Merapakaya bajji (Chilli fritters)

                                            

Mirapakaya bajji (Chilli bajji) 

My mom is an expert in making these mirapakaya bajji. They just melt in the mouth. Yummmmm. It is really an art to make these bajjis with green chillis, stuffed and dipped in the gram flour batter and deep fry them. Most important thing in making this recipe is preparing the right consitency of the batter.

This is one of the famous street food in South India especially Andhra Pradesh. To do this fritters always choose large chillies like anaheim variety with less heat scale (2-3) as they are easier to stuff when compared to the smaller ones and mild in taste. These bajjis are often served as accompaniment to a main meal in South India, but they are delicious as an appetizer too.

Ingredients:

Green chillies (large) with thick skin - 10
Gram Flour (Basin) - 1 cup
Rice Flour - 1/2 cup (Gives the extra crispiness)
Salt
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Oil to fry

For the filling
Roasted chickpea powder - 2 tblsp (You can also substitute this with basin flour)
Sesame seeds (Till seeds) - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds powder - 1 tsp
Lemon juice - 1 tsp

Gring all the dry ingredients and make into fine powder and add lemon juice with a dash of salt.

Roasted chickpea, cumin seeds and Till see

Method:

Make a neat slit down one side of each chilli keeping the stem intact and remove the seeds. Stuff the chillies with the above mentioned filling as shown

Stuffed green chilli

Combine the gram flour and rice flour with salt and baking soda and add enough water to make into batter which is much similar to cake or dosa batter

Bajji Batter

Now first dip each green chilli into batter fully, slide the side opposite of slit side onto edge of vessel, so that side of green chilli has no batter covering it and will be in direct contact with the hot oil.

                               Fry them till golden

 

Mirapakaya bajji (chilli fritters)