Les Champignons Dangereux Redux

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I decided to finally try and recreate my accidental culinary masterpiece of some thirty years ago. A last-minute, frankly drunken attempt to use up some mushrooms to add to an afternoon's spit-roast-lamb festivities at our then home in Brynbella, Bethesda, in the early-ish mid-nineties. The exact modus operandi/recipe is lost to memory, but the three principal components were mushrooms - natch - Patak's Vindaloo paste and their estimable Kashmiri Masala paste, which I can't recommend highly enough. I think the original dish(?) was just a quick stir-fry bung of those ingredients, but I really can't remember. 

Tonight, I've slow - almost confit-style - cooked an onion as described before [blog posts passim], until golden and sweet: about three-quarters of an hour in a lot of veg oil, over a low heat. I then drained the onions and cooked them for a further five minutes over a medium heat, and added two heaped teaspoons of each paste. I cooked that out for a few minutes, then added two small vine tomatoes, finely cubed, followed after a couple of minutes by a dozen or so chestnut mushrooms cut into quarters. Added to this was a small amount of water to loosen the mixture, and five hottish red chillis for good measure. I cooked this lot slowly for half an hour or so before tasting. They live up to their name, although whether they taste the same as the original, I can't say. I'm leaving them to stand overnight before finishing them off and eating them tomorrow. Pretty sure the chilli heat will build a good bit overnight: keep you posted with tasting notes tomorrow!
 

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