Mushroom and courgette pasanda

Based in my love of Mughlai cooking, this vegetarian mushroom and courgette take on pasanda with spiced carrots and peas (gajar matar), is pretty much a total fake. It's nothing I'd do for grown-ups if styling out my ability to cook the best Indian food. But, hey, I'm still on my "how to feed the kids during the summer holidays" tip. So, yeah, go for it.

This recipe steals left, right and centre. Both the core dish— the vegetarian mushroom and courgette pasanda— and the key side dish—gajar matar—are fairly traditional Indian cuisine with a Mughlai bent. Combining them with the with corn on the cob and Franco-Viet style garlic bread are not. But it's actually a great combination. I can say that, hand on heart, because hordes of kids would wolf it down on Saturday evenings in Edinburgh when I'd cook it for them.

There are no crueller food critics than kids under the age of 10. I became known as "date night dad"—the place where New Town parents were happiest to drop off their sproglets before heading out for a night on the tiles. So, I think I'm allowed to boast about the pre-approved kiddie credentials of this one.

The thing I miss most at this point in my life, is being "dad in the kitchen". I was inspired at a young age—one of the reasons I made this blog—by my father. And, I've really been so happy to continue what he taught me about bringing joy to people through food. Who knows? Perhaps I will be lucky enough to share this joy with grandchildren, grandnieces and grandnephews (yes, it's a thing!) and a multitude of multiply removed cousins. But, hey, as my da' taught me, we make our families through those with whom we literally break bread. He was no fool.

Either way, this is a fantastic meal; the ideal "no meat and two veg". Don't be put off by what seems like a long, complicated recipe: it's not; simply multiple elements that need a little coordination. Nor is it spicy—not a single chilli is involved, which is pretty rare for me.

These quantities feed 2 to 3 adult diners. If you're catering for a crowd of kids—and I hope you are—adjust the portions accordingly. Personally, I always found kids ate loads of the gajar matar and, despite the fantasies about Scottish bairns, they couldn't get enough of the garlic bread. Also, kids seem to love corn on the cob. I was perpetually delighted by a 6-year-old lassie called Moira who would hunker down to cleaning the corn off three cobs and then tug at my shirt and whisper in my ear: "If any of the wee ones don't want their corn, can I have it?" After a while, I got into the habit of packing Moira off with a doggy bag of extra corn on the cob when her parents picked her up because, yes, it's also great cold as a leftover treat.

Out there, in the wilds of Germany, there's a teenaged lad who's now already as tall as I am who told me, when he was still very young, that he could taste his grandfather (my father who sadly never lived to meet him) in this dish. Tears welled up in my eyes. Then he asked: "Sind wir Inder?" And, suddenly, context was back the room. All I could say was, "Ja, Otto. Aber nur an den wirklich guten Tagen." I think he got it. Last year he cooked it for me.

Shopping list

for the mushroom and courgette pasanda

• 1 large red onion, halved and sliced

• 3 tbspns peanut oil (or sunflower oil)

• 200g whole chestnut mushrooms, washed

• 4 stalks of celery, sliced

• 1 large courgette, washed and sliced

• Salt and pepper to taste

• A small clutch of flat leaf parsley, chopped

• 2 tspns garlic & ginger paste

• 1 tspn ground cumin

• 2 tspns cumin seeds

• 2 tbspns coriander seeds

• 2 tspns turmeric

• 1 tspn garam masala

• 1 tspn chilli powder

• 4 tbspns roasted peanuts

• 1 tspn mild curry powder

• 1 tspn ground coriander

• 1 tspn yellow mustard seeds

• 2 tbspns flaked almonds

• A handful of seedless sultanas

• Approx. 150mll soured cream (or crème fraîche or Greek yoghurt)

for the spiced peas and carrots - gajar matar

• 3 tbspns peanut oil (or sunflower oil)

• 4 carrots, peeled and sliced

• Approx.175g garden peas, fresh or frozen (NB: NOT petits pois)

• 1 echalion shallot, chopped

• 1 tspn garlic & ginger paste

• 1 tspn fenugreek seeds

• ½ tspn garam masala

• ½ tspn ground dried cumin

• ½ tspn ground coriander

• A little water (or vegetable stock)

for the basted corn on the cob

• 1 or 2 fresh corn on the cob per diner

• 1 tbspn concentrated tomato purée

• 1 tbspn peanut oil ( or vegetable or olive oil)

• ½ tspn mild chilli powder

• 1 tspn smoked chilli flakes (or ground chipotle)

• 1 tspn freshly ground black pepper

• ½ tspn ground sumac

• the juice of ½ a lemon (or lime)

for the garlic bread

• 1 baguette per 2 diners ( or pistolets)

• 3 cloves of garlic, finely grated

• 3 tbspns of butter

• 1 tbspn lemongrass paste (or very finely grated fresh lemongrass)

• A generous clutch of fresh Thai basil, finely chopped

• salt and pepper to taste

Cooking Method

the gajar matar

1. You can cook it simultaneous to the rest of the meal or hours before; even days before and store in the fridge before reheating. In a deep frying pan, heat the oil on a medium-high heat. When hot, add the garlic & ginger paste. Sizzle and stir. Add the shallot when the paste becomes golden. Stir together and sweat for a few mins

2. Add the dry spice ingredients and stir in. Allow the aromas to release. Add the carrots and stir in, ensuring they're coated in the spices and sealed. Add about 40ml of cold water (or vegetable stock) into the pan and allow the mix to sizzle, stirring. Reduce to a medium-low heat. Cover the pan and sweat the ingredients for about 12mins, stirring occasionally. Add water, a little at a time, if the ingredients cook dry

3. Add the peas—if using frozen, add as frozen—stir in. If the pan seems dry, add a a further 40ml of water (or vegetable stock) and stir in. Re-cover and cook for another 4 or 5 mins or until the carrots are tender. Make sure that the fenugreek seeds are also tender before serving

4. Remove from the heat and keep warm or reheat when about to serve—this is easier if you do it in a microwave (approx. 2mins on full power). But, if doing so in the pan, you may need to a little water

the corn on the cob and garlic bread

1. These two work well if you work on them simultaneously. In a small dish, mix together all the marinade ingredients i.e. everything except the corn itself. While you are doing this, blanche your corn on the cob in salted boiling water for approx. 3 mins unless they are extremely fresh; so fresh you've just pulled them out of the veggie garden, for example

2. In another bowl, fold together the butter, lemongrass paste, Thai basil, garlic and salt and pepper. Cut your baguette or similar bread in thick slices, only slicing approximately ¾ of the way through. Using a spatula or wide butter knife, "butter" one side of the bread in each of these slices. Push the baguette back together so that butter mixture is no longer exposed

3. Preheat the oven to 250°C/480°F/gas mark 9. While the oven is heating, drain your blanched corn. Then, using a pastry brush, baste with the mixed marinade ingredients. Place the corn in the oven first, turning and basting again, and keeping an eye on it so it doesn't burn. About 10 mins before you're ready to serve, add the bread (earlier if using the widely available "semi-baked" kind).

4. If your corn and/or bread are ready before you finish cooking the pasanda, turn off the oven and keep warm until serving

for the mushroom and courgette pasanda

1. Blend all of the dry spices—except for the yellow mustard seeds— and peanuts together using pestle and mortar or a spice grinder. Add a little water to mix it into a paste.

2. Heat the oil in a fairly deep pot on a medium-to-high heat. When hot, add the ginger & garlic paste and sizzle for a few minutes. Add the yellow mustard seeds and stir in

3. When the onion begins to soften, add the spice mix and stir in. Allow the aromas to be released, then add the celery and stir in, adding a little water if the ingredients become to dry. Add about 40ml of water and stir in. Reduce to a medium-low heat. Cover and sweat for about 6 or 7mins

4. When the celery shows signs of "changing"—it need not be softer, but merely changing colour—add the sliced courgette and stir in. Once the courgette is sealed, add approx 40ml water. Stir, re-cover and sweat for a further 5mins

5. Turn up the heat to medium-high. Add the whole mushrooms and stir in thoroughly, ensuring they're coated in the juices and spices. Sauté the mushrooms for a few minutes, stirring. Don't add water unless you really need to—the mushrooms should exude liquid

6. Cover, reduce to a low heat and simmer for about 7 or 8mins, stirring occasionally

7. When the mushrooms are nearly cooked, add the flakes almonds and sultanas and stir in. Re-cover and simmer for a further 5mins

8. Add the chopped flat leaf parsley and cook for an additional minute or two. If using the soured cream (my personal recommendation), add to the pot and cook for barely 2 to 3mins stirring in. NB: if you opt to use crème fraîche or Greek yoghurt, make sure the pot has been removed from the heat before folding in otherwise they're likely to separate and become a watery hellishness

9. Plate and take to table, serving with the garlic bread, corn on the cob and gajar matar

Alternatives

This is vegetarian dish. However, it can easily be turned vegan with a few simple tricks. For example, substitute the soured cream (or crème fraîche or Greek yoghurt) with approx. 200ml coconut milk. If opting for this, add this before you add the almonds and flat leaf parsley, ensuing it has time to cook in. But—and, yes, I've cooked the vegan version—this does make the dish a lot sweeter. And, of course, the gajar matar is pretty sweet—why do you think kids love it? So, I find replacing the flat leaf parsley with fresh coriander gives it that appropriate balance of flavours.

Similarly, this version uses butter for a reason; that Indochine culinary vibe. But, there's no reason it won't work with a margarine or one of those olive oil "butters" out there. The main point is that it has to have that Euro flavour... Am I actually saying this about a meal for wee kiddies...? You bet I am: children more than anyone else deserve attention to detail when it comes to encouraging them discovering the possibilities of the world through their palates.

Meat eaters? Yeah, well we are going to diverge a bit here. I do cook various animal protein pasandas, and I'm sure I'll get around to publishing them on this site at some point. But, I've never tried any meat version of this recipe. It dates from the period when I was still a veggie. So, sorry, not got any meaty tried-'n-tested options for this one, though, of course, the Mughlai cuisine on which its based isn't particularly veggie; Muslim rather than Hindu etc.

Pairings

Even if I sneaked a raucous red or a wistful white with this one, do you think I'd actually admit it? This is a default "dad in the kitchen" dish. I'd serve it up to a horde of screaming bairns. So Irn-Bru on ice with slice of lime was about as racy as it got. Because, yeah, "date night dad" was pretty responsible when herding a crew of 8 or 10 nippers under the age of 10 towards the table. Most of the time I was too busy managing who wanted to go poo-poo or didn't like carrots because they're orange to even scratch my big hairy erse, let alone think about a pairing.

But, FYI, it's actually great with Irn-Bru.

Knock me out with your suggestions. I'm not putting this on Karel's list. He's busy enough already.