Last week I prepared chilli mushroom at home to have with Chinese fried rice. Chilli mushroom is an Indian-Chinese dish prepared with button mushrooms, onion, garlic, capsicum, red chilli sauce, soya sauce, tomato ketchup, lots of green chilli and pepper.
To prepare chilli mushroom, mushrooms are deep fried after being dipped in a cornflour and maida batter mixture until crispy. Then toss or stir fry those crispy mushroom fritters in a spicy sauce based gravy to make it ready.
Deep frying makes the mushroom coating crispy. However, to avoid deep frying for healthy reasons, one can fry mushrooms in a small amount of oil.
Just like Chinese restaurants make chilli mushroom with a dry gravy to keep the crunch of the mushroom coating for a little longer. I love the same restaurant like dry gravy, to get the crunch for a long time. That is why I avoid boiling the mushroom fritters in the gravy. That turns the mushroom coating soggy.
If you are looking for a chilli mushroom with more gravy. Then make a thin gravy using more water(here, I use 1 cup of water; you can use 2.5 cups of water) with the same amount of cornflour. Do not use more cornflour results in a thick sticky gravy when it cools down.
Check the cooking video shown below, hope this video will guide you well.
Technically, being an Indo Chinese dish, we think we can only have chilli mushroom with any chinese style dish like chinese fried rice or noodles. But there is no hard and fast rule. Like, I have it with roti chapati, even with paratha. Even once I try it with dosa, do not believe me that it also tastes great.
You can even serve this crispy dry chilli mushroom to your quick evening snacks menu. Even can also add this spicy crispy mushroom as a starter for the family dinner, or to welcome guests.
Important tips about this recipe
1. Use button mushroom, oyster mushroom or any other mushroom varieties available around, but must use farm-fresh mushrooms. If locally grown mushrooms are available in your area, then you can use those mushrooms too. However, locally grown mushrooms are not recommended if you do not know much about them, as mushrooms have some poisonous varieties too.
2. Before using the mushrooms, thoroughly wash the mushrooms in plain water, or you can use lukewarm water too.
3. Each packet of mushrooms comes with 200 g; here, I used 2 packets of mushrooms and used the ingredients accordingly. If you are using half the amount of mushrooms, then you need half the amount of all ingredients I used in this recipe. If using a double amount of mushrooms, then the amount of ingredients will be doubled as well.
4. If we talk about the batter(for coating the mushroom) should not be too runny or too thick. Runny batter will be unable to coat the mushrooms perfectly. As a result, the mushrooms’ cover will be removed while frying in oil or tossing in sauces. Too thick batter results in a thick cover over mushrooms that does not allow the mushrooms to absorb the flavour of the gravy. So to make it perfect must follow each detail described here.
5. Deep fry or shallow fry, it does not matter, fry the mushrooms until they have a golden colour, crispy, little hard cover. If the mushroom cover is not perfectly crispy and slightly hard, after tossing in the sauce, the mushrooms will quickly get soggy.
If you love both Indo-Chinese dishes and mushroom dishes like me, try this out. Hope you love this dish.
Chilli Mushroom recipe – Crispy Dry Mushroom Chilli recipe
Course: Starter, Evening SnacksCuisine: Indo ChineseDifficulty: Easy5
servings30
minutes40
minutes300
kcal1
hour10
minutesA quick & easy to make Crispy Dry Chilli mushroom made with button mushrooms, capsicum, onion, garlic and a blend of slightly spicy, tangy and sweet Chinese sauces. This chilli mushroom has a dry gravy to keep the mushrooms crispy for a long time. Due to having a dry gravy, it is good to serve as a starter, though as a side dish of Chinese fried rice or noodles, roti, chapathi or dosa also tastes good. Including vegetarians, vegans can also try it at home, as here no animal products are used.
Ingredients
400 g Button Mushrooms
8 tbsp (60 g) Maida
8 tbsp (60 g) Cornflour
1/2 tsp Powdered Black Pepper
1/4 tsp Red Chilli Powder
1 tsp Salt
3/4 cup (250 ml) Water
- For Gravy
3 tsp Chopped Garlic
1.5 tsp Chopped Ginger
2 Medium Onions
1 Medium Green bell pepper
4 Chopped Green chillies
5 tbsp Tomato Ketchup
3 tbsp Red Chilli Sauce
3 tbsp Soya Sauce
1 tsp Powdered Black Pepper
1/2 tsp Red Chilli Powder
1/2 tsp Salt(to taste)
4 tbsp Cornflour+ 1 cup(250 ml) Water
Directions
- Thoroughly wash the mushroom 4-5 times, and drain the water well.
- Cut the mushrooms in half, keep aside and make the batter ready to coat the mushrooms.
- To make the batter, take maida(flour), Cornflour, black pepper powder, red chilli powder and salt in a bowl. Mix them well first.
- Then gently mix them with water and stir well for 5-6 mins to make a smooth batter.
- Now heat a pan on medium to high heat with oil. Take the oil sufficient for deep frying.
- Once the oil is hot and releases smoke, after checking the heat of the oil, coat the mushrooms one by one with the batter and leave them in the oil. But do not overcrowd the pan.
- Once the mushrooms start getting golden, then slightly stir the mushrooms to make sure it is not sticking to the bottom of the pan.
- Once the mushrooms get golden brown and float on the surface, turn them and fry their other side until golden brown and crispy. Keep the mushrooms separated from each other to make sure one can not be stuck to the other. Take out the mushrooms from the pan and keep them aside.
- Apply the same way described above to fry all the batches of mushrooms.
- After frying all batches of mushrooms, remove the broken particles of the fries that remain in the oil.
- Now to make the gravy, keep the gas stove heat on high. First, add chopped garlic, and chopped ginger to the same oil, add the onion(onion petals) afterwards, stir them well.
- Just after 1 min, add the capsicum, and stir it well. Then add green chillies, and stir them well too.
- Here add 5 tbsp tomato ketchup(or tomato sauce) and 3 tbsp red chilli sauce(here I used the sauce together).
- Then add 3 tbsp soya sauce, and mix the sauces well with veggies.
- Add 1 tsp powdered black pepper, 3/4 tsp chilli powder(add as per taste), 1/4 tsp salt.
- Next, add cornflour water(4 tbsp cornflour mixed with water 1 cup = 250 ml of water), Stir well.
- Once the gravy start boiling and getting thick then immediately add the fried mushrooms into the gravy.
- Toss or nicely stir fry the mushrooms with the gravy until the gravy nicely coats the mushrooms. Chilli Mushroom is ready, turn off the heat and serve it without wasting time to get the best crunch.
How to make Chilli Mushroom step-by-step in detail
1. Take the mushrooms(I took button mushrooms), thoroughly wash them 4-5 times, and drain the water well.
2. Cut the mushrooms into half, keep aside and make the batter ready to coat the mushrooms.
3. Take 1/2 cup maida, 1/2 cup Cornflour, 1/2 tsp powdered black pepper, 1/2 tsp red chilli powder and 1 tsp salt in a bowl. Mix them well first.
4. Then gently mix them with water(I used around 1 cup=250 ml) and stir well continuously for 5-6 mins to make a smooth batter. Stir the batter well until forms some bubbles on the surface. Those bubbles indicate the batter containing air makes it light & fluffy and ready to make a crispy coat.
5. Now heat a pan on medium to high heat with vegetable oil. Take the oil sufficient for deep frying. On the the other hand coat the mushrooms with the batter.
6. Once the oil is hot and released smoke, first check the heat of the oil by putting a small drop of the batter into the oil. If the drop immediately rises on the surface means the oil is ready to fry. Then put batter-coated mushrooms one by one into the oil. But do not overcrowd the pan.
7. Once the bubbles over the oil reduce, the mushrooms are visible from the top and start getting golden. Then slightly stir the mushrooms to make sure it is not sticking to the bottom of the pan.
8. Once the mushrooms get golden brown and float on the surface, turn them and fry their other side until golden brown and crispy. In this step, with the help of a spatula, keep the mushrooms separated from each other to make sure one does not stick to the other. Take out the mushrooms from the pan and keep them aside.
9. Apply the same way described above to fry all the batches of mushrooms.
10. After frying all batches of mushrooms, you can see a few broken particles of the fries remaining in the oil. First, remove them with the help of a spatula.
11. Now, to make the gravy, keep the gas stove heat on high. First, add chopped garlic and chopped ginger to the same oil, and add the onion(onion petals) afterwards, stirring them well.
12. Just after 1 min, add the capsicum, and stir it well. Then add green chillies, and stir them well too.
13. Here, add 5 tbsp tomato ketchup (or tomato sauce) and 3 tbsp red chilli sauce(here I used the sauce together).
14. Then add 3 tbsp of soya sauce, and mix the sauces well with the veggies.
15. Add 1 tsp powdered black pepper, 3/4 tsp chilli powder(add as per taste), 1/4 tsp salt.
16. Next, add cornflour water(4 tbsp cornflour mixed with water 1 cup = 250 ml of water), Stir well.
17. Once the gravy starts boiling and getting thick then immediately add the fried mushrooms into the gravy. Toss or nicely stir the mushrooms with the gravy until the gravy nicely coats the mushrooms.
18. Chilli Mushroom is ready, turn off the heat and serve it without wasting time to get the best crunch.
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