to this day, she will not reveal to me the exact recipe).
And what's more exceptional about it is, it is very simple and easy to make, as all the recipes I share here :).
So the mushrooms that are used in this recipe is the oyster mushrooms. I don't normally use this type of mushrooms for any other recipe. To tell you the truth, I don't really like the taste of it. I do love mushrooms though, any kind of mushrooms except for this one. Somehow this one tastes a little bit too heavy, too meaty, the aroma makes me dizzy.
However, every time I see these mushrooms, I'm overjoyed. It is all thanks to my mother's gulai jamur, the only way that I can enjoy eating oyster mushrooms (well of course there's deep frying, but anything tastes good deep fried). In fact, this type of mushrooms is the only type that is able to be paired perfectly with the spices and herbs used in this recipe, in my opinion. No other mushrooms will do :).
So what are the spices used here? Shallots, garlic, blue ginger, young ginger, yellow ginger, bay leaf and lemongrass, these spices combined is my mother's core ingredient (bumbu inti) in a lot of her cooking. Variations between one recipe to the next is small adjustments in the herbs used, but these core spices are often included. So I can safely say that the taste is uniquely her, I would always be reminded of her cooking style when I use this combination.
I love my gravy to be rich, so I decided to use one whole box of coconut cream, instead of half a box as how my mother's original recipe would instruct. But the joy of cooking for yourself is you can pretty much improvise according to your taste, and invent an entirely new recipe :).
I also used big red chili and palm sugar in this recipe. I believe my mother used palm sugar in her recipe as well-although she didn't tell me this straight forwardly (she always does that -_-). However, I know for a fact she didn't use big red chili here, this is a something I went with on my own, just because I thought it'd taste good, and turned out it did!!
1. I washed and shredded the mushrooms into bite size pieces. There's some debate about whether or not to wash the mushrooms, I don't quite follow it closely. It has something to do about easy process and flavor. Those who oppose on washing mushrooms, instruct us to just wipe the mushrooms with damp cloth, I forgot the exact reason as to why washing them is prohibited, but isn't it safer to wash them? But one of my favorite celebrity chef, Chef Michael Smith, I hope you have heard of him, advises us to just wash the mushrooms instead as he believes the flavors will not be affected and they will still be easy to process.
2. I ground all the spices except for the bay leaf, lemongrass and red chili into a somewhat smooth consistency like the one below to be incorporated into the sauce.
I used my old spice blender to do this, but using a traditional mortar and pestle is preferable as the aroma of the spices really come through when you ground them traditionally. But, since I wanted to save time, I didn't do that. The taste is still acceptable, but it's not the best this recipe can do.
3. Heat up a little bit of vegetable oil on medium heat and saute the spices including the bay leaf and lemon grass, until they start to smell fragrant and you can see the paste soften a little. Then add in some water and some salt, let the whole thing come to a simmer.
4. Let the spices simmer for about 15 minutes to let the flavors come through. When the soup tastes quite strongly of the spices, it't time to include the coconut cream, the palm sugar and the chili. Adjust the taste according to your taste buds. You can add in more palm sugar or more salt, as how you like it.
5. Lastly, throw in the mushrooms and let it cook. Mushrooms cook pretty fast, in 5 minutes they're pretty much done.
Enjoy! That was really easy wasn't it? And believe me they taste wonderful. I mean, how often can you go wrong with coconut cream??
I have prepared a video to also show how simple all the steps were, I hope you find it useful.
The complete recipe for mushrooms in coconut gravy:
Oysters mushrooms
4 cloves shallots
4 cloves garlic
1 cm young ginger
1 cm blue ginger
1 cm yellow ginger
1 bay leaf
1 stalk lemon grass
1 big red chili
1 tsp palm sugar
200 ml coconut cream
1 L water
Vegetable oil to saute spices
Salt to taste
Thank you for taking the time to tune in.
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