Mushroom Masala at Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget
The mushroom masala at Avatar Indian Grill is a spicy and creamy mushroom-tomato gravy curry that tastes great with plain white rice and naan flatbread studded with licorice-flavored anise seeds on the side.
Recipes are restaurant secrets, so explaining why you like a dish requires both a little detective work and discretion about what you write about in a review.
For example, I really like the spice combinations used at Avatar Indian Grill, but know they are secret. So, to give an idea of what the seasoning mushroom masala tastes like at Avatar Indian Grill, I turned to the cookbook Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking by Julie Sahni for a recipe for mushrooms sautéed with onion, ginger, garlic, green chiles, and turmeric used for seasoning. This recipe approximates what Avatar Indian Grill uses to season their mushroom masala.
In an online recipe for mushroom masala, sliced mushrooms are sautéed with seasoning with tomato purée added to the masala, which is finished with cream or cashew milk according to the ministryofcurry.com website which is what Avatar Indian Grill appears to do as well.
The taste of spicy and savory mushroom masala at Avatar Indian Grill makes the mushrooms taste like filling meat.
Mushrooms provide several health benefits such as having:
-B vitamins that help break down carbohydrates and transport nutrients throughout the body
-antioxidants that help remove free radicals from the body that can cause cancer
-vitamin D (found in white mushrooms) that helps build and maintain healthy bones.
(Note: I found nutrition information on ministryofcurry.com, webmd.com, and mayoclinic.org websites.)
Mushroom lovers might enjoy the spicy twist to one of their favorite foods in mushroom masala at Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California.
(Note: Mushrooms grow in the woods, but can also be cultivated in caves.)
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
