Hyderabadi Mirchi ka Salan

I am always tempted to pick a few giant banana peppers to make lovely 'bhajjis' during the rains. This weekend I changed my mind (as usual) and thought of a gravy recipe with Giant Hungarian Yellow peppers (thats how they call it in our Groceries).
I remember one of my Hyderabadi friend's mother, who used to make the most delicious Mirchi Salan I have ever tasted. Remembering her, I tried to recall the ingredients and came up with this splendid dish.

Ingredients:

Hungarian Yellow peppers - 5 nos
Roasted peanuts - 3 tbsp
Sesame seeds - 2 tbsp
Onion - 1 small (finely chopped)
Tamarind paste - 1/2 tsp
salt - to taste
Red chilli pwdr - to taste
Turmeric pwdr - 1/2 tsp
Whole coriander seeds - 1 tbsp
Red Chillies - 2 nos (optional)
Green Chillies - 1 nos (optional)
Coconut (grated) - 3 tbsp
Yogurt (plain) - 3 tbsp
Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon - 1 small piece
Clove - 1 nos
Black pepper - 2 nos
Cardamom - 1 nos
Bay leaf - 1/2 leaf
Zeera (cumin) - 1/2 tsp
Coriander leaves - for garnishing (optional)
Sugar - 1 tsp (optional)


Procedure:


Pre heat oven at 350F for five minutes and bake the Hungarian Yellow peppers for about 10 minutes or untill they become soft as shown below.





Mean while, dry roast coriander seeds, clove, cinnamon, cardamom, bay leaf and Cumin seeds.



Keep that aside to cool. Dry roast sesame seeds and peanuts and set that aside as well.




Now heat a tsp of oil and fry chopped Onion, Ginger garlic paste, green chillies, turmeric and red chilli pwd.




Now grind the three batches of roasted ingredients, i.e.

1. onion mixture
2. peanut sesame seeds
3. whole masala mixture (coriander seeds, bay leaf etc)

while grinding the above mixture, add sugar, tamarind paste, yogurt and coconut.
Taste the gravy and adjust salt as required.





Simmer the ground masala (gravy paste) for 2 minutes. While doing that, discard the seeds and membranes of the chillies and cut them into big chunks. You can add the chillies into the gravy without chopping them also. Allow the chillies to soak in the gravy for a few minutes. Serve hot with chappathy or rice...


Have fun..

Olan

Olan is one of the most important dishes prepared for Onam sadya (feast). It is a delightfully mild and flavourful curry savoured in almost every Malayali household. Traditionally, the combination of Ash gourd and black eyed beans or yard long beans with Yellow pumpkin is used.Since I didn't have either ash gourd or long beans, I tried the same recipe using yellow pumpkin and black eyed beans. Surprizingly, it was really nice. Hope you like it too.


Ingredients:

Yellow Pumpkin - 1 cup (thickly sliced)
Black eyed Beans - 1/3 cup (soaked in water overnight)
coconut milk - 1/2 cup
salt - to taste
Green chillies - 2 or 3 (or to taste)


Procedure:

Pressure cook the black eyed beaks in 1 cup water, some salt and cut green chillies for two to three whistles. Set aside when done. Cook the pumpkin separately in 1/2 cup water and salt to taste. Combine pumpkin and beans in a wide mouth pan and remve from fire. Pour in the coconut milk and crefully stir the curry without squishing the cooked pumpkin. Serve warm with rice and spicy Pullisherry.

Christmas fruit cake

I always wanted to bake cakes and cookies for quite a long time.
And so, my friends, I was pleasantly surprized to see a nice oven here. Within a few days, I managed to buy all the stuff required for 'beginner's' baking experiments and was all smiles with a cartload of stuff which he thinks it was 'junk'. This is my very first attempt in baking and much to my amazement, it was fabulous!!

Friends, I am super excited to share this cake with you. I hope you like it.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour (maida) - 1 cup
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon powder - 1/4 tsp
Clove powder - 1/4 tsp
Dry ginger powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Caramel syrup - 1 tbsp
Grated orange zest - 1 tsp
Eggs - 3
Butter (at room temperature) - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Dry fruits (mixed) - 1/2 cup
Nuts (mixed) - 1/2 cup
Orange juice - 1/2 cup

Dry fruits which I used were dried cranberries, raisins, dates, and prunes. you can use dried apricots, figs, or any dry fruit of your choice. Nuts which I used were almonds, cashewnuts and walnuts.

Method:

Soak the dried fruits in orange juice overnight. Since I don't have any Rum or Brandy to soak the fruits, I believe orange juice will work just fine, and of course, it did!!

In a bowl, blend the sugar and butter well. Next step is to add vanilla essence and eggs into the same bowl, one by one and mixing well again and keep aside. Sift the maida with baking powder Baking soda, ginger powder, clove powder and cinnamon and salt into another bowl.

Now stir in sifted flour into the sugar butter and eggs mixture along with the rest of the ingredients i.e. soaked dried fruits, nuts, caramel syrup, orange zest and the orange juice used to soak the dried fruits.

Fold the mixture well. If you find the cake batter too dry or too thick, you can add some milk into it. But otherwise, fruit cakes are usually dense loaded with dried fruits and nuts.

Pour it in a greased baking pan and bake at 350F for 50- 55 minutes or untill done. To check whether the cake is done, insert a skewer into the cake, take it out. If the skewer comes out clean, it means its done. If not, bake for a couple of minutes more, keeping an eye on it. When done, allow the cake to cool done before you slice and store.

Enjoy eating a warm slice of this lovely cake this Christmas or any time of the year.


Have fun!!