Mirchi ka salan

My virgin attempt at Mirchi ka Salan was quite successful. I ended up eating so many green chilies last night that my stomach hurt. You could use any pepper you like. I used Thai chilies, which I deseeded and removed the rib. You could use hot fingers or even jalapenos. I personally wouldn’t use jalapenos. Sauteing the green chilies, takes the edge off them and makes them edible- pretty much like eating a jalapeno popover.

The ingredients that go in the salan are pre-cooked before they all mesh together in lovely gravy which is – tart, sweet, hot, and salty, all at the time. And though there are many components to the cooking, you can do it in one pan.

So the first thing you do is roast the spices- the coriander seeds, the red chilies, and the cumin, till a splendid aroma hits your nostrils. Throw the spices in the blender.
In the same pan, throw in some peanuts. I used pre-roasted unsalted peanuts, but I still roasted them a bit, to release the aroma. You should dump these peanuts with the spice mixture.
Now it’s time for the coconut to join the party. I don’t like a lot of coconut in the salan- the combination of peanut and coconut is too cloy, in my opinion. Therefore, I restrict the coconut to a spoonful. Again, add the roasted coconut to the peanut and spice mixture right in the blender.
Same pan, add some oil now. In goes the onion, with the ginger and garlic. Keep roasting till the onions are done. Add to blender.

While the onions were cooking, you should take a small bit of tamarind, maybe two tbsp; throw in 1/3 cup of water and microwave for 40 seconds. You should get a dark brown liquid if you crush the tamarind a bit. I don’t like using ready made tamarind paste- it always has a weird after taste.
Add around 4 tbsp tamarind juice to the blender. Add a cup of yogurt, salt, ½ tsp sugar, and some water to the mixture, and blend all of these till you get a smooth liquid. Meanwhile back in the pan, add a1 tbsp of oil and saute the chilies till you get a sear on them. Add all the contents from your blender in the pan and simmer on low-medium heat for 15-20 minutes. Adjust the seasoning – sugar, salt, tamarind juice.

And serve with rice or paranthas. This is also an excellent accompaniment to Hyderabadi biryani.


Dry roast the following
1 tspn cumin seeds
2 tbspn sesame seeds
3 red chillies
1 tspn coriander seeds
add
1/3 cup of peanut roasted
Dry roast 1 tbspn coconut
Oil
Roast 1/3 large onion
1 pod of garlic
ginger

Blend the above with 4 tbspn tamarind juice, i cup of yogurt,water, salt and sugar.

Now take 8-10 green chillies. Slit and deseed. In 1 tbsp oil saute the chillies. Now add the blended mixture. Cook for 15 mins.Add chopped coriander.