Ideally you can use any variety of edible Mushrooms to cook this curry but if you want similar textures then maybe a Puffball variety will be more accurate.

Will this taste good if made with dried Shitake mushrooms as they are available in Austin ,ATX.

This coming from you means a lot to me! Thank you for your kind words!

Namaskar.

Both Shraddheya “Grandma”, and you are right to some extent, although I would not go so far as to exclude the possibility for your kids and grandkids to taste the types of flavors and aromas that were naturally present in vegetables, and dairy produce.

I grew up in the 60s, at a time when there was no irrigation, no electricity, and life in those decades was punishing, in a way Bharat Mata hopefully will not have to see ever again.

That said, there are 2 major reasons why food, esp. vegetables, seem so pallid these days.

First, they are sold by fresh weight or by volume, e.g. gatthi/bundle. There is NO premium given to taste or nutrient content, which is generally conversely relates to gain in fresh weight for most vegetables.

A brinjal or tomato plant finds it much easier to merely suck up copious amounts of water and salts applied as artificial fertilizer, and grow the size of cells, rather than to produce more photosynthate/sugar, which is the basic starting point for all flavor compounds.

Indian brinjals have some of the highest Dry Mass content in the world, about 9-10% of fresh weight for selected types; too, the sucrose content within this Dry Mass also ranks among the world’s highest, 24-34%!! But do we pay for nutrient and taste? NO! We bargain with the farmer as if there is no one else alive in the world but us. IN Pune, 2021, we find a big cabbage c. 3 kg, being sold for Rs.20, green peas at Rs.30/kg, chikoo at Rs. 20, etc. I can confirm these prices with confidence. How much is the farmer making if the retailer is selling at these prices? Ususally, in India, produces changes hands 5 times and prices at least 5x between the farm gate and the retail outlet.

In the case of tomato, we find desi or natu varieties selling at a premium against hybrid plum types, to reflect their stronger taste and solids content. As an aside, why are we not experimenting with dried tomato, dreid tomato and pepper paste, as in Turkey, and in processed tomato for more of our cooking? We are doing things bass-ackwards and turning the country upside down with our heedlessness, at every possible level.

Anyway, getting back to fenugreek greens, there is a real difference between Trigonella foenum-graecum, the ordinary methi, and the Trigonella corniculatum, the kasuri methi. Thea ordinary methi makes a delicious, slightly bitter green, but copious irrigation dilutes the flavor and makes it insipid. We have great varieties of kasuri methi to be used as fresh greens, but they are not very common in the fresh markets.

National Seeds Corporation sells some good types of kasturi methi as well as common methi seeds. We should contact them for Methi varieties, Pusa Kasuri, PEB. RMT-1, RMT 305. A few good brinjal varieties as well, from various national sources like IIHR, Gujarat, and Natl. Seeds Corp. We can easily grow them even on the smallest terrace or balcony, if there is enough light; this is not feasible with vegetables like cauliflower, etc. where flavor is sorely lacking in marketed varieties. We will not get much yield, but just enough to make life interesting for a treat once in a while. Kids, too, will learn a thing or two about the science of vegetable culture in small containers. Contact me if you would like further details. Namaskar