Mushroom-topped parathas
Overview
Prep time
15 mins
Cook time
40 mins
Serves
4
Ingredients
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
40g root ginger, peeled and grated
2 medium red or green chillies (or a mix), thinly sliced
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp cumin seeds
1½ tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp each black mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds
8-10 curry leaves
1 tbsp ghee or vegetable oil
½ tbsp tomato purée
500ml vegetable or mushroom stock
250-300g oyster, shiitake or chestnut mushrooms
vegetable or corn oil for frying
4 parathas
2 tbsp coriander leaves, roughly chopped
Method
Step
Add ½ tbsp tomato purée and 500ml vegetable or mushroom stock, season then bring to the boil and simmer gently for 15 minutes or until the sauce has reduced by two thirds.
Step
Cut 250-300g oyster, shiitake or chestnut mushrooms evenly in half or into quarters then add to the sauce. Season and continue to simmer gently for 10 minutes or until the sauce is just coating the mushrooms. (It might seem a bit dry to start with as the mushrooms will absorb the sauce initially then release the liquid as they start to cook.)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Hiroshima's fading legacy: the race to secure survivor's memories amid a new era of nuclear brinkmanship
The fires were still burning, and the dead lay where they had fallen, when a 10-year-old Yoshiko Niiyama entered Hiroshima, two days after it was destroyed by an American atomic bomb. 'I remember that the air was filled with smoke and there were bodies everywhere … and it was so hot,' Niiyama says in an interview at her home in the Hiroshima suburbs. 'The faces of the survivors were so badly disfigured that I didn't want to look at them. But I had to.' Niiyama and her eldest sister had rushed to the city to search for their father, Mitsugi, who worked in a bank located just 1km from the hypocentre. They had been evacuated to a neighbourhood just outside the city, but knew something dreadful had happened in Hiroshima when they saw trucks passing their temporary home carrying badly burned victims. As Hiroshima prepares to mark 80 years since the city was destroyed in the world's first nuclear attack, the 90-year-old is one of a small number of hibakusha – survivors of the atomic bombings – still able to recall the horrors they witnessed after their home was reduced to rubble in an instant. At 8:15am on 6 August, the Enola Gay, a US B-29 bomber, dropped a nuclear bomb on the city. 'Little Boy' detonated about 600 metres from the ground, with a force equivalent to 15,000 tonnes of TNT. Between 60,000 and 80,000 people were killed instantly, with the death toll rising to 140,000 by the end of the year as victims succumbed to burns and illnesses caused by acute exposure to radiation. Three days later, the Americans dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, killing 74,000. And on 15 August, a demoralised Japan surrendered, bringing an end to the second world war. Niiyama, one of four sisters, never found her father or his remains, which were likely incinerated along with those of his colleagues. 'My father was tall, so for a long time whenever I saw a tall man from behind, I would run up to him thinking it might be him,' she says. 'But it never was.' With the number of people who survived the bombing and witnessed its immediate aftermath dwindling by the year, it is being left to younger people to continue to communicate the horrors inflicted on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For decades Niiyama, who is a registered hibakusha, said nothing of the trauma she had suffered as a schoolgirl, not even to members of her own family. 'I didn't want to remember what had happened,' she says. 'And many hibakusha stayed quiet as they knew they might face discrimination, like not being able to marry or find a job. There were rumours that children born to hibakusha would be deformed.' It was only when her granddaughter, Kyoko Niiyama, then a high school student, asked her about her wartime experiences that Niiyama broke her silence. 'When my children are older, they'll naturally ask about what happened to their grandmother,' says the younger Niiyama, 35, a reporter for a local newspaper and the mother of two young children. 'It would be such a shame if I wasn't able to tell them … that's why I decided to ask my grandmother about the bomb.' She is one of a growing number of people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki studying to become 'family successors' – a local government initiative that certifies the descendants of first-generation hibakusha to record and pass on the experiences of the only people on earth to have lived through nuclear warfare. 'Now that the anniversary is approaching, I can talk to her again,' Kyoko says. 'This is a really precious time for our family.' Last year, survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks won recognition for their campaign to rid the world of nuclear weapons when Nihon Hidankyo – a nationwide network of hibakusha – was awarded the Nobel peace prize. But survivors face a race against time to ensure that their message lives on in a world that is edging closer to a new age of nuclear brinkmanship. The world's nine nuclear states are spending billions of dollars on modernising, and in some cases expanding, their arsenals. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has refused to rule out the use of tactical nuclear weapons in his war against Ukraine, and last week a veiled nuclear threat by the country's former leader, Dmitry Medvedev, prompted Donald Trump – who had earlier compared US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks – to claim that he had moved two nuclear submarines closer to the region. North Korea's development of nuclear weapons continues unchecked. 'The hibakusha have spent their lifetimes courageously telling their stories again and again, essentially reliving their childhood traumas – to make sure the world learns the reality of what nuclear weapons actually do to people and why they must be abolished, so that no one else goes through what they have suffered,' says Melissa Parke, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. 'These brave hibakusha deserve to have their decades of campaigning vindicated and to witness the elimination of nuclear weapons in their lifetimes. This would provide some nuclear justice.' The number of registered survivors of both attacks fell to just below 100,000 this year, according to the health ministry, compared with more than 372,000 in 1981. Their average age is 86. Just one of the 78 people confirmed to have been within 500 metres of the hypocentre of the blast in Hiroshima is still alive – an 89-year-old man. On the eve of the anniversary, the ministry said it would no longer conduct a survey every 10 years to assess the living conditions and health of hibakusha, saying it wanted to 'lessen the burden' on ageing survivors. Niiyama, who struggles to walk, will watch Wednesday's ceremony at home and pause to remember her father, whose memory is represented by a teacup he used that was retrieved from the devastation. 'I don't like the month of August,' she says. 'I have nightmares around the anniversary. I don't want to think about that day, but I can't forget it. But I'm glad I still remember that I'm a hibakusha.'
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Frying solo? 20 pantry, fridge and freezer essentials for single households
A decade ago I put together a Running Away from Home Cookbook as a gentle nudge to one of my millennial chicks. Too gentle as it turned out – 10 years later I was the one who left home. After a lifetime of cooking for the multitudes, I have adapted to cooking for one. It's been both a relief and a revelation. Single householders aged 65 and over are increasing as a proportion of the population. I am one of that large cohort. Whatever the circumstances, people living solo – whether alone or in a share house – can eat well and inexpensively. By making the most of whatever pantry, fridge and freezer space is at your disposal, you can prepare something nutritious and delicious. Limited bench, cooktop and oven space can still produce the best kind of fast food. The fewer ingredients and steps, the less kitchen real estate and hardware required. What follows are cook-to-survive recipes, with pantry items that speed up the process, such as ready-to-use minced ginger, crushed garlic and microwaveable rice. Pick and choose accordingly. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Oil Olives Good quality anchovies Vinegar Tinned tomatoes Coconut cream Tinned tuna Chickpeas Dukkah Pasta, noodles and rice Olive oil is the oil of choice if pasta is your go-to cupboard meal. Light olive oil has a higher smoke point than extra-virgin olive oil and can be used in cooking and for dressings. Nut and sesame oils have a more limited shelf life and are generally used in smaller quantities, so buy small and check the use-by date regularly. The oil from marinated olives or cheeses can be used to make Swedish crispbread, in dressings or drizzled over roasted vegetables for antipasto. Good-quality anchovies are more subtle in taste than their less expensive cousins and are the foundation for an excellent pasta sauce when mixed with oil, lemon, garlic, rosemary and any other fresh herbs. Add them as a tuna alternative to leftover steamed or baked potatoes, tomatoes (chopped or cherry), boiled eggs, black olives, green beans and capsicums with a drizzle of oil and vinegar for a delicious salade niçoise. If tinned, in glass or in a vacuum-sealed pack, any leftover anchovies can be divided up and frozen in usable quantities. Balsamic vinegar can be used on its own or combined with oil to dress salads and roast vegetables. Rice wine vinegar is used extensively in Asian cooking, and can be used at a pinch as a substitute for white, white wine and apple cider vinegars. Tinned chickpeas and diced or pureed tomatoes are great for soups and curries. Any leftover tomato can be microwaved (lid on) in five-minute bursts to reduce and thicken to make a great pizza base either on its own or combined with fresh herbs or pesto. Dukkah, a spicy mix of cumin, coriander, almonds and sesame seeds, is an essential weapon in my cooking armoury. Try dipping some good bread first in a pot of good olive oil, then in a pot of dukkah. Or split round pita bread in half, brush or spray with olive oil and sprinkle dukkah generously over the top, then bake in a 180C oven until golden brown and crispy. Serve warm or allow to cool and seal in an airtight container. It will last for up to a week. I use coconut cream powder as a space-efficient alternative to the tinned version. When mixed with water, or the hot liquid from whatever you're cooking, it doubles as a thickener so you get all the coconut flavour you want without watering down the sauce. Pasta, noodles and rice are must-have items in my pantry. I prefer the old-fashioned environment-friendly absorption method of cooking rice but have been known to keep a pouch or two of microwaveable rice handy for emergencies. Minced ginger Roasted garlic Parmesan, grated or block Pesto Mayonnaise Stir-fry sauce Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion To my taste buds, commercial minced ginger is an acceptable substitute for fresh and I love the added zing it gives a stir-fry. For those who don't like the taste of commercial crushed garlic in a jar, roasted garlic is a delicious alternative that will keep for weeks in a sealed container in the fridge and can be squeezed out of their cloves as required. Whenever the oven is on, I throw in a whole garlic or two and leave it there for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the garlic cloves are soft and squishy. I'm a fan of freshly grated parmesan, but for the time poor, you can't beat pre-grated commercial parmesan. A block can last for weeks if kept in sealed plastic in the fridge. I still haven't found a commercial pesto that doesn't have an unpleasant aftertaste so I make my own. I either bottle it in small jars and seal each with a top layer of oil to make it airtight, or freeze it in ice cube trays. With a space-saving mincing wand and any old combination of basil, garlic, toasted pine nuts and olive oil (with or without parmesan) a world of lightning-fast meals-for-one opens up to you. Try these pesto baked eggs for one. Give me a good-quality store-bought mayonnaise and I'll show you a shortcut to happiness. Mix it with boiled eggs and a really good curry mix and lather it on excellent bread, with or without rocket. Or add some of that roasted garlic and serve it as aioli with leftover meat, seafood, roast vegetables, boiled eggs. Nagi Maehashi's all-purpose stir-fry sauce is an absolute winner. It can be used in place of the chilli oil and sauce in Justin Tsang's chilli oil udon and it can also be frozen into ice cube containers. Homemade stock Frozen peas Lemon and lime juice ice cubes Pizza bases Whenever you cook a roast chicken, you have the potential for any number of soups, risottos and sauces. I keep leftover bones and skin in a sealed plastic bag in the fridge or freezer until I'm at home for the four hours it takes to turn them into stock. Add enough salted water to a pot to just cover them, add leftover carrot, celery and onion ends and simmer them – lid off – until the mixture reduces by half or until it reaches your preferred flavour intensity. Frozen peas can be thrown into the pasta pot for the final two minutes of cooking time. Drain then add a good dollop of oil and some pesto and grated parmesan from your fridge or freezer. A squeeze of lemon or lime is an essential feature of many pasta, noodle or salad dishes, so having frozen cubes of juice is handy for when you don't want to slice into a whole fruit. If you have a pizza base, some pesto, reduced tomato puree and mozzarella is all you need for a delicious margherita. Try adding leftover ham, salami, olives or, if you fancy it, tandoori chicken slices for a truly delicious fast meal.
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
The full horror of the bombing of Hiroshima: Historian IAIN MACGREGOR reveals all 80 years on - as graphic shows how mission that wiped out 80,000 people in an instant unfolded
At 8.15am on August 6, 1945, 'Little Boy' was released from Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress captained by Colonel Paul Tibbets Junior. The first atomic weapon to be used in warfare dropped silently for 43 seconds, with a parachute billowing behind slowing its descent enough to allow Tibbets and his crew to escape the ensuing explosion. At approximately 1,890feet above the Japanese city of Hiroshima it detonated, unleashing a blinding flash and a force of unprecedented magnitude. The bomb missed its target by 800 feet, striking above the Shima Surgical Hospital instead of the Aioi Bridge. The blast obliterated everything within the surrounding square mile. Enola Gay's crew, now six miles away, were rocked by the shockwave. Observers aboard Necessary Evil – one of three other B29s in the mission – began recording the aftermath, capturing the white mushroom cloud rising above 45,000 feet. The immediate reaction aboard the aircrafts was a mix of awe and unease. The usual post-mission levity was absent. Instead, a subdued silence settled over the crews as they turned back south-eastwards toward base. Over Hiroshima, chaos had erupted. The temperature at Ground Zero was estimated to be several thousand degrees, approximately the surface temperature of the sun. The explosion, equal parts fireball and shockwave, levelled buildings, incinerated bodies, and blocked out the sun. Five square miles of the city centre would be consumed by firestorms. Forty thousand were killed in the blink of an eye. At least thirty thousand more would succumb to their injuries over the next forty-eight hours. The mission that was unlike any the world had known had been set in motion from Tinian Island in the Pacific Ocean in the early hours of August 6, 1945. Colonel Tibbets, leading a group of elite aviators from the 509th Composite Group, had been personally visited by General Curtis LeMay, commander of the XX Bomber Command, who handed him sealed orders: 'Special Bombing Mission No. 13'. Hiroshima, a port city in southern Japan, had been chosen because it was deemed a vital urban industrial area and therefore a legitimate military target. Secondary and tertiary targets were designated as Kokura and Nagasaki. No friendly aircraft would be allowed within a 50-mile radius of these locations during the strike, ensuring both secrecy and safety. A safety cordon of U.S. Navy ships and submarines would be positioned towards the Home Islands if the crew should need to ditch in the sea. Preparations on the base were meticulous and cloaked in strict security. LeMay informed Tibbets that 32 copies of the orders were disseminated across bases in Guam, Iwo Jima, and Tinian. Little Boy, an enriched uranium-based device, was carefully guarded, with its components kept disarmed to mitigate risk. Even General LeMay himself was thoroughly searched before the military policeman would allow him to accompany Tibbets to view the 'gadget' in the technical area. Captain William 'Deak' Parsons, who had been assigned from the Manhattan Project as Tibbets' weaponeer, had convinced the 'Tinian Chiefs' - the military and scientific leaders on the base – to arm the bomb only after take-off to avoid the risk of accidental detonation on the base's enormous runway. With the Enola Gay prepared and painted with Tibbets's mother's name on the nose, the 12foot-long bomb was lifted into the aircraft's belly. It bore messages from base crews, including one that read, 'To Emperor Hirohito, from the Boys of the Indianapolis.' The crew, despite understanding the gravity of their mission from their final briefing that night, struggled with the enormity of what lay ahead. They were told to get some rest before the operation, but few could sleep. Tibbets himself played cards to pass the time. He had earlier informed his men that they would be dropping a bomb unlike any other, one capable of unleashing the destructive force of 15,000 tons of TNT. Two key changes were introduced: the aircraft's call sign would be altered from 'Victor' to 'Dimples', and the Enola Gay would fly at a lower altitude at the start of the mission to allow Captain Parsons to arm the bomb safely. The early morning hours saw a flurry of movement as the aircrews departed. Reporters and Manhattan Project officials gathered to document the historic moment. The Enola Gay, unusually heavy with both bomb and extra fuel, took off just before 3 a.m. alongside Necessary Evil and the two other B-29s, The Great Artiste and Big Stink. An hour earlier, three B-29s had taken off to report on weather conditions above the three principal targets. Their information would determine where Tibbet's would drop his lethal payload. En route, as the Enola Gay passed over Iwo Jima, Parsons and his assistant, Lieutenant Jeppson, crawled into the bomb bay and successfully armed the bomb. The aircraft then climbed to its operational altitude of 30,000feet. Soon, Tibbets was informed that Hiroshima was bathed in clear blue skies. It would be the principal target. As the crew approached the city, bombardier Major Tom Ferebee – making use of the hours of preparation that had gone into this moment – took control. He scanned for the Aioi Bridge—a familiar T-shaped landmark selected as the aiming point. When it was in view, Ferebee initiated the final bomb run. Below, the population of the city were making their way to work, opening shops, and children arriving at school. Civilians had no warning of what was coming. Families had only recently returned to their homes after a false air raid warning. Eight-year-old Howard Kakita, visiting from the U.S., was playing with his brother when the bomb exploded. Their grandmother, injured by shattered glass, managed to walk, bloodied but alive. The boys escaped serious injury, but their once-grand home was engulfed in flames. As they fled westward, they encountered endless scenes of horror: burned bodies lining the riverbanks, survivors with skin hanging from their limbs, and others pleading for water. Many who drank soon died, their internal injuries beyond saving. Similarly, 13-year-old Setuko Thurlow had been working at a military office as part of Japan's student mobilisation program when she saw a brilliant flash. Moments later, she found herself buried under rubble. Freed by a stranger's voice, she emerged into a nightmare. Her friends were either crushed or burned alive. She joined others fleeing toward the hills, surrounded by charred, groaning survivors. They brought water to the dying and watched helplessly as the city burned through the night, with black radioactive soot raining from the sky. Other survivors told stories of miraculous escapes, impossible injuries, and unthinkable sights. Sumiko Ogata, a child at the time, carried her injured brother through fire and ruin, dodging collapsing bridges and stepping over bodies. Mitsuko Koshimizu, who had been attending school that morning, found herself digging out classmates and teachers from the rubble. The imagery was haunting: people burned black, the lines between the living and dead blurred by pain and fire. Everywhere, cries for help echoed into the void, with no medical services left to answer them. The blast had obliterated 90 per cent of Hiroshima's structures. Fourteen of the city's sixteen hospitals were gone. Nearly all medical personnel were dead. The fire brigade and emergency services were decimated. Communication lines were cut. Train tracks were twisted and melted. Entire districts had vanished. What was once a thriving city was now a flattened, burning wasteland. Despite the widespread devastation, Tokyo remained largely unaware. The initial state-run news bulletins downplayed the destruction. Even local Japanese officials could not grasp the scale. With Hiroshima's infrastructure destroyed, it was nearly impossible to coordinate relief. In desperation, survivors fled into the surrounding mountains, seeking refuge. In total, it's estimated that 80,000 people died instantly, with tens of thousands more succumbing in the days and weeks that followed. Back on Tinian, the mood was a surreal mix of triumph and exhaustion. The Enola Gay touched down at 2:58 p.m. (local time), and the crews were met by cheering officers and generals. General Carl Spaatz, commander of U.S. Pacific Air Forces in the Pacific, pinned the Distinguished Service Cross on Tibbets's chest. When asked by General LeMay if there were more bombs, Tibbets confirmed there was another one—'Fat Man'—a plutonium bomb, ready for use. The mission's success was confirmed via telegrams to President Truman, who was aboard the USS Augusta as it steamed across the North Atlantic from his conference with Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill at Potsdam. Bursting with excitement, perhaps relief, he stood on his chair in the ship's mess hall and declared to the watching crew that it was the greatest event in history. The ship rang with cheers and whistles as the news spread across the ship. Yet, for the men who had flown the mission, the sense of victory was tempered by an eerie quiet. The usual high-spirited joking and celebration were noticeably absent. Aboard Necessary Evil, the plane's navigator, Lieutenant Russell Gackenbach, noted the strange silence in his plane: 'Instead of relief, there was awe and an overwhelming awareness that they had participated in something the world had never seen before—something that would change warfare and humanity forever.' From above, the mushroom cloud continued to rise, churning into the sky like a living force. Tibbets later recalled that even Dante would have been terrified by what he saw. For those on the ground, the aftermath was Dante's Inferno made real. Hiroshima, a port city once full of life that had launched the Imperial Japanese fleet that attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 to start the war in the Pacific, had become a graveyard of ash and silence. Iain MacGregor is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and the author of The Hiroshima Men: The Quest to Build the Atomic Bomb, and the Fateful Decision to Use It (Constable).
