Hyderabadi Mirch Ka Salan

 

I wanted to try Mirchi ka Salan for a very very long time… and after going thru’ a lot of recipes, I decided to make this and it turned out really very yumm, so yumm that I ended up making again the very next day.  It can be had with both roti and rice varieties.

Ingredients
Badi Hari Mirch	10
Oil	3 tbsp
Mustard Seeds	1 tsp
Cumin Seeds	1 tsp
Whole Red Chillies	2 (broken into halves)
Methi Seeds	1/4 tsp
Onion (sliced)	1 Medium
Curry leaves	1sprig
Ginger paster	1 tsp
Turmeric Powder	1/4 tsp
Red Chilli Powder	1 1/2 tsp
Coriander Powder	1 1/2 tsp
Cumin Powder	1 tsp
Dried Mint or Kasuri Methi	1 tbsp
Coriander Leaves	1 tbsp
Curd	3-4 laddles
Tamarind Water (thick)	1 1/2 tbsp
Jaggery	1/2 tbsp
Roast and Grind
Peanut	1 tbsp
Sesame seeds	1 tbsp
Coconut (shredded)	1 tbsp (packed)

Method

• Shallow fry the badi mirchi in a wide flat pan.  If you want, you can deseed the mirchi but these chillies are not hot and spicy.  Optionally, you can also deep fry them.   Keep rotating the chillies (in case of shallow frying) so that they can cooked from all sides.
• Heat a small kadai and dry roast peanut first and roast till done and then add sesame and roast for a min.  Finally, add coconut and roast for another couple of minutes and set aside to cool and then grind it into a fine paste using little water.
• Heat oil in a kadai and crackle mustard seeds.  Then, throw in the whole red chillies and add cumin seeds and methi seeds.
• Now, add sliced onion and curry leaves.  Cook still onion turns golden and then add ginger paste and mix well (you can also use ginger-garlic paste).  Cook till the raw flavour is completely gone.
• Add the masalaes – turmeric, red chilli powder, coriander powder and cumin powder.  Mix well.
• Also, add in the ground peanut-sesame-coconut paste.  Add water till it becomes a thin curry and cook for about half an hour on slow flame with lid on.
• After half and hour, the gravy would be little thick and oil would have separated.
• At this point, add mint or kasuri methi and finely chopped coriander leaves.  Also, add whisked curd, mix well and cook it about 5-7 minutes or till the oil separates.
• Add the fried chillies and cook it for about 3-5 minutes, then, add tamarind water and jaggery.  Cook for another 5 minutes or till the chillies are little soft.
• Serve hot with roti or rice or biryani or pulao.  Goes well with almost anything.

Notes:

I used 10 chillies as we like them but you can use less.  Secondly, I prefer to shallow fry them though it is usually deep fried.