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..