Mirchi ka salan

Mirchi ka salan

This is one of the famous Mughalai recipes. Mughalai food is characterized by rich and creamy curry. Mughlai recipes are rich in fat, carbohydrates and proteins. As I am not as rich as the Mughals, I have used less oil and added no cream.

Mirchi Ka Salan is a traditional Hyderabadi salan made in a shallow wide flat bottomed copper or brass pot called ‘handi’. The pot is sealed with dough, and kept on low fire to trap all the rich flavours inside. This is served as a condiment with biryani. Salan means curry spiced with all the ingredients. The mirchi are seeded and fried for a rich, smoky flavour. You can use any milder varieties like bhavnagri chillies, Anaheim chilies, bell pepper or jalapenos. Interesting part of this recipe is adding chilli powder to the chillies which gives the extra kick.

Ingredients:

Green chilli with thick skin - 8

Cumin – 1 tsp

Coriander seeds – 2 tsp

Chilli powder – 2 tsp

Chopped coriander – 2 tsp

Bay leaf

Cloves - 4-6

Cinnamon - 1 inch

Roasted Peanuts – 2 tblsp

Roasted sesame seeds – 2 tblsp

Dry cocount grated - 2 tblsp

Garlic pods – 2 large

Onion – 1 large chopped into big chunks

Tomato – 1 chopped into big chunks

Tamarind – 1 lemon size

Anaheim chilli

Roasted peanuts, dry coconut, cloves, cinnamon,

Corriander seeds, garlic and sesame seeds

Soak tamarind in 1/2 cup of hot water for about 15-20 minutes. Squeeze and remove the pulp and keep the tamarind juice aside.

Skin and grind the roasted peanuts, sesame seeds, dry coconut and keep aside.

For garam masala -

Roast cumin seeds, coriander seeds, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaf. Allow them to cool and grind them into powder.

Chop onions and tomatoes finely and keep it aside.

Heat the oil and fry chillies with pinch of salt until black spots appear, drain and keep it aside. In the same oil saute chopped onions for 7-8 minutes and then add tomatoes. Allow them to cool and grind them into paste. Grind garlic also into smooth paste. 

Add 2 more tblsp of oil to the same pan and add garlic paste, tomato & onion paste, add garam masala powder, salt and fry well until the oil appears on the sides of the pan.

Add fried chillies to the above and add roasted peanut and sesame powder and fry for 10 minutes. Pour tamarind juice and allow to cook for another 5 minutes. Sprinkle chopped coriander, close the lid and turn off the heat.

 

Serve it with hot rotis or biryani or with simple plain rice.

Potato Stuffed chilli bhaji

There is some left over potato masala from the morning breakfast Masala Dosa. I got some banana pepper sitting in the fridge doing nothing. I thought to prepare stuffed mirchi bhaji with this masala aalo. See Chilli bhaji for the whole procedure.

Potato Masala and the banana peppers

Split the chilli and remove the seeds and blanch. Stuff each chilli with the potato masala and keep them ready.

Prepare the basin batter by adding salt,soda and water. Dip each chilli in the basin batter and deep fry.

Serve them hot.

Stuffed Chilli bhajis with Potato masala.

Chilli bhaji with potato masala

Cut Mirchi / Cut chilli fritters

This is a very famous Rayalaseema taste. The chilli bhajis are chopped into small pieces and fry them again until crispy and served with spicy powder, lemon and raw onion.

Cut Mirchi with onion and spicy powder

Unlike the stuffed chilli bhaji, for the cut mirchi recipe you can even choose thin chilli varieties as long as it is long enough.

Prepare the basin batter using salt and pinch of soda. Dip the chilli in the batter and deep fry them.

See Chilli bhaji for the full procedure.

Cut the bhaji into bite size.

Mirchi bhaji chopped into small pieces

Deep fry them until the chilli turns crispy.

Drain and serve them with chopped onion, Pappula podi (Roasted chickpea powder) and lemon juice sprinkled on top.
For spicy powder - Take handfull of roasted chickpea (Pappulu). Grind them along with salt and 1/2 tsp of Cumin / Jeera.

 

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)

Cheesy Bullets

 

Bullet chilli filled with Cheese

This is a fiery hot chilli recipe. Those who suffers from acidity please keep away from this variety as Bullet chilli are one of the hottest chilli variety and use any other mild varieties like banana pepper or any other variety with dense skin and are good for stuffing.

Ingredients:

Bullet Chilli - 10

Grated cheese - 2 tblsp

Salt - 1 pinch

Amchur Powder - 1/2 tsp (Dry Mango powder)

Method:

Select few nice fleshy chilli and make a slit lenght wise with out disturbing the stem and deseed.

In a bowl mix grated cheese with salt and amchur and stuff the chilli

 

            Grated cheese with salt and amchur (Dry Mango powder)

                        Chilli stuffed with cheese mixture

Now spread the chillies in a baking tray and drizzle few drops of oil and bake for approximately 10 minutes or until the cheese turns into golden colour.

You can serve this with roti or curd rice.