With so many excellent and delicious recipes on this site, a trawl through past posts is always a good idea!  I was looking through this House Specialities thread yesterday morning and came across a recipe for Vegetable Razala first posted by Haldi on January 16th 2008!  We spend a lot of effort - and posting time - on meat recipes, mainly chicken and lamb, and there are very few vegetable dishes that I have found so far, so it was a welcome change. 

Anyway, long story short etc,. I had some spare base available plus a selection of veg in my fridge (carrots, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, and green beans) and whipped up the Veg Razala for lunch.  Absolutely fabulous!!  Thanks very much, Haldi........I'll definitely be making this one again!!

So many recipes are in danger of getting 'lost', and I wonder if we sometimes forget the real wealth of curry heaven there is in the archives!!
Best
al.
 

I have been trying for more years than I can remember to replicate the delicious Mushroom Bhajis I used to get from both BIRs and T/As in the early 1980s.......with very little success!  However, due to the excellent comments, tips, recipes and techniques on this site, I have finally made something that reminds me of the taste and flavour I have been looking for!!

A lot of credit for this must go to (a) Haldi for his recipe in this 'Side Dishes' section (page 2 as it currently is) which finally got me to experiment again, (b) Abdul for his curry base gravy, and (c) Cory Ander for reminding me of the 'full heat' cooking technique that I first observed in my local T/A many years ago.

So, for anyone else who might savour the delights of a BIR-style Mushroom Bhaji, here's the result of my latest endeavour......

Ingredients:

3 tbsp oil
1 heaped tbsp onion
0.25  large green capsicum cut into quarter inch strips
1 tbsp base curry sauce (I used Abdul's, but with a different spice mix - see below)
1 heaped tsp tomato paste diluted with 4 tsp water
1 tbsp garlic/ginger finely chopped (in a 60:40 ratio of garlic to ginger)
1 heaped desert spoon (dsp?) spice mix (see below)
1 tsp chilli powder
0.5 tsp salt
Half pint of base curry sauce
Small can mushrooms (drained and washed to remove the salt water/brine)
1 tsp sugar (optional)

Method:  (a B I G 'thank you' to Cory Ander for this)

1.  In a separate pan, heat the base curry sauce to a gentle simmer
2.  Heat oil in a suitable pan (I prefer to use my 'Ken Hom' wok from the 1980s if anyone still remembers him!) on high heat until almost smoking
3.  Add onion, green capsicum, and salt and fry for a couple of minutes or so, stirring continuously
4.  Add garlic/ginger and fry for about a minute, stirring all the time.
5.  Remove from the heat & add chilli powder and spice mix.  Stir and return to heat.  Fry for 30 seconds or so.
6.  Add tomato paste & fry for 30 seconds or so, stirring continuously
7.  Add 1 tbsp base curry sauce and stir for 1 minute
8.  Add the rest of the base curry sauce a couple of tbsp at a time, stirring as it is absorbed
9.  Add a small can mushrooms + 1 tsp sugar (optional).
10.  Continue to cook on high heat for 3 - 4 minutes.  Add water if it starts to dry out
11.  Reduce the heat and simmer for a further 3 minutes.  Then turn off the gas and let it "rest"
12.  SERVE AND ENJOY!!

Just a few points to note.......
Using a high heat until Step 11 makes a huge difference to the final success of the dish...just don't burn anything!!
Another key to success is to make sure that the first few tbsps of curry sauce that you add are 'accepted and absorbed' into the main body of the dish.....then you can simply pour the rest in!!
About 1 hour before starting to cook, drain the tinned mushrooms, empty into a bowl and over the next 45 minutes soak/rinse them 4 times with cold water to get rid of the salt.brine that comes in the tin.  Leave them to dry out for the final 15 minutes before cooking.
Fresh mushrooms (especially the 'button mushrooms' commonly used in the UK, for example) are not readily available here in the Philippines, hence I use the tinned ones.  As Haldi commented, a lot of T/As do anyway!  I'd be interested to hear results from anyone who uses 'real' fresh mushrooms.  How does it affect flavour/cooking time etc

SPICE MIX

As I mentioned above, I use an amended version of Abdul's '8 Spice Mix'........

2 tsp ground cumin
1.5 tsp ground ginger
4 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp garam masala
4 tsp chilli powder
4 tsp paprika powder
4 tsp curry powder
8 tsp turmeric
2 tsp garlic powder
0.5 tsp ground fenugreek

Is the end result a perfect BIR Mushroom Bhaji?  No, I don't think so.  It is without doubt the most tasty I have produced so far, but I feel I'm still missing that depth of spice taste that so characterised the dishes of the late 60s, 70s and early 80s for me.  I'm more than happy with the base sauce, ingredients and cooking method.  I'll be experimenting some more with the quantities of spices in future to see if there's any improvement to be had

Meanwhile, I hope other members of this forum will take the recipe, try it, and be inspired as I was by Haldi's original post to try to make further progress towards the taste that eludes us all!!!!

Happy cooking
al.

Hello Everyone
I'm posting from the Philippines, not exactly known for a love of curry, but I have been an adict since 1967 and I'm still learning new things every day.  Hope to enjoy your company and share tips
alarmist10